The Wheel and the Butterfly
A Dan X Pinkie Pie sagaPart 9 Dan Vs. The Order Keepers
Chapter 69: Dan Vs. Incorporeal Beings
-oooooo-
“What do we do?!” A frantic voice called out from the mist.
Confused eyes suspended in the swirling mass of thick black and blue fog stared out at Dan as went around and around in their mad circle. The Order Keepers were thick around him, choking out the dim light of the stars above.
It mattered little, light seem to emanate from the man himself, a flickering crimson that beamed out in all directions as he ragefully glanced back and forth, determining his next move.
“We try again.” Another voice called out. “The human must leave. His very presence is disturbing the Nexus.”
With that, the heavy fog fell on Dan, choking out his light.
Once again he felt as if something was pulling on him, attempting to drag him away from this place.
Away from Pinkie.
He felt the pull on his body as the thickness around him increased, almost as if he was weighted down and being dragged deeper and deeper into a pool of oil.
Two things were very clear to Dan.
He needed to get back to Pinkie, and these things needed to be punched in the face.
The latter seemed easier to the deal with at the moment.
Dan punched with all his might…
‘CRACK!’
…and hit something solid.
A chorus of panic and confusion rang out.
“What is going on?!”
“What is happening?!”
“Our…our selves!”
The fog began to clear, and light of the stars began to shine once more as did the flickering crimson light that seemed to push the very essence of the Nexus away from him.
A gaunt, tall, thin, hairless, genderless blue-black humanoid creature reeled from Dan’s blow, sprawling out on the floor below.
Dan took quick stock of the very swift change that had occurred. He was still being pulled on, but it was now by very tangible sets of hands with four fingers each that held onto his arms, legs, and anywhere there seemed to be open on his body to grab hold of. He was also no longer being pulled with uniformity, but instead found himself being gripped by a number of beings that simply seemed desperate to maintain their footing.
“He’s returned us to the before times!” One of the beings called out in a panicked tone.
Sets of hands began to slip off Dan with the attached beings quickly finding themselves on the floor.
“Help! I haven’t had a body in eons!” A voice rang out.
“GET OFFA ME!” Dan shouted as he twisted and forcefully ripped his limbs out of grasps of the now very corporeal Order Keepers.
The Order Keepers’ hands fell away quickly and easily as the owners attempted to work bodies that hadn’t existed for untold trillions of years.
Dan began to lash out at those lying around him, planting kicks into wide eyed, noseless faces, and stomping on thin, long fingers.
The Order Keepers around him began to shriek and scream.
“AH! PAIN! HE HAS RETURNED PAIN TO US!”
“FLEE! RUN AWAY!”
“HE IS THE RUINATOR, HE WILL BE THE END OF US IF WE DON’T ESCAPE!”
The group began to frantically crawl away from Dan using limbs they barely remembered how to work.
Dan looked around the Nexus, the visibility having cleared. He stared at another rift in the very fabric of the place, a three foot diameter portal that sat parallel with the barren ground a few yards up into the air. Through the portal lined with a swirling, glowing, bright red energy, Dan could see a bird’s eye view of his and Pinkie’s couch and coffee table.
Well, that’ll take us home…
Dan turned around and frowned as he noticed the green lined portal he had been dragged was slowly closing in on itself.
Oh, that’s not good…
*
Straight haired, with eyes completely taken by terror, and a stream of tears that seemed would never end, Pinkie sat on her haunches and looked up into a pair of blank, bright white eyes that stared down at her uncaringly.
“You…you don’t have to do this!” Pinkie pleaded.
“Yes, I do.” A voice replied flatly.
“Pa…please! Just let us go! I didn’t do anything! Dan didn’t do anything.”
“You have disrupted the very fabric of reality itself.” The voice spoke in a tone as if it were simply passing information instead of leveling an accusation.
“But…I didn’t mean to!” Pinkie cried.
The eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “That does not matter, your existence must be ended.” The voice continued to inform. “Are you ready?”
“Na…no…” Pinkie choked out.
The thick blue-black air under the eyes began to crackle with sinister looking energy. “I’m afraid that does not matter, either.”
“aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”
The two paused at the sound of Dan’s angry scream rang out. The Order Keeper’s bright, white eyes drifted slightly in the tick ether, as if glancing at something that was at one point behind them.
