Typo was hanging out at the back of the group, starting to brood a little too much. Jordan figured he needed some more time.
They were all moving on foot again, with Rainbow Dash and Ying using their terrible singing voices in unison. They were singing "War" by Poets of the Fall. Applejack had her hears covered with her stetson - going so low it was hanging over her eyes. Occasionally she'd plead to them to stop the noise. Rarity was being a dainty princess who didn't want to get dirty, and her complaints were one of the reasons Ying and Rainbow Dash kept singing. Applejack hated both an equal amount. Typo's voice rang over the din. "There's someone coming!"
Jumping up on a nearby cliff in the cave, Illusive looked down on the ragtag group. "So YOU'RE the insects Gamarya was so intent on destroying. And you must be Typo." Illusive sneered at the brooding thief of muse, who looked up at having his name called out. "Gamarya hired me to take you all out, but he wanted to extend a special invitation to you Typo. And I suggest you take it, because you have absolutely no hope of taking him out, based on what Gamarya's told me.
Typo was taken aback, and instead of outright refusing, thought about it. The group recognized that the sneering form in front of them was none other than a Prince of Hope, and he was holding a large maroon axe that had short whiskers on the sides on which small bits of energy were crackling on. "What's the deal?" Jordan was somewhat surprised he was considering it, but gave him the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe he just wanted to put them down even more with some kind of inspiring speech. After all, he had just helped Typo from a dark place just hours ago, hadn't he?
"Gamarya's deal is that if you kill everyone in your group and join him, he'll spare the planets that he inhabits with a little life left over."
Typo was stunned speechless, and although Jordan assumed it was a trick from what he'd heard about the Lord of Doom, Typo seemed to be clearly considering his options - sacrifice the few for the many after all.
Jordan took out his Letum Coupant and got into a battle stance, turning his back to Typo.
---
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ny5n2vf
WE ARE ALMOST TO THE CITY," stated the black and red dragon.
Phynicxs, Vark, and Smeareyes stopped talking about what they had been doing before their sessions - what their hopes and dreams had been - and hurried to the front to look over the dragon's head. Pinkie Pie, Twilight, and Fluttershy were all stunned speechless. It was a beautiful mountain range. Twilight's face became uneasy as she realized that they would have had to climb that eventually. All three ponies were immediately glad they had a ride. But it was beautiful.
"A LITTLE WAYS OVER THIS MOUNTAIN AND WE WILL HAVE REACHED OUR DESTINATION."
Smeareyes' eyes narrowed, and he backed up. "Something big is coming."
Phynicxs asked how many, and Smeareyes announced that it was a pretty large group of... Birds? He wasn't really sure - he just knew that they had a strong emotional and mental bond. After all, he was a seer. The dragon's eyes narrowed as well.
"THE CHANGELINGS ARE COMING. THE WITCH MUST HAVE KNOWN WHAT HAPPENED."
The buzzing cloud drew closer, and all on top of the dragon got ready for a fight. This was going to be tough, but mostly for the ponies, as they couldn't fly. As the crowd drew closer Phynicxs, Vark, and Smeareyes noted that there was a knight of doom among them, and he/she camouflaged well with the changelings. Vark immediately ran to the head as the dragon's mouth crackled with electricity. Pinkie, fearless, went up to the top of the head with Vark as Phynicxs came up from behind, noting that they had a strong bond, and pressed his hands against both. Pinkie felt a surge of power as her bonds seemed to intensify by the thousands. Her eyes started rolling into her head, as though she were about to have a seizure, but, instead, she started screaming like a Super Sayian. This caused everyone present to cover their ears as it seemed to reach into dimensions that were even higher than the horrorterrors multi-dimensional speech.
Vark put a paw on Pinkie Pie, and felt their powers combine. Her cuteness began drawing out Pinkie's innate talents. Both were ready for a fight. Phynicxs took out his daggers, and Smeareyes got ready for some fisticuffs, wishing once more in his life for a weapon to use. He had never been able to find a weapon that fit him, but Vark's dancing; although he'd unlikely ever admit it, seemed like a good fighting style to him. Too bad he wasn't a bard.
---
It all happened so fast. Illusive jumped down and went after Rarity first as Typo took out his new weapon and threw it.
