What does a Hero Truly Need? Vol. 1: A New Age of Heroes

by zelkova48

Chapter 25: ...and Confusion

From high in the sky, Rubick, Spike, and Rhasta oversaw a large climatic battle ensue as they all watch with raised eyebrows at the sheer confusion of the fight. Changeling drones all around them had assumed the form of their friends, turning this large scale fight into the mirror match of the century.

From one side they could see hundreds of Svens and Twilights going up against, unsurprisingly, Sven and Twilight. Judging from the staticky pink bolt of energy being flashily discharged from out of Twilight’s horn, and the relentless cleaving onslaught of the rogue knight with the ever present George XII clinging atop his helmet, it was a safe bet to say that those two that were winning their battle were indeed the real ones.

The two appeared to be an unstoppable duo, working together in tandem with their own strengths to round out their collective weaknesses. Sven would outright decimated anything that got within six feet of Twilight, while Twilight made sure to watch his back, by blasting any changeling into the horizon that threatened to break their line of defense.

On the opposite end of the fray, the trio were witnessing Gondar bisecting various drones in a furious frenzy with surgical precision. One brief swing from both his makeshift sword and mancatcher were really four or five in actuality. It was no contest. The changeling drones fell like wheat before a scythe when faced with the hunter. And given his enhances perception, he made sure as not to harm the wrong person during the battle.

Aiushtha fought using unorthodox tactics and skills. Though she was proficient with her enchanted javelin, she often found herself swaying other changelings with her beauty and made them turn upon their own allies. With a gentle tilt of her head, and a cute wiggle of her ears, she’d smitten at least a dozen changelings with her beauty. Heck, she wasn’t even being attacked. no changeling in their right hive mind would dare harm Aiushtha.

The rest of the girls were doing remarkably well considering the odds. Rainbow Dash and Applejack barreled through the crowds like and orange and polychromatic bullet. The blistering speed of Rainbow Dash compiled with Applejack’s raw strength made them a force to be reckoned with among the combatants. While the two couldn’t take down Rubick together, even with Twilight’s assistance, they more than made up their blunder by bashing each and every changeling that they saw into submission with brute force.

Pinkie was having one heck of a heyday when it came to battling the changelings. She and Rarity armed the patented party cannon and began to unleash festive hell upon the encroaching army. With Rarity’s acute sense of precision, and Pinkie’s itchy trigger hoof, the two were not unlike an entrenched flak cannon that grounded every flying lookalike with a wide array of party favors. Getting hit by a pointy party hat right in the eye is not fun at all.

Fluttershy, however, found herself in a bind. In the heat of the battle, she was cut off from the rest. Though she had managed to trick a few into thinking that she was one of them, it didn’t last very long. Before long, a group of her own lookalikes descended upon her like a butter colored storm, which in context, isn’t as threatening as it is lead on to be. But to Fluttershy, fear gripped her senses. She found no way to defend herself. Even with the stare at her disposal, she was too stunned to use it.

But just before it seemed like she had bought the metaphorical farm, a grayish blur rushed past her and swept away the aggressors with a flurry of savage swings. Fluttershy cracked one of her eyes open and peered at her saviour. To her surprise, it was none other than Jackal that has saved her from the changelings. He turned around, his face weary with fatigue as he help the poor pegasus up.

“Hey... are you okay?” he asked. Fluttershy merely nodded her head and held her head down in shame.

“T-thank you...” Fluttershy whispered “I... I’m sorry for acting the way I did when we first met”

“Ah, water under the bridge” said Jackal with a dismissive wave of his paw “Let me guess, Sven got to you didn’t he?” he chuckled. Fluttershy nodded to him again “Heh, you can always trust the guy to get some abstract point across. Anywho, I’m not mad at you if that’s what you’re thinking”

“B-but”

“Like I said, try not to think so hard about it” said Jackal “We can talk about that later. Right now, we have to get back with the rest”

Without uttering another word, she nodded again and joined up with Jackal. The two booked it past all of the other Fluttershys and Gondars, and hopped over all of the Pinkies and Svens. Using her stare, Fluttershy was able to freeze just about every imposter that stood between her and her friends. Jackal took advantage of Fluttershy’s ability and clobbered his way into the center where everyone else was.

Eventually, after a lot of confusion, the group managed to reform without having any other imposters sneak their way in. They were standing united, back to back against each other, staring down the opposition with both weary and fiery gazes.

“There’s just so many of them!” Twilight exclaimed as she narrowly dodged a charging changeling ”We can’t fight them all, we need our trump card!”