The open air in front of Pinkie and The Order Keeper began to crackle with red energy, energy that hung in the open air like cracks in a stone wall.
‘KRRRRRRRRRRRRRIISSSSSSSSSSSSSH!’
Pinkie’s eyes went wide as she stared past her attacker. The sound she heard was much like breaking glass, but the substance did not seem to exist here.
Something had clearly broke however.
Shards of seemingly stagnant nothing, only distinguishable by the red lines around them fell apart from each other and fell in giant panes against the ground where the energy around them ceased to exist, fizzling out in violent, bright flashes of red light.
Pinkie’s face lit up.
“DAN!” She shouted.
Dan stood motionless as pieces of reality continued to fall and shattered around him, simply staring out with face of unbridled rage at the being in between him and Pinkie Pie.
He leveled an angry index finger at the shadowy mass. “YOU!” He shouted. “Let her go, or I will END you.”
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” The voice called out accusingly at Dan.
“WRONG ANSWER!” Dan shouted as he slowly walked closer, red energy flicking off his body as moved forward.
As he approached, the darkness and fog of the void in front of him retreated, as if fleeing some frightening terror.
The pair of eyes turned and quickly focused on Pinkie.
“Please die.” The voice rang out.
Pinkie looked up with a terrified expression “What?”
Energy once again built up in a pool of crackling, blue lightening under the sets of eyes.
Pinkie gazed at it fearfully, then closed her eyes.
‘Shllllink’
‘OWCHIES!’ Pinkie exclaimed as she felt a sharp, stabbing pain in her shoulder.
She opened her eyes and glanced at her pink shoulder to see that it had been stabbed with something sharp, oddly enough. In this case, a blade; jagged as if someone had tried to create a sword in the shape of a real lightning bolt. The blade protruded from the long, thin arm of a rather surprised looking, tall, blue-black being.
‘THUD!’
Dan slammed his body weight into the tall being, shoulder hitting first. The two toppled to the ground as Dan quickly scrambled on top of his foe.
“I’M GOING TO BEAT YOU UNTIL CANDY COMES OUT!” Dan yelled the startled Order Keeper
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THE NEXUS?!” The blue-black humanoid yelled as Dan placed a hand on either side of its large, bulbous head.
Dan focused eyes full of hate on the being’s face. “The same thing I’m about to do to your head!”
The Order Keeper’s eyes widened as he suddenly realized his rather likely mortality in his current state. “Help!” He cried out.
Dan raised the beings head and slammed it against the barren floor with all his might.
‘Thunk’
He repeated the process.
‘Thunk’
‘Thunk’
“Dan!” Pinkie shouted.
‘Thunk’
‘Thunk’
“WHAT?!”
‘Thunk’
‘Thunk’
“BEHIND YOU!”
‘Thunk’
Dan turned…
‘Thunk’
…and noticed The Order Keepers he had left behind had seemingly decorporealized, their glowing white eyes staring at him with a mix of fear and anger.
‘Thunk’
Dan paused…
‘Thunk’
…Dan paused and …
‘Thunk’
…DAN PAUSED AND…
‘Thunk’
“DAN!” Pinkie shouted as she limped over to Dan, avoiding putting pressure on her injured foreleg.
‘Thunk’
“WHAT IS IT NOW?!”
‘Thunk’
“I think you got him…” Pinkie said as she rested a forehoof on Dan’s shoulder.
Dan looked down to see his hands were now covered in a black ichor of some sort and the head he had been busily smashing was now sitting in a pool of the same substance. The eyes of The Order Keeper twitched uncontrollably, as they stared up into the stars above.
“Oh…” Dan uttered standing up to face his new opponents.
“Dan…I’m scared…” Pinkie stated.
Dan looked over the hesitant eyes that remained focused on him.
“Stay close to me.” He ordered. “I’m not losing you again!”
“Ummm-hmm…” Pinkie murmured softly and nodded as she leaned up against Dan.
“DESTROY HIM!” A voice rang out from the cloud of darkness and eyes.
The ominous looking mass surged forward as Dan stepped in front of Pinkie. Dan narrowed his eyes and looked on determinedly, raising his fists in preparation to rain a torrent of violence upon…
‘Thump’
“Ooof!”
‘Thump’
“Oooh!”
