Equestria. Despair Plant Garden. Nightfall.
"Ugh..." Landing in a bed of flowers was Rainbow Dash after she and her Pokemon took a rough fall. Thanks to Dimstar, she found herself in the lower levels of the garden. The pegasus got a taste of what the magic of a Lich was capable of from Dimstar the Vampire. This flower bed was relatively large, appearing in the shape of bat wings as they held Rainbow Dash. But even though the flower bed broke her fall, it didn't take away from impact.
"Tari. Taria..." Altaria got back up as her stellar defence saved her once more. But the damage she received recently was still present, taking a toll on her. The rest of her teammates, Luxray and Mienshao, were also conscious but suffered from that fall. Altaria got back up, walking to Rainbow Dash's side. "Altaria?"
"Darn it...I didn't see that coming." Rainbow Dash groaned, looking up at Altaria. "So she's a Lich...? But she looks like a vampire. What's up with that? Oh well, it doesn't matter now...I need to get back up there." However, that was relatively difficult with how injured she was. She was lucky that the flowers caught her fall but the damage was still there. Feeling badly injured, Rainbow Dash closed her eyes, struggling to stay awake.
And in this state, Rainbow Dash was defenceless. The Despair Plants from before that she knocked down were starting to gather, but it was only the Arachnorchids. These Despair Plants creeped out of the darkness with their eerie legs that moved across the ground and trees, gazing at the downed pegasus. With her Pokemon injured and her unconscious, the Arachnorchids had a strong opportunity in front of them.
"Luxray...!" Luxray would slowly stand up, snarling at the Despair Plants that threatened his trainer. Mienshao would get on one knee, finding the strength to continue while Altaria got in front of her allies, having the most strength left. However, in their current conditions, the number of Arachnorchids here would be hard to deal with but they were willing to throw everything they had.
"Aura Sphere!" Two voices bellowed nearby. Two very familiar voices that was soon followed by the appearance of an Aura Sphere which flew in. It dashed by Mienshao and the others, going straight for the Despair Plants. The Aura affected their bodies as always, making the Arachnorchids screech when the sphere combusted. They were fended off by the Aura which burned hotter than any flame.
The ones responsible for this were Lucario and Mew. And by extension, Ash and Pinkie Pie. Ash slid down one of the hills to make his appearance with Lucario with Pinkie Pie on his back. Fluttershy was still with them, descending from above with her wings while Audino, Raboot and Bayleef would also slide down, but Raboot certainly had more style than them. The Arachnorchids, already suffering damage from another Aura Sphere, first Mienshao and now Lucario plus Mew would crawl away immediately back into the shadows of the garden.
"Rainbow Dash! Are you alright?!" Fluttershy immediately went for her fellow pegasus who she knew since she was small. She came over to find that Rainbow Dash was unconscious and injured from the fall she took and the magic that Dimstar used against her. "Audino, use Heal Pulse!"
"Good work, you three. Let Audino and Fluttershy heal you up too." Ash looked back at Rainbow Dash's Pokemon. Rainbow Dash herself was being healed up as a verdant light would overtake her body.
"Ngh..." With the healing properties of Heal Pulse, Rainbow Dash's injuries would be swept away by the beautiful green light. She groaned once more as her eyes opened to see the welcoming and hopeful faces of Fluttershy and Audino. "Hey..."
"Thank goodness." A relieved Fluttershy said. "I thought you would've taken some time to get back up."
"I fell pretty high up...but this flower bed caught me. Rainbow Dash grunted before sitting up, feeling her hooves once more thanks to Audino's Heal Pulse.
"We've been moving across the garden looking for someone else. It's great that we found you in time. What about everyone else?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"I was with Enola and some of the People of the Water back up there. But I got knocked down by some vampire who-" Upon saying that, Rainbow Dash recalled what was happening back at the higher levels of the garden. "Oh man! They're still up there with her!"
Indeed. With Rainbow Dash sent downwards, Dimstar was free to deal with the People of the Water who recently had the pegasus to protect them. With her tendrils that were masked within the night sky and atmosphere, becoming invisible, Dimstar held up them all up. And yet, the People of the Water would still resist her.
"Stop resisting. You don't possess the physical strength to break free." Dimstar said while tightening the tendrils to grip them all harder. "Unless you wish to be dropped off the garden and into the sea, I can make your demise fitting for your people."
"N-No thank you!" Adriel groaned while holding onto the tendrils that were around his neck. Many of the People of the Water were doing what they could to prevent the tendrils from crushing them brutally. Relying on their physical strength here is key. "Besides, we have our own way of defending ourselves against you!"