“Hah! Nonsense! I am your trump card!” Sven shouted with a twirl of his massive sword “ This is nothing for me! With your permission, Twilight, I will crush them all like I crushed the vigil knights! Go ahead, just say the word and you will have the power that makes gods tremble at your disposal!”

“Although I don’t doubt your power, Sven. Let’s not get try and get too enthusiastic about all this... We should attempt to repel them until the one responsible for this is brought to justice” Twilight argued “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are still holding her off, we should fight towards the inner tower!”

“Holding off who?” Gondar asked as he slashed another changeling “Wait, what’s so great about this inner tower, anyway?”

“The inner tower on the others side holds the elem-” before Twilight could finish, she was cut off when a miniature snow storm engulfed the aerial changelings with an unforgiving cold that turned them all into ice cubes. Within seconds, nearly every changeling that surrounded our heroes became nothing more than an impressive collection of ice sculptures.  

“Brr... winter came early this year” said Pinkie as the biting cold chilled her to the very bone.

“Uh, Ah don’t think those are windigoes nipping at your nose, Pinkie” Applejack pointed out “Where in the name of Granny Smith’s hip replacement is all of this ice coming from?” she pondered.

“Hey, what the heck is that!?” Rainbow shouted as she watched a massive form darken the area around them. Whatever the heck it was, it had wings and it got cold just looking at the thing. It wasn’t until it got closer that her heart began to race, and her pupils shrank into pinpricks “I-is... is that a dragon!?” she shouted in fear.

“A dragon!?” Twilight shouted in bewilderment “What’s a dragon doing here!?”

“Hey! It’s Rubick!” Aiushtha exclaimed gleefully.

“That’s Rubick!?” everyone’s jaw dropped to the ground all at once when the sudden revelation hit them all on the head like a ton of bricks.

While the stunned group was busy staring blankly at the massive blue dragon, who has been identified as Rubick, began to slow down so that he may begin to land properly. Powerful gust of wind were created with each flap of his majestic wings. Gust that were so strong Fluttershy was almost blown away had it not been for Jackal and Aiushtha catching her in the nick of time.

“Hello, everypony” said Rubick with his normal voice as he landed on the ground “Did I miss anything?” he asked nonchalantly.

“Hey, everyone!” Spike and Rhasta exclaimed form atop Rubick’s back “We’re back!”

Everyone, save for the heroes, were all staring at Rubick with a slacked jaw expression. Their new friends never truly cease to amaze them, especially since they’ve already witnessed enough otherworldly surprises for two lifetimes. Everyone found themselves all talking. Rubick’s dynamic entrance took their minds off the invasion for just a bit to inquire about the massive dragon standing before them.

Although for Twilight, she found herself babbling humorously like an idiot at the sheer absurdity of it all.

“Twilight, dear. Please, calm down. It’s just me” said Rubick as he struggled to hide a smile behind his icy maw “Aren’t you glad to see your mentor?” he joked.

“Bu.. b-but... y-you’re a... a” Twilight failed to get the words out of her mouth as her head was filled up with the possible applications of magic that she could learn from Rubick.

“A dragon?” said Rhasta as he hopped down and grinned at everyone “Yes. It is a neat trick, don’t you agree? Eh heh heh heh!”

“Come on, y’all. Give the poor girl some breathing room” said Applejack “While it’s really amazing to see someone with the ability to change into a dragon using magic, we’re not out of the woods yet” she pointed at the horizon. From afar, they could easily see more of the changeling’s reinforcement join in en masse. There appeared to be a near endless amount of them.

“We need to get Twilight over here back to Equestria” she suggested as she tapped Twilight’s forehead “Yikes, I think you broke her”

“Here, let me try” said Rainbow Dash as she walked up to the babbling unicorn and comically slapped her face. It worked. Twilight was back to her old self in no time, albeit she complained as to why she her left cheek was sore all of a sudden. But nonetheless, there were more important matters to get back to “There, nothing to it!” she chuckled.

“Huh? What happened?” said Twilight confusedly.

“You were just about to lead us on a heroic bout towards the inner tower” said Sven “Now are you just going to stand there and go gaga over Rubick and his dragon form or are you going to save this city?” he asked.

“You’re right, I can think about that later” Twilight strained her mind so that she could stay focused “Rubick, we need to get the inner tower close to here. Can you and Rhasta keep the skies clear while we go fetch the elements of harmony?”

“The what now?” said Rhasta with a curious tilt of his head.

“Oh! That’s right, we never explained it to you did we? Anyway, I’ll tell you later. But the question remains, can you keep the skies clear?” she asked.

“Why of course my dear. Anything for my young student” said Rubick with a humble bow.

