"Sir Vorpal reporting!"
"At ease, fair knight."
Two armored ponies saluted to one another. The one returning was Sir Vorpal, the other awaiting him, Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard. Shining seated himself behind a desk that bore many things, most of them requisite forms of armor or filing reports he had to do for the summary of every shift of every guard. Sometimes, he believed things were much simpler and better when he was just a grunt.
"What do you have to report, Sir Vorpal?"Shining asked, assuming a stern voice, one he used whenever he addressed those under his command. He'd just get laughed off by his wife or sister if he tried such a deep bass with them.
The red-maned stallion removed his visored helmet, his gaunt and narrow face showing a sense of tiredness. The train ride back must've left him tired.
"I return bearing news of what happened at Appleloosa, sir."
"Ah yes...the reports of worms in that area?"
"Taken care of sir."
"I trust you did this with very little property damage?"
"Actually..."Vorpal's eyes roamed away from the captain to look upon other things in the office, a sign that he was nervous. Shining Armor looked over at him with the steeliest, coldest glance his eyes could muster. Vorpal met his stare, and he felt a shiver run down his spine, rattling his armor. He was very sure the rumors about the captain freezing rookie cadets solid with just a glance was true.
Before he could continue, a pegasus guard rushed into, slamming the door open. He saluted upon sight with the Captain and nodded at Vorpal.
"What is the meaning of this, guardsman?"Shining Armor questioned. He had become accustomed to ponies banging open his door. It always crisis this or crisis that, and he was beginning to feel the strain. He could only imagine how Celestia and Luna felt day after day.
"Sir, there are scout reports of an unknown storm forming over Applewood!"The guard replied.
"A storm?"Shining Armor raised an eye. He wasn't very familiar with the pegasus weather system and how they ran it, but wasn't it an odd time of the year for a storm?
"And you say this storm is of...unknown origin?"
"We checked with the weather squad over there, and there are no scheduled storms for at least three weeks sir!"
"Then why is there a storm?!"
"Reports say the storm couldn't have come from nowhere! The size of the storm is roughly equal to..."
"Los Pegasus."Shining Armor cut off the guardsmen, walking over to his window and gazing out across the landscape, a black storm consuming the sky in the distance.
Every last thought in my head was screaming 'Warning! Warning! Boss Battle Ahead!'
With the torrential winds whipping violently about us and ponies scrambling to make it to the balloon station, it was incredibly hard for one to think clearly. I tapped my knuckles against my forehead, trying to remain calm. Okay, the King's gone crazy. He's really mad right now, enough to transform the city into a hurricane. And I am partly the cause of that. Well...the entire cause of that.
"C'mon!"
Alamo pulled at me, Zola already in the throng of fleeing bodies to the station. We entered the mass of bodies, ducking under the safety of the station's ceiling as pouring rain began to torrent down upon us. The employees of the station tried to keep everything orderly, but that wouldn't happen. People were panicking, and when they panicked, all sense of rationality was thrown out the fucking window and run over with a truck. Masses of ponies clamored into the hot air balloon baskets, the stewardesses filing in as much as they could. We shoved our way to the front of the crowd to one of the balloons, a bit of room left for us.
I nervously glanced between the two and the gazes of the ponies on the balloon. I wouldn't fit.
"Go."I sighed.
"We're not leavin' ya. Almost all the balloons have left, and Ah doubt they'll be comin' back."Alamo motioned to the several other sets of hot air balloons that drifted down to the safety of Applewood below as fast as they could.
Before I replied, another crack of thunder, and the roof overhead began to ominously creak despite what it was made out of."I said go!"I shouted much more urgently this time, picking the two up despite their squirming and jamming them into the air balloon with the rest of the fleeing ponies. I nodded at the stewardess and she began to frantically lower the balloon to the safety of Applewood's streets below. Just in time too, the floor of the station began to give way. I dashed out as the grey clouds that made up the building blackened, signaling it was unsafe to step upon. In a few moments, the station crumbled and joined the storm forming around us.
Wild wind whipped up what remained of Los Pegasus, and dead in the center of the city, hovering over it with swirling, frothing clouds around him, the King furiously commanded the sky to create a terrifying storm that was miles wide in size and strength. I was pretty sure the citizens below were getting a good view of the catastrophe hanging overhead.