Ying had taken out his weapon and shoved Jordan to the side, bringing the eraser up and slashing at the pinwheel, causing it to bounce backwards. Ying, with a determined expression, then vanished appearing right where Rarity was cowering and about to get hit. Instead of hitting Rarity though, the axe rebounded off of Ying's eraser. He noted it must've been a powerful weapon of some sort due to the fact that it hadn't been erased slightly by his weapon.
Jordan got up quickly, looking into Typo's murderous eyes. "I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT YOU!"
Typo threw the pinwheel at Jordan again, who brought up his blade and fought against the breath weapon, some of which Typo had stolen in order to use minor breath powers. It felt like a razor was trying to cut through his sword, and the sparks were flying. He just hoped none would make his clothes go on fire.
Typo came up quickly, moving fast and swung a right hook at Jordan's left temple, who had to duck and bring his blade down so that the fist would miss its mark and so the pinwheel would go past him. Jordan felt Typo beginning to fall due to his over reach and stood up, throwing Typo off of him with his back, which caused him to crash into the wall.
"WE DON'T NEED TO DO THIS! WE CAN TAKE OUT GAMARYA IF WE WORK TOGETHER!"
"If I couldn't do it before, what makes you think we can do it now!?" Typo coughed slightly, his determination faltering, not wanting to hurt Jordan.
"GET REAL! You're ONLY ONE person! You can't do everything by yourself! When will that get through your thick skull!?"
"But I have more power now! And what if we can't defeat Gamarya! You need to sacrifice yourself for the good of the others!"
"A SACRIFICE LIKE THIS IS A SACRIFICE IN VAIN! I WILL DIE, BUT NOT BEFORE PUTTING IN MY ALL!" Jordan was getting worked up, and had to force himself not to charge at Typo and attack. Typo threw the pinwheel at him again and Jordan tried to swat it to the side, which didn't help because it was breath and could manipulate in the air easily - screw physics I'm a breath pinwheel.
Applejack ran at a wall and jumped off of it, turning in the air and using her momentum to buck the shit out of Illusive who ducked, spun, and brought his axe around to hit Ying's legs with the handle who had lost balance from having pushed back at Illusive's weapon too hard. Anger rose in Ying and he jumped, doing a flip over Illusive as the axe's handle hit air. Applejack crashed into a wall.
Ying turned around, flinging his eraser sword at Illusive's head, who leaned forward, sensing Ying's hope of trying to hit him with his back turned. Illusive, using his flight, turned around in the air and missed the ground. Ying followed up by jumping at Illusive and aiming a kick at his crotch. Illusive however used his flight and feet to launch himself up and back, doing a flip as Ying's eraser sword came back to him with his space powers.
---
Pinkie felt power surge through her, and jumped onto Vark's back, feeling almost weightless. Instead of flying, Pinkie and Vark disappeared, her eyes shining bright.
Vark danced in the air as she fell, doing diving moves - whatever she could think of, generating power within her as her bond with Pinkie strengthened. Pinkie disappeared again as Vark started singing Final Twilight (www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG4Ug7EWUbA), and sniped some of the changelings out of the sky with her voice; although it didn't take them out fully, it weakened them enough so that when she appeared close to them with Pinkie, Vark could slap them out of the sky, using her cuteness to repel them.
Phynicxs slashed at every changeling that came close to them; although they knew they couldn't fight the dragon alone, they'd have to take care of the others first. They bit and kicked, sometimes getting in some good hits. It was a struggle, but with Smeareyes and Phynicxs working close together they were able to do well.
As some of the changelings started to clear up, Vark threw a lyric shot at Chiri, who used a shield of doom to negate it. Vark tried again, but it missed. Chiri was good at flying and seemed to have relative ease to it. Pinkie flashed again, disappearing with Vark again to appear right up in Chiri's face who leaned back, having been taken by surprise. However his fighting style came naturally and he quickly blocked the hits that Vark tried to make while keeping herself floating with Pinkie Pie on her back.
A few hits in and Vark was getting frustrated - her powers weren't working and her scratches and hits were either missing, being blocked, or being parried.