“Thank you” said Twilight “Come on, Spike. You’re coming with me to find the elements!”

“Whoo! Alright! Finally, I get to participate in an adventure with you girls” said Spike as he hopped off and landed right onto Twilight’s back with a soft oomph sound “Let’s get this show on the road!” he proclaimed as he kicked Twilight on her sides, eliciting a glare from her “Heh, sorry. I couldn’t help myself”

Without another word, the group gathered together and immediately bolted towards the location of the elements of harmony, leaving behind Rhasta and Rubick to fend off the oncoming hordes of changelings. As the two turned to face the horizon, Rubick took to the skies once more to hold off impending doom.

“Well, old friend. It looks like it’s just us two again” said Rubick.

“Hmm, it only seemed like a while ago that we were neck high in these changeling creatures” said Rhasta with a quaint nod of of his head “Should we go easy on them, or do we go on without restraint?” he asked.

“I’d say we should still give these changelings the benefit of the doubt” Rubick responded “This nagging feeling in the back of my head won’t go away. I feel as though we are only seeing one part of the greater whole. Something is wrong, I can feel it”

“I know how you feel my friend” said Rhasta with an understanding nod “But regardless, no matter how much we dislike it, it is your duty now as a royal guard to handle this threat”

“Ugh, royal guard just doesn’t have the same ring as grand magus does” Rubick complained before the swarm of changelings began their offensive against him. It didn't take long for them to become hopelessly surrounded from all sides.

Everyone had finally made it to the tower where the elements were stored. However, the moment they opened the door, they ran into a roadblock. A roadblock that came in the form of a whole army of changeling drones. Taking care of them was swift work thanks to the heroes and their might, but just when things were finally looking their way...

“Grr... I can’t get the stupid door to open!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she strained to get the doors to the elements open. After several more seconds of futile struggle, she let out an annoyed groan and slammed her hoove upon the door.

“Ugh, the fate of Canterlot and perhaps all of Equestria hinges on us getting to the elements and there’s a stinkin door in our way! Didn’t the princess give us special permission to get these things whenever we needed them!?” she groaned again “When all of this is over we have got to find another place to store the elements!”

        “Move out of the way, Rainbow!” said Twilight as she assert herself in front of the door “This door need unicorn magic to open. Please, step aside and let me handle this” she then tilted and angled her head so that she could fit her horn into the uniquely designed lock mechanism “Now all I have to do is give this lock a slight jolt and...”

Twilight’s horn glowed with a gentle pinkish hue as she pulled out when the door began to light up with a warm cyan glow. The lock from within clicked and rumbled resoundingly before the glow brightly flashed and died out as quickly as it began. The assure noise of grinding stone made everyone else feel at ease. Now all that was left to do was to get the elements and high tail it outta there.

“See, Rainbow. There’s no need for brute force, all it takes is a light touch” Twilight said smugly.

“Yeah, and your horn” Rainbow retorted with a smug look of her own.

“Now, let’s get the elements and be on our wa-”

Twilight fell back on her haunches as she quickly shook away the stars that were orbiting her noggin. After rubbing her swollen nose, she looked up and her heart sank faster than a lead balloon. For whatever reason, the door was still closed. She could feel panic set in her mind as her friends began to as well.

“H-how? I could’ve sworn that I did everything right!” she yelled. Twilight then took a step back and tried to steady her rattled nerves “Okay, okay, let me retrace my steps...”

“Twilight, you try jiggling the lock?” Pinkie suggested “I’m pretty sure that if you jiggle the lock it would open. It always works whenever I get locked out of Sugarcube corner”

“What? No! How is jiggling the lock going to help!? There is no visible locks to jiggle!” snapped Twilight “Maybe I used the improper amount of magic? No that can’t be it... was it because my head’s angle was off by one degree? No, I made sure tha-”

        “Gah! This is taking too long!” Sven yelled as he asserted himself before the defiant door“ Step aside, Twilight. Here, let me do this” he grumbled from behind his helmet.

        “Wait! How are you planning to open it?” Twilight inquired “Are you going to pick the lock? Or... or are you going to try and-”

Sven let out a deafening warcry and pulled his gauntlet back as his eyes lit up with sparks of lightning. He charged up his stormhammer before bringing his massive hoof right onto the door. His hit struck the door dead center, causing it to buckle and break under the sheer force of the strike.

 He raised his hoof again and struck another time, puncturing it like a sheet of tin foil. As he pulled his hoof out, he took both his hooves and peeled the doors apart with almost little to no effort. In a show of force, he gripped both sides and crumpled the two together before tossing them to the back of the room like yesterday’s trash.