I forced my way towards him despite the powerful gusts that tried to hold me back, but to my dismay, it whipped off my trilby and scarves to the mercy of the open air, almost taking my jacket with them, but I hung unto that like a child to their favorite blanket. I shouted his name, but the storm carried away my voice. Instead, I opted for a much better way of getting his attention.
With a deep breath, as much as my lungs could hold, I felt the heat deep down stir to obey my command. With a monstrous roar, I breathed out a plume of red and smoke, fire bursting into the air to mingle with the elements. He slowly turned to look at me, complete malice in his eyes.
"You."He breathed, lowering himself closer, his once slick pompadour now limp and scraggly, stray hairs flying around his face with the wind. He no longer held the visage of disillusioned regalia, but that of something far more darker and sinister. Suffice to say, he was pissed.
"You nearly killed me and my friends!"I pointed a claw at him, my voice rising over the thunder around us.
"No, just them!"He roared back, whirling his hooves around him, the tempest around us growing in size until it was a sheer wall of black.
"Something as chaotic as you doesn't need friends!"The King cackled, a large amount of madness seeping into his voice. My eyes lit up at the word, something inside me stirring, but it wasn't the fire. I forced it back down only to stare up at him with anger in my eyes and fangs bared. He was mad, but so was I.
"Alright Cockwanker, I've had enough of you!"I roared, snapping my fangs and extending my claws, taking on a fighting stance that was a mix between a swaying pugilist and an angry animal. About time I used all I had to tear this blighter apart. Equestria would thank me later.
"And I enough of you..."The King said menacingly.
I reacted just in time as a blast of wind was sent forth from the tempest to smite me, eviscerating the area where I had been just moments before. The floor beneath was torn apart from the gust, and that would've been me if not the quick reflexes that came with this body. I turned to the King, bending at the knees and letting my strength carry me through the air with a powerful leap towards him. Just before I was upon him, with but a flap of his wings, another funnel of intensified winds directly blasted me in the chest, hitting me like a meaty fist. The air left me as I was sent flying back from the attack, my body slamming into the wall of solid wind behind me. I was wrapped up in it for a moment, my entire body flying limbs and screams as it tossed me around, only to spit me back up into the center once more.
I hopped right back up to my feet, completely ignoring the new cuts and gashes across my body, the bright green blood only adding an eerie effect to my patched together form. I charged forward once again to meet the pegasus in the eye of the storm.
"Is...Oddjob going ta be okay?"
Alamo and Zola left the basket of the hot air balloon behind, following the surge of the crowd and into the streets of Applewood. Every pony looked up and pointed at the raging storm overhead, the occasional flash of lighting within its black body illuminating the sky.
The zebra slowly shook her head, her dreads creating a small whoosh sound."I do not know, Alamo. I fear the King's power is much too great...as is his hate."
"Ah don't believe ya."Alamo joined in staring up with countless others."Oddjob's faced down a Mother Worm with me without even blinking. He can take a froofy lil' ass like the King."
Another roar of thunder, and for an instant, Alamo could swear he saw a serpentine body flying through the clouds that made up the storm, arcs of lightning zapping it.
"At least...Ah think so."
"What...what is going on?!"
Sir Vorpal joined Shining Armor at the window, the storm over the city of Appleloosa threatening to roar across the land at any moment and bring disaster with it.
"I...do not know sir."Vorpal replied, just as confused as the rest.
Shining Armor whirred around, the guard snapping to attention at his word."You! Send pegasi units to try and break that storm up before it hits any civilized areas! I want guards in the streets of Applewood to make sure no civilians are hurt."
The guard saluted before leaving.
"Sir?"
The captain turned to see Vorpal looking quizzically at him."What is it, knight?"
"If I may ask...may I attend to this? I haven't been very active lately..."
G'damn that friggin hurt.