‘Thump’
“Ouch!”
‘Thump’
“Aieee!”
Dan and Pinkie blinked and stared on in surprise as a collection of physical manifested Order Keepers began to fall out of the cloud in a heap a few yards in front of them, as if the cloud had begun to spit them out as they approached Dan and Pinkie.
“What just…what just happened?” Pinkie asked, looking up towards Dan for an answer.
“Don’t know.” He replied as he surged forward, baseball bat in hand. More of the cloud fell away, manifesting into more tall, gaunt figures that quickly lost their balance as their feet touched the ground. He raised his baseball bat high into the air and brought it down on the nearest head.
‘THULLCK!’
As soon as Dan had brought the bat down on his target, the air around The Order Keeper seemed to briefly pulsate as its body ceased moving.
“WHERE THE HAY DID YOU GET YOUR BASEBALL BAT FROM?!” Pinkie Screeched.
Dan looked down at his bat, the black ichor that coated the end, and the now concave skull of his foe. “I DON’T KNOW, I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT HOW NICE IT WOULD BE TO HAVE AND THERE IT WAS!” He yelled back at Pinkie “WHAT’S WITH ALL THE QUESTIONS!?”
“I’M SO CONFUuUuUuUuUSED!” Pinkie cried.
“STOP BELLYACHING AND HELP MY CAVE ALIEN SKULLS IN!” Dan shouted back at Pinkie. “I TOLD YOU TO STAY CLOSE TO ME!”
“Dan! My LEG is…” Pinkie paused and glanced at her pristine, pink shoulder as she rotated her leg around and around. “…uh…completely fine for some reason.”
“WHAT IS HAPPENING?!” A panicked voice rang out.
“GET AWAY FROM HIM, HE’S…”
‘THULLCK!’
Another voice was silenced, followed by another ripple in the ether.
“Pinkie, if you can help me kill a few of these things, that would be pretty cool.” Dan informed.
“With WHAT?!” Pinkie shrieked out. “I don’t even have a weapon!”
Dan swung his bat into the mass of frantically squirming limbs and bodies that attempted to crawl away from him. His bat connecting with one of The Order Keepers sides with a resounding ‘CRACK!’
“Don’t you have like a dozen ridiculous things just stuck in your hair?!”
Pinkie raised her forehooves under her straight, pink mane and held it up. “HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET ANYTHING OUT OF THIS?!”
“OH FOR THE LOVE OF…” Dan sighed and smacked his palm against his face, dragging the hand down across his face. “I can’t believe what I’m about to do…”
“Do what?!” Pinkie cried out.
Dan walked over to Pinkie, dropped his bat, and leaned down. He swept an arm under her back legs, and placed his other under her back. He then lifted her up, and leaning his head down towards her face.
“Hey! What are youMMMMPHPGH?! MMMMGHPGH! Mmghph? Mmmmm…” Pinkie uttered as Dan covered her mouth with his and her startled, muffled cries quickly changed to content, gentle hums.
Pinkie felt the tension drain from her body, replaced by a gentle warm feeling as she enjoyed the sensation of being held aloft by her human boyfriend and the feeling of his lips against hers.
‘fffeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEE!’
With a high pitched squeal, Pinkie’s hair reflated into its normal, curly, unruly shape.
Dan lowered Pinkie and set her gently onto the ground.
“Bleh, ptuu…” Dan began spitting and wiping the pink fur from his lips.
“Thanks…” Pinkie uttered with a slight blush and a smile as she wobbled a bit, still feeling a bit weak in the knees. “…I needed that.”
“You’re welcome,” Dan replied. “NOW HELP ME KILL THESE THINGS!” Dan yelled as he reached down to pick up his bat.
Pinkie saluted Dan with a forehoof. “Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie reached into her mane and pulled out her pink crowbar, placing it in her mouth.
The corporeal Order Keepers continued to crawl and panic, the ones who got far enough away transformed back into their bodies of dark mist, but with all of corporeal ones still working out the use of their muscles and limbs, even traveling a few feet was a slow, yet frantic process.
Dan and Pinkie rushed back to the group of squirming Order Keepers, Pinkie rearing back on her hind legs as she approached one, raising her crowbar high into the air and bringing it down on the head of her target, hard.
‘THILLSHKC!’