        The mane six, plus Spike, stared in shock and awe as Sven took apart a nigh impenetrable, not to mention magical, vault meant to protect the most powerful artifacts in the world in mere seconds just because he was a little impatient with the way that they were handling things. This made them rethink about how Discord managed to get his grubby paws on the elements back then.

“Bah! Why is it that everything around here feels like it was constructed out of paper?” he chided before turning to the still stunned mane six “Well? What are you waiting for? The door is open. Grab what you needed and get on with whatever it was you girls were going to do” Sven commanded. As the rest went to put on their respective elements, Rainbow turned to Twilight and gave her a wily smile.

“No need for brute force, eh?” Rainbow prodded at Twilight “All it takes is a light touch, eh?”

“Not now, Rainbow” said Twilight with an annoyed expression on her face “You can tell me I told you so when Canterlot is bug free” she began to grumble to herself shortly afterward.

“Uh... thank ya, Ah think...” Applejack thanked Sven as she put on her appropriate necklace.

“You are very welcome” Sven replied with a shift in tone of voice. He sounded genuinely sincere about his word, and actually seemed to enjoy seeing them with a slack jaw every time he and his friends pull of some crazy stunt “So how will these trinkets help you repel these creatures?” he asked.

“For starters, these aren’t mere trinkets. They’re the most powerful magical artifact in all of Equestria.Fueled by the magic of our friendship, the elements of harmony will be more than enough to send these changelings packing!” Twilight stated with pride. As the heroes examined the elements, they raised an eyebrow and had to check twice to see if what Twilight said was, more or less, true.

        “Well, It’s not the most powerful I know of” said Aiushtha as she looked at Twilight’s beautiful tiara “Although, the power emanating from your lovely jewelry reminds me of the dagon wand that I get to use every so often on the battlegrounds”

        “Um, is that a good thing?” Applejack asked with a raise of her eyebrow.

        “Well, individually, your necklaces are like the first form of the dagon wand” Aiushtha explained “The wand itself is powerful, but it will continue to grow in strength the more you use it. Together, I would take a guess that the powers from your necklaces and tiara would rival the dagon in its strongest form. On the plus side, however, those are more fashionable. I’m sure Rylai and Lina would love to wear that” she smiled gently.

        “Hmm, I see your friends have good taste” Rarity piped in with a curt giggle, despite the severity of the situation.

        “Can we please get to saving Equestria now?” Twilight butted in “Come on! We’ve wasted enough time as it is!”

        “Uh... Twilight... I don’t think Equestria needs saving anymore...you might want to see this...” said Spike as tapped upon her shoulder.

        “Spike, what could be so important that you would would disregard the safety of our home fo-” Twilight’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as she looked past the stained glass windows of the tower. Everyone else also rushed towards the windows and gasped at what they saw.

        The sky was raining, but not with water, but with the countless bodies of the changeling invaders. They fell out of the sky without rhyme or reason, plummeting left and right all while struggling to maintain their flight path. They all crashed into the hard cobblestone roads, painting the sidewalks with sickly looking green fluids and cracked shards of their chitinous exoskeletons. As the group ran out to observe the sudden chaos out on the streets, they noticed a disturbing trend.

        The changelings were losing control of themselves. Each and every single one of them were, for whatever reason, spazzing out uncontrollably on the ground. It didn’t matter whether it was the ones who crashed into the ground or those who actually landed safely. They were all either convulsing violently or were having a seizure. It was hard to watch, most everyone had to cover their eyes to shield themselves of the horror of it all.

        “What the hell is going on here?” Gondar asked “They’re just... losing it”

        “That’s what I want to know as well” a voice voice spoke from above. Gondar turned his attention up and saw that Rubick was coming in for a landing. When he neared the ground, his form shifted into a cloud of green smoke, before both Rhasta and Rubick hopped back down and landed right beside everyone else.

        “What’s your take on this?” Gondar asked.

        “I’m not sure. One moment I was freezing these changelings, then the next I’m presented with their imitation of an idiot’s ballet” said Rubick.

“Where do we go now?” Aiushtha joined in “If the changelings are taken care of, then doesn’t that mean our job is done as well?”

“No, it isn’t” Twilight cut in “We need to head back to the altar to see if everything is okay there or not...”

“If you believe so” said Sven “Then by all means, lead the way”

Without saying another word, the group left the bleak, ruined area of Canterlot and decided to head all the way back to where it supposedly all began. The day had started off normally, but then veered off into massive confusion when disaster struck without warning. Everyone was trapped in extreme thought, thinking about what had happened and why it had happened. Each had their own ideas on the situation, but none were stuck in a mental funk like Rainbow Dash was.