The King had sent a miniature tornado at me, twisting into my body like a drill and blasting me with enough force to push me straight through the barrier of solid cloud and into the rest of the storm. All I could see was blackness and the occasional glance of sky that was instantly blotted out by the black. And the worst part? Oh fuck the worst part. As I was sent flying, the King commanded bolts of bloody lightning to be sent at me. All I could feel was something burning me and painful shocks erupting over every nerve. I could slightly feel a wind current carry me, only to roughly drop me back on solid ground. I looked up, and I was right back in the eye of the storm, the King looking down at me with a combination of malicious eyes and a domineering smirk.
I stood back up, my entire body screaming. I twitched ever so slightly, that electricity jolting my nerves a bit more than need be. I also smelt something smoking. It was me.
"Had enough, Oddy?"He floated down, but not enough so I could grab him, just out of my reach, his small wingflaps hovering his body directly over me.
"What's even the point to all this?!"I screamed, jumping up to grab at him, only for him to fly out of my snapping hand with a cackle.
"The point?!"He mimicked me.
"You said you worked your entire life for all this! Why transform it into a bloodfucking storm?! All the bits, all the secrecy, Celestia will know about this! You'll be ruined!"
He let out a laugh that seemed to only be intensified by the wind around us, it carrying his chortles into magnification."Who cares about Celestia?! Who even cares about little old Los Pegasus?! It was always about the principles, Oddy! Everything is due to me, and what's due right now is making you suffer!"
From the side, a blast of concentrated wind. It hit me directly in the bird arm, feeling like a sledgehammer. It went limp from the attack. It repeated to my bear arm, both of my appendages now slack and useless for the moment. I tried to strain and lift them back up in a chance to defend myself, but it appeared the muscles were damaged from those intense gusts.
I felt the fire inside me build right back up with my anger. It felt good to have the heat run through my body, giving me a feeling that few other things brought nowadays: warmth, happiness, livelihood. I roared upwards, sending an inferno stream of fire directly at the King. He barely dodged, his pompadour singed at the end. I took my chance. With him distracted, I immediately closed my jaw, ending the bursting flamethrower, and leapt up, his surprised face directly in front of me. I whipped my neck back, then plunged it forward, jaw wide open, only to clamp down tightly. The King unleashed a shriek of terror, music to my ears. As I plummeted back to the ground, something warm and feathery was in my maw as I landed. I spat out one of his wings, his own blood pouring down my mouth. I licked it up, almost savoring the taste of meat once more, even if it was from a fluke like the King.
I looked up, expecting victory and a one winged King to come helplessly flapping down to the ground, the storm around us dissipating and the day won for the good guys.
I received no such thing.
Instead, the King only hovered above me, his one wing able to keep him aloft, while he cackled maniacally, purple blood running down his white coat, staining it. Purple blood?!
"Oh, you really thought you had me for a moment!"
I perked up my ears. His voice was no longer italian sounding, or even male for that matter. Instead, feminine. As I looked up, the most strange and grotesque thing I had ever witness in Equestria occurred. The King's body began to twitch and stretch, as if the holds of fur and flesh and bone were simply moldable putty. The fur of the body darkened until it was magenta, and the body parts rearranged themselves until they took on a much more female appearance. Ten wings shot out from the back to join the other one. It would have been a dozen if not the last one I had ripped out. My eyes went wide with recognition.
"Strife!"I exclaimed at one of Discord's 'creations'.
"He's...been up there for awhile now."
"I know."
"Think he's okay?"
"I do not know."
"Yer not rhyming."
"I'm worried."
Alamo and Zola exchanged similar glances of fear.
"Alright...what's the situation?"
"We've managed to move all civilians away from the balloon station, the only way up to the storm. We've quarantined several districts of Applewood, and all ponies have been informed to stay inside their homes or find shelter."
"Good."
Sir Vorpal looked overhead, his green eyes never leaving the storm.
"...You were the 'King' the entire time?!"
"I was an actress back on earth."Strife giggled in reply, commanding streams of wind to be sent at me with a wave of her forelegs. I managed to dodge a few, but several bombarded me directly in multiple spots, opening up the old wounds from my previous beating before they had healed over. My own green blood ran down my body, mingling with sweat and the remains of her own purple lifesource.