The skull of the order keeper cracked open with the sickly sounds of bone being separated by metal, black ichor poured from the open wound as the air once again rippled.
“Dww ywo kmmm avv wvv ovf owv hwww?” Pinkie hummed through the crowbar in her teeth.
‘THWAK!’
“WHAT?!” Dan replied as he continued to pummel an Order Keeper’s torso into a mash of black ichor and protruding bones.
‘THWAK!’
Pinkie tilted her head and set down her crowbar, somehow neatly balancing it straight up on the barren ground. “I said, ‘Do you know a way out of here?’”
“Oh.”
‘THWAK!’
“Yeah, there’s a portal behind these cloudy goons.” Dan replied.
‘THWAK!’
“Well, I think it would be a super-awesome idea if we just went home!” Pinkie responded cheerfully.
‘THWAK!’
“But…but…VENGEANCE!” Dan protested.
‘THWAK!’
The ether once again rippled as Dan landed a final blow on the Order Keeper.
“I think they get the message!” Pinkie argued motioning out to the handful of unmoving Order Keepers that littered the ground around them.
Dan sighed. “FINE!” He motioned out into the dark fog with his baseball bat. “This way!”
Pinkie grabbed her crowbar and placed it back into her mane, the pink curls enveloping it completely as she did. She galloped behind Dan as he returned to the spot he had been before he arrived to rescue Pinkie Pie.
The ethereal Order Keepers rapidly shifted and parted before the two, desperate to keep their distance.
Pinkie grinned as she spotted the familiar sight of the couple couch. “Guess we’re home free from he…”
‘SCHOURCHHHHH!’
“DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!” Pinkie screamed as a dark blue blot of energy slammed into her boyfriend, sending him to the ground.
Dan laid on his back motionless, his glazed over eyes staring straight up into the stars as the red glow around him faded and darkness once again began to shroud the area. Smoke drifted up from a smoldering hole in his chest, and half of his face was likewise blackened in burnt.
“Dan!” Pinkie said in a pleading tone. “Wake up!” She began to nuzzle Dan’s torso with her mussel. “PLEASE, don’t leave me!” She cried as tears began to well up in her big, sky-blue eyes.
The light continued to fade and even the stars above where soon dimmed as The Order Keepers swarmed around Pinkie.
‘PhhhEEEeeshhhuuuuu…’
Pinkie’s hair once again deflated as she threw herself over Dan and wailed, her body shaking with each tortured moan.
“ENOUGH THEATRICS!” A voice boomed out.
Pinkie turned to see another set of eyes, angrily and accusingly focused directly on her. A golden halo floated above them, shining in the foggy darkness.
“STAY AWAY FROM HIM!” Pinkie demanded.
“He’s already dead.” The voice informed.
Pinkie shook her head. “Na…no!” She sobbed out. “He’ll…come back to me! He’ll save me! He always does!”
“I hit him with just enough energy to end him.” The voice replied as the eyes continued to glower out at Pinkie. “A swift death, more than he deserved.” Deadly looking energy began to collect and crackle beneath the eyes. “More than you deserve.”
Pinkie closed her watery eyes, and attempted to prepare herself for what was to follow.
“I’ll be with you soon, Dan…” She murmured.
“Sooner than you think, goofball.”
Pinkie’s eyes shot open as she caught Dan jumping from the ground and swinging up at the haloed set of eyes with his baseball bat.
‘CRACK!’
Another blue-black being hit the ground, the one discernable feature of this Order Keeper being the golden, blue and black jewel student crown on his head. It looked up with an expression of absolute shock and surprise almost as if he were discovering the emotions for the first time.
“DAN!” Pinkie exclaimed as she enthusiastically nuzzled her boyfriend’s ribs.
Dan shot her a quick smirk and looked back at his foe.
Dark blue energy swirled around the grim king, and with laborious effort, he rose himself to his full height, towering over Dan and Pinkie.
Dan merely looked up, his black ichor covered bat held loosely in a hand by his side as the area around him once again glowed crimson as red sparks shot off from Dan’s body. The skin on his face began to lighten and return to its normal pasty white. The wound on his chest closed, and much like his face, the skin seemed to return to the state it was in before Dan was blasted in the chest.
Dan cocked an eyebrow at the tall, crown adored being that stood tall above Pinkie and him.
“Is that all you got?”