"That doesn't seem to be the case, now does it?" Dimstar found that hard to believe from how she was holding them all up. "At least you have good physical strength to keep yourselves around it seems. I'd expect this from how hard your civilization works."
"All together now...!" An old man said as each of the People of the Water opened their eyes in unison all of a sudden. Their golden eyes would light up, focusing on Dimstar. The vampire who possessed the magic of a lich looked at them with confusion in her own eyes.
And that's when she was taken aback by what the People of Water had done. From their golden eyes, that signature light that resembled the crystals had emerged. The light met with Dimstar's eyes, stunning her while also taking advantage of her weakness to light. Dimstar was hit with multiple flashes of light from the People of the Water, making her hiss.
The tendrils were weakened by this stunning gaze, prompting some of the people to loosen themselves while Dimstar's eyes were burning. Enola and the younger ones let themselves free first thanks to their small bodies.
"Light from their eyes...?!" Dimstar grunted before opening up one of her burning eyes. She saw how they managed to break free. "Not so fast!" Alas, Dimstar would recover incredibly quickly, using her tendrils once more. They would slam against the ground, causing a tremor to pass through. This tremor knocked over the People of the Water.
"Oof!" Enola fell over, sliding on the ground which led to her bumping into one of the trees. Everyone else would slide, roll or crash into something because of this tremor.
"I don't know what you did but you won't do it again," Dimstar said while closing both of her eyes, still feeling the burn from the light. Getting hit with that many light rays to the eye was certainly bewildering to her as even she was struggling to recover from it, squinting her flaming eyes.
"Our golden eyes aren't just common for us People of the Water. It's not just a way for us to see what is invisible but also light things up in a dark room. But on a vampire, it's very efficient it looks like." Adriel smiled while on the ground.
The golden eyes of the People of the Water had another secret. Apart from seeing the tendrils, they could also emit light from their eyes. And judging from Adriel's words, this was the first time it was used in such a way. And for what it was, it was amazingly efficient.
The People of the Water took this opportunity to run as fast as they could, helping their fellow Samiyan off the ground while DImstar was still recovering.
"Fools...With the power of the Lich, I can gain resistance to the light." Using the power of the first Lich King once more, Dimstar would cover her eyes in a dark magic while the People of the Water made a run for it. And with the advantage of their golden eyes, they could see the tendrils coming.
Dimstar was back in action that quickly. That light was merely an annoyance to her, much like how Luxray's light held her back for a bit. She sneered at the People of the Water, spreading out her wings while her tendrils moved with her motions. Absolutely vile and vicious.
She pursued the People of the Water, taking into the air as her tendrils were flailing around from above. They would lash down, smashing against the acre of trees within the garden that the Samiyans ran through. The tendrils would blow holes through them with their immense force, gripping onto some of the trees to rip the from the ground itself.
For the People of the Water, this was downright terrifying in every way. The feeling of being chased by these vicious tendrils during the night was horrifying, especially for the younger ones. Enola would be on one of these trees, using the vines to try and swing away from Dimstar's wrath. The old man was on the slower side which prompted Adriel to carry him.
One of the vines would break apart once the tendrils got to them, causing Enola to fall over, screaming. Thankfully, she was caught by her older brother Adriel, who made sure to always stay by her side. And the way he caught her was by his leg. He raised his leg, allowing Enola to land right on it.
Naturally, this was painful to his leg once his sister dropped her full weight on to it. He stopped running because of this, having only one leg on the ground as he put on a grimacing face. Adriel would nearly fall over because of this, not really thinking this through. Thankfully, he had an older sister who was hyperactive enough to make quick actions, such as jumping off Adriel's leg to continue fleeing as she crawled on the ground when jumping off.
Dimstar broke through the rest of the area with her tendrils, leaving nothing but destruction in her path while pursuing the People of the Water. "If only his majesty were here right now!" Adriel yelled, wishing that Ash was here. "This would be a different story, I bet!"
"Have faith in our king. After all, we have more help on the way." The old man said before yawning. "Now...I shall take a nap on you for a quick recovery
"You're feeling tired now?!" Adriel exclaimed before feeling a nearby shockwave from the tendrils hitting the ground. The People of the Water essentially kept Dimstar occupied for the meanwhile. But for how long will this last?
Meanwhile, with Twilight, Daisy and Paradise, they've come across their own vampire issues. The rest of the vampires who showed up here had arrived where Twilight's group could be found. Right next to the large pod that held many Despair Plant seeds. The baby Despair Plants of Triantis and Arachnorchid had been born faster than expected and with no signs of hostility thanks to the Flora Ponies and their magic. And they were born just in time to see conflict emerge.