"I'm so confused..."I muttered, avoiding more and more of her frequent attacks, but each one getting closer to their target than before. I was slowing, the fatigue of getting beat over and over again wearing down my survival instinct and adrenaline.
"Maybe I can explain, Oddy."She said the last word with as much insult and sarcasm as her dripping voice could muster. I only gritted my teeth in anger.
From out of the darkened clouds, a body came flying at me. I narrowly ducked, and it was sent soaring overhead to float beside Strife, being held aloft by a wind current. I almost gagged. The now dead body of what was the real King hung limply in the air beside Strife, dozens of razor-tipped feathers embedded across his corpse.
"You see, Kingy here wanted to take you under his wing, let you see the dark side of perfect old Equestria. We were okay with that."She playfully flicked some of the feathers off of the deceased King."But after you did your first job, being all nice and decent and everything, he was sent word of your actions. And y'know what? He agreed with you. So, we had to give the old man the boot. I've been portraying him ever since, pretty good, huh? I could win an emmy if I wanted to."
"You're fucking sick, lady."I growled.
"No,"She eyed me with the same dangerous playfulness."I'm chaotic, and so are you."
With a sudden surge of energy, I flew through the air right at her, roaring like a guttural madman the entire time. Our bodies collided in midair, sending the two of us tumbling through the clouds. She helplessly beat at me with her weak hooves, only for me to reply with my thundering blows of strength. She shattered underneath my rain of punches from both arms, and I thought her beaten until she stabbed one of her wings into me. I felt the suddenness of a knife enter me, only for that suddenness to be amplified a dozen times over as she shot countless of her sharpened feathers into my body. I fell off of her and into a nearby cloud, my body scrambling to hold onto it. She weakly flapped over to me, her entire face and torso bloodied, but a wide smirk on it.
"Can't deny who you are, Dismay."
"Shut up."I swatted at her, but only met empty air and her laughter.
"Discord brought you here for one thing only: To bring chaos to Equestria. Suffice to say, you've done a wonderful job."
"Shut up."
"Don't believe me? Well, I'll give you a little list. Y'know that worm tunnel you and cowpony collapsed? Yeah, it ran underneath a good portion of the desert, so now, most of the Buffalo's land is now underground and useless to them. Oh, and how about Sir Vorpal? You tookt hat job from him...enacting a little chain of events that I'm sure is going to come around and bite you in the ass. Also, all of Los Pegasus is a freaking storm!"She cackled, spinning in the air.
"SHUT UP!!!"
"Yes, shouting is going to make everything better."
I eyed her with all of the anger and malice that she had given me before. We locked our gazes, mine ferocious, her knowing and playful.
"Dismay, I think I've tortured you enough."
"My name's not Dismay..."
"What was that?"
"My name's not Dismay..."
"Oh really now?"She leaned in close, not even wary of my weakened form slacking on the cloud from a combination of blood loss and getting stabbed with like a fucking hundred feather knives.
"It's...Oddjob."
I took in a deep breath, and blew out, not even a stream of fire erupting out to meet her. Strife nearly doubled over and fell out of the sky from my pitiful attempt at firebreathing. I could still feel the heat down inside me, but I couldn't get it out, I was just too tired.
And for the second time in that fight, I had caught her off guard.
I lunged forward as she laughed, gripping my body close to hers once more. I tore and bit and clawed with everything I had, the rage seething through me, another energy source that just needed to be burnt up by the monster. I mercilessly pulled out every one of her wings, the warmth of her own discolored blood washing over me. I couldn't see, I couldn't feel, I could only do.
The last thing I saw before blacking out was Strife's horrified face.
"Is that...?"
"It can't be..."
"Sir, look!"
Vorpal need not heed the command of the guard, for he had already saw it. Plummeting from the storm were two bodies, tightly clung to one another. In a few seconds, they crashed into the harsh streets of concrete below, sending a small shockwave through the entire city from the impact.
"Get a team of guards there now!"The knight commanded, already over the barricade and heading towards the crash zone, flanked by several guardponies.
When they arrived, all they could see was a beast senselessly beating a wingless pegasi into the ground, picking her up and slamming her into the ground, over and over again. The monster was entirely covered in green and purple blood of unknown origin.