"That's enough of this." Chiri stated before slamming a punch right across Vark's face with his Light Knuckles, a crack filling the air as the world in front of Pinkie and Vark went white for a second. She found herself falling out of the air, catching herself a moment later. And in that moment, before Pinkie could bring them back up to level, Chiri was already hitting them again, this time aiming punches at Pinkie and Vark - they were outmatched as Chiri's fists were too fast to follow once they started. Every hit made the world flash and after a few hits Vark couldn't take anymore and was starting to fall. In order to keep them apart, Chiri grabbed Pinkie's legs and opened them before roundhousing Pinkie away, who was knocked unconscious as she fell to the water.
Vark caught herself near death, but didn't go after Chiri again, knowing she had barely to no affect on Chiri. She flew fast and hard, trying to get to Pinkie before she hit the water. She was successful, but she was going so fast that both of them started skipping along the water like a stone.
Smeareyes and Phynicxs felt the extreme bond between Pinkie and Vark strain, weaken, and then crack. They couldn't go help because they were busy with the changelings, who were starting to attack the dragon, annoying the hell out of him, especially because he could only swat at them and shoot bolts. The bolts of lightning might've been strong, but it was only one shot, and it wasn't good for multiple enemies. Chiri was coming for them now.
---
"What are you doing!?" Rainbow Dash rushed in and hovered in between Typo and Jordan. "I thought you were cool!"
Typo seemed taken aback, pausing just before cutting into Rainbow Dash with the pinwheel. "But I AM cool! I'm the coolest!"
"Disloyalty is NOT cool. I can't believe I ever looked up to you! Maybe you ARE just an asshole!"
"B-but... But...?"
"No! I can't believe you'd attack your friends!"
"They're not my friends! MY FRIENDS ARE DEAD!" Typo flew the pinwheel around his body and sent it careening for Rainbow Dash.
Ying jumped at Illusive, slashing with his eraser sword, which was parried by Illusive's axe. Illusive tossed him away but he caught himself with his space powers, and tried again to hit Illusive, pushing forward and slicing his eraser sword from his bottom left to his upper right, trying to slash through Illusive's right leg. Illusive saw this and twisted his axe, the blade pushing the eraser away, and continued twisting it until it had performed a 360 and jumped at Ying, slashing with his axe and embedding the blade into Ying's right shoulder. Ying cried out and fell back, landing on the ground. His facial expression changed four times over the course of two seconds, and screamed. He felt something pulling against his mind, dropped his eraser sword, and grasped at his head. He started crying and laughing at the same time. Illusive smirked and moved forward, bringing his axe around and about to decapitate him.
Applejack woke up, shook her head as dark spots on her eyes started to recede, before she felt the dizziness subside. She looked around and saw how Ying was about to lose the advantage. She felt power surge through her as the situation pulled at her full being. She felt the hope inside of her rise up, believing that if she could help out all of Ponyville as much as she did, then she should be able to help out now, even if she needed her own help sometimes. She growled faintly and jumped forward, twisting around and catching an off guard Illusive bucking him in the side, sending him flying to the side, even though he caught himself. Applejack, satisfied by having helped, went to Ying. She put a hoof on his shoulder and asked if he was alright. He ended up swiping at her, pushing her away. "I DON'T NEED HELP! I'm so sorry please come back I didn't mean that." Ying felt so torn, and was starting to go insane - this was too much too fast. He caught out of the corner of his eye that Illusive was coming back for the kill, intending to not make the mistake twice. Illusive let out a war cry and the knight of space lifted up his hand, firing a small beam of green space power at the axe. It didn't shrink, but its color started to fizz surrealy before being thrown off to the side by a terrible force. Illusive was shocked and pulled out some needles from his captchalogue deck and threw them at the knight of space, who was incapacitated by his mental splitting apart. Applejack saw this and jumped in front of the needles, crying out as the needles weakened her significantly, but a second later, thinking of what was on the line, she felt hope and power surge through her that erased the prince of hope's influence, and screamed, her eyes glowing before a white beam shot out of her mouth at Illusive, who took the brunt of the blow and seemed unaffected except for being pushed back. Applejack didn't stop though, she charged forward, jumping, then hopping into the air, spinning around and sending one of her hind hooves to hit Illusive's cheek, thrusting the leg out, then using it to jump into the air and forward, thrusting both of her hind legs down on Illusive's head, a crack sound filling the air before Applejack landed behind him, thrusting her forehooves at Illusive's back who cried out in pain. She continued the assault, hitting him across the back with her fore hooves before jumping with her hind legs and spun, thrusting another back hoof at Illusive's spine, causing it to crick, which caused Illusive to fall down. It wasn't permanent, but it still affected him the same. He started to float forward and into the air before turning around, about to bring his axe up, but was hit by Applejack's headbutt, which sent him flying into a wall. He groaned as Applejack watched from afar, her glowing eyes starting to dim. She felt good - extremely good. She stood up on her hind hooves, and air boxed as though trying to tempt Illusive into coming back at her. He stayed where he was, and was about to get away. Ying had passed out.