For the vampires, coming across Princess Twilight was an excellent find, especially since some of them planned to take her back to Equestria. And when seeing the vampires, the baby Despair Plants would suddenly hold onto Daisy and Paradise, flocking to them as they could already feel the intimidating aura coming from the vampires.
"Where are you lot going?" A vampire pointed out, spotting them skitter over to the other side.
"Hang on...What happened to them?!" It took a minute for some of the vampires to notice that something was wrong. "Why are they babies?!" Stunned by what they were seeing, they were taken aback by the fact that these were baby Despair Plants.
"They should be fully grown like the others. All of them from the pod should." Another vampire uttered. "What did you do to them, ponies?!"
"Uh! N-Nothing...!" Daisy stammered while holding some of them close to her. They were so tiny they could be mistaken as toys.
"Don't yell at my sister!" Paradise didn't take too kindly to the vampires yelling at her sister.
"So even they didn't know..." Twilight said to herself, looking back at Daisy and Paradise, who were responsible for this. This only further proved that their power over plants was something to be reckoned with. But more importantly, right now, their safety was something that needed full focus.
The Despair Plants would whimper at the bellowing sound of the vampires and Paradise's own voice. It intimidated them, prompting Daisy to hold these plants even closer. "Paradise, not so loud. They're sensitive to this loud noise."
"Maybe they need an extra oomph if they're going to grow up." A vampire said, summoning magic around her wings as she was ready to make the first move. So were the other vampires, spreading out their wings.
"I don't think so! Eve! Dazzling Gleam!"
"Es...Peon!" Espeon releases a bright white light from her body, using the vampires' weakness against them once more. Everyone seemed to have a counter to the vampires, but that was only because Light Energy was so common. The vampires hissed at this bright light as it was more effective on them than it was on Dimstar. They would step back, having their coat burn up.
Espeon then leapt in the air as rainbow-coloured rays of light erupted from the white light, raining down on the vampires. The vampires would then scatter when faced with this bright light, narrowly evading the raining rainbows. Twilight would also chime in, shooting magic out of her horn continuously.
But the vampires would retaliate immediately. And it would be a combined retaliation. Twilight's next attack was promptly interrupted by a rumble in the ground. She looked down to see a piece of the ground beginning to move. And these movements only went up. The ground was lifted by the magic of the vampires as they removed a sizable chunk of it from the ground, also carrying Daisy and Paradise with them. "Woah...Woah!" Paradise gasped, stumbling on the levitating chunk of earth.
Afterwards, more of them would fly out of the ground, going past the ones Twilight's group were on. Once above them, the vampires would soon drop the large chunks of earth onto them.
"Psychic!" Twilight yelled as she and Espeon performed the same type of move together. Twilight's telekinesis and Espeon's Psychic. Both would hold the boulders in time, preventing them from crashing into them. Daisy and Paradise watched in awe as the Princess of Friendship and Sun Pokemon sent the rocks back at the vampires.
The vampires would take flight, deciding to approach Twilight at an up-close distance this time. But when approaching her, some of them would find themselves being smacked by the rocks that were thrown back at them. They would fall out of the sky thanks to this retaliation.
"This way!" Twilight would decide to back up, not wanting to risk any harm done to the Flora Ponies. Following the Princess of Friendship, the Flora Ponies would leap off the large rock that they stood on while looking back to see the vampires soar through the night sky with their menacing wings.
The vampires would continue lifting more of the garden off the earth, sending large chunks of rocks at their prey. The rocks would come raining down, breaking apart each time they failed to hit them. The baby Despair Plants closed their eyes, fearing the worst with how hyperactive things turned out. Twilight would shoot some rocks out of the sky with her magic while running behind the Flora Ponies. Espeon would do the same, using Dazzling Gleam to do so as rainbow rays would come flying out, assaulting these bombarding rocks.
The vampires were still managing to keep up even with all of these obstacles getting in their way. They did move relatively fast with their wings. Seemingly faster than a pegasus which made them all the more intimidating.
"Flee from this!" One of the vampires maniacally exclaimed before ascending into the air. She would then use her curse magic, deviating from the other vampires who were using the terrain. Her curse magic revealed itself as she would summon ethereal spectral skulls from her body. These skulls would fly down, passing by the vampires and howling at their prey. These skulls would phase through Twilight's magic, catching her surprise.