Rainbow Dash hadn't been ready for the strike, and Jordan tried to save her by pushing her to the side, but she didn't budge, as though she were an immovable force. Instead, Rainbow Dash ducked and felt something swell inside of her, a vengeance almost; something that filled her fully as emotions started to flow within her. She had to beat some sense into Typo. She felt the pinwheel go over her head and her eyes glowed. Her loyalty was strong, and she wouldn't let them be broken apart. She would move, and she would take everyone with her - she wouldn't leave anyone behind. She wanted to be a Wonderbolt - she wanted to fly and do tricks - she wanted to go fast. But what she wanted more than any of that was to be a soldier, to never give up and to never leave anyone behind. She would make sure that things went the way it was meant to be. She would be the wind itself, and the wind would work with her. She felt air swirling around her, which caught the pinwheel as it was starting to go back to Typo. She caught it and sent it careening into a wall before determinedly yelling at Typo, telling him to sit down and think about what he did. And when she did, a harsh gust of air flew forth and knocked Typo off his feet.
Applejack looked back and saw what Rainbow Dash had done. She wanted to finish Illusive off, believing she could if she wanted to - it was stronger than hope, and it was hers, and it would always be hers. Hope for a better future. Belief in a better future. A hope, a belief, that her family would be able to have a new barn and everything. A hope and a belief that she would succeed at whatever she did. The determination in her eyes scared the crap out of Illusive, who started to fly away to lick his wounds.
Applejack went over to Typo and Jordan. "It's okay! He's gone. We won. And we won't ever lose to Gam... Gam... Whatever the heck his name was. We're here for ya Typo. But we need you to be there for us."
---
The water was cold. It was FREEZING cold. Vark was breathing heavily, and was still hanging onto Pinkie. She started to stroke across the water, but gave up on that and started to fly close to the water, but not high enough to catch attention. She laid Pinkie on the mountain base and shook out her fur before curling up to Pinkie, trying to keep her warm, and singing Hania's lullaby, but replacing "king" with "queen." http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/89617 She hoped Pinkie would be alright. Occasionally, if a changeling came near, she would shout the lyric she was singing at the changeling, dropping it from the sky or causing it to have to flee. She sang the song again and again, a pink aura around her which provided music for the lullaby. It was a very sweet song, and Pinkie smiled.
Chiri went up to the dragon's head while it was turned away to hit another changeling and struck it in the face, a flash of light blinding him momentarily and throwing him off kilter, his wings flailing. Chiri kept hitting him until he started to fall, his brain rocking around starting to become too much for the dragon. As it started to dive down into the water, Fluttershy, Phynicxs, and Smeareyes started to hover in the air looking down before more changelings started coming. Twilight Sparkle stayed on the dragon and was straining to levitate it, attempting to slow its descent toward the water. Fluttershy dived after the dragon, wanting to help him after he had been so friendly, trusting Vark to take care of Pinkie.
Around Phynicxs and Smeareyes, the changelings started to disperse, moving away and starting to flee when they saw Chiri coming in to finish the job.
"Two versus one isn't very fair you know..." Chiri waggled his finger, as though chastising them.
Phynicxs was the first to react. "Shut up! And an army is just as unfair!"
"Oh, they weren't listening to me. They were listening to the witch."
Smeareyes responded this time. "Right, and you're totally not working for her!! Or... Being controlled by her?"
Chiri nodded. "Understandable that you might think so, but I do what I want. I just happen to have a little incentive." He smirked.
"Right." Phynicxs rushed at Chiri who got into a fighting stand while hovering. Phynicxs used his daggers to keep Chiri occupied, understanding the danger of taking a full hit. Smeareyes started to circle around them, looking for the best time to attack.