The terrifying skulls appeared in front of Twilight and Espeon after easily avoiding her magical attack. However, that was where Espeon stepped in, using Shadow Ball to try and retaliate. Shadow Ball was the right call as she summoned a blob of shadows right in front of her and the skull when it got too close, attempting to bite the Princess of Friendship. A strong collision happened when Shadow Ball and this Spectral Skull connected. An ethereal outburst occurred, knocking TWilight and Espeon away.
"Agh!" Twilight yelled as she and Espeon slid on the ground with a spectral aura trailing out of them. They would bounce off the sides of some trees when flying back.
"Mom!" Daisy and Paradise collectively said after witnessing their mother figure take damage for the first time. It shocked their eyes to see Twilight actually receive damage and it was mainly due to how she wanted to protect the Flora Ponies.
Twilight groaned, stopping near an archway of thorns. Espeon would land next to her as the sound of the vampires laughing at their slip-ups would ring through their ears. The Princess of Friendship shook her head, snarling back at them.
"You won't be laughing when Absol makes an entrance..." Twilight got back up, using her magic to hold out two Poke Balls. One of them was obviously Absol while the other was a mystery for the moment.
"Mom, are you okay?!" Daisy asked, worried.
"I'm fine." Twilight gave a reassuring smile while looking back. "I get hurt quite a lot when it comes to things like this. No need to worry."
"Espeon."
"You should be worried, princess." A vampire said with a mocking tone, laughing at her. "If you're lucky, we'll have you in pieces when we get to Magehold. If not...at least we have a vampire princess to roam our home."
"You wish." Twilight scoffed as her purple eyes would glow in the dark. "As much as I would love to meet your Queen so I can smack her silly for what she's done to our home, I'm not going anywhere. I'm tired of you vampires already..."
Her anger was rising and it was certainly on purpose. Twilight would take everything the Dread League have done recently, channelling that into strength. Her magical aura was showing in correlation with her anger, flowing like flames as the vampires would all suddenly stop flying and walking.
This wasn't Twilight's standard magic. This was Horizon Storm's magic. The power of Sorrowful Rage Magic would erupt from her body, being used in this instance and Twilight certainly had a good reason to use it. Specifically, the rage part. Twilight smiled, knowing that she had the vampires right where she wanted them with this exertion of magic.
Suddenly, she would use all of her Sorrowful Rage Magic, expanding it from her body as it would fly out in a dome shape. The vampires would gasp, closing their eyes once the flare of magic came their way. Daisy and Paradise would do the same while Espeon only stood there, knowing what this was.
The light from Twilight's magic was so potent that it illuminated many parts of the garden, reaching far enough for many to view. If anything, this was like a flare to call for her many friends, if they could find her.
The light was viewed by many as it was rather dazzling to look at. Now it was all a matter of it Twilight could keep her position when facing off against the vampires. But some were ignoring the light. Such as Ebony Rhyme, who was carrying her box of potions with her.
"The core of the garden should be nearby. I can speed up the process that way." Her objective was to make the garden reach its full potential. With what she had done, she had to gain the Lich Queen's trust when she woke up and that was by helping the garden grow.
The middle of the garden, the very core of it was her target. And of course, she had the potion for it since she was so confident. At the moment, Fantina was not with her, wandering off on her own. All the vampires were busy in a conflict while Ebony Rhyme chose to stay away from any conflict.
With her being away from everyone else, she had the chance to move peacefully with zero interruptions. And thus, that lead her to the centre of the Despair Plant Garden. The core of it was as terrifying as it could be. It had a hollow part in the middle, full of dark magic that was seeping out of it, sending out multiple cries and howls that sounded sad and terrifying at the same time. It was resting near massive thorns that were the size of the trees themselves which were also covering the large hole in the centre.
"This should do the trick." Ebony Rhyme dug into her box, picking out the very potion that she needed. However, while she stayed away from the conflict, she wasn't the only one moving without any issues.
Hoofsteps were heard nearby, galloping rapidly and stepping on piles of leaves. Ebony Rhyme would quickly turn her head, holding the necessary potion as she wondered which pony would it be. An enemy or a vampire? Then again, to her, the other vampires were her enemy, minus the children. However, it was one pony she did not expect to see. And this one pony felt the same way.
She had a frozen expression on her face and an open mouth. Her eyes couldn't believe what she was seeing. Who she was seeing. With the wind blowing, the two ponies would have their minds and eyes process the appearances before them.
The one pony standing opposite to her was Potion Nova. Two ponies that were specialized in ponies had met with each other, but from the looks on their faces, this was not the first time. Their appearances were familiar to each other. Familiar to the point of nostalgia as they both spoke at the same time.
"Nova?"
"Ebony?"
As the journey continues.
Chapter 75 End.