Chapter 13: Bad Blood
“This is a real mind fuck, you know that?” William asked, rhetorically. “I mean, you were supposed to be dead, and now you turn up in a world we had been watching and with a full transmutation. It's like a plot twist in some epic novel.”
“An epic novel, huh? That sums up my life for the last six years quite nicely, to be honest,” Midnight replied. “So... I guess it's too much to ask to just let us go?”
William sighed. “I wish I could, David. I really do... But you're still an enemy of the state. Even if you weren't, Korda needs that world and you're protecting it.” The man looked back at the building behind him. “That one that ran off... She's special to you, isn't she?”
“She's my wife. We even have a daughter back in our world.”
William smiled at that. “I'm glad to hear you found happiness again. After what happened... It killed me when I heard about Sarah. If I kill you and we take your new world, I'll do what I can to get her and your kid to Solarin.”
Midnight smiled sadly. “You always were a good friend.”
William got back into his fighting stance. “Unfortunately, our friendship has to end. You're threatening my country...”
“And you're threatening mine,” Midnight finished, adopting his own stance.
William chuckled. “Those are some pretty toys you got there. You don't want to scoff them do you?”
“These were forged by Rarity Silverpaw. They're as strong as Dwarf forged and as fine as Elven.”
“Really? Then let's put them to the test!” William shouted as he charged his old friend.
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The storm tank's turbine whirred loudly as it charged its main cannon, its sights leveled on the yellow pegasus retrieving the wounded. Just before the gunner could pull the trigger, though, another yellow pony, this one without wings and a vibrant red mane, came crashing down on the turret, her hammer crushing the armor like a tin can.
Applebloom and the tigers attacked the human's flank, smashing the leftover armor and slaying the mages and their protectors. The filly couldn't help but be impressed by her fierce companions, especially Umi. They were all incredible fighters, but to see the tigress dispatching her foes with her bare paws was inspiring.
She didn't have much time to admire the tigers' prowess, though. A shell from one of the massive quadruped mechs slammed into the ground nearby, knocking her into the air.
“Applebloom, are you alright?” Sweetie asked.
“Ah'm alright,” the farm filly replied as she got to her hooves and charged the walker. “A bit rattled is all.”
“Good. Any chance you can make it to Scootaloo and Rainbow? They bit off a bit more than they can chew.”
Applebloom's hammer took out the legged tank's front right knee joint, bringing it down then looked to where the blue figure was engaged in an aerial duel with a magically winged human. “They still together?”
“Close enough to find Scoots,” answered Sweetie.
“Ah'm on it.” Applebloom bent the turret cannons to finish off her metal opponent and took off toward her friend.
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The courtyard lit up as Midnight brought his blade down, launching the light energy at William. The Mage Guard launched himself over with a pillar of earth, only to be met by an ice lance aimed at his chest. A quick gout of flame, and the attack was reduced to harmless liquid.
The demon powered soldier's fist collided with Midnight's shield, rattling him to the core. He remembered being stronger than his old friend, but wasn't really surprised. After all, he removed his demon while William was still a true Mage Guard.
“You're weaker,” William said, simplifying Midnight's thoughts.
“Strength isn't everything,” Midnight replied.
“Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm simply saying my strength gives me a bit of an advantage. We both know if you still had your demon I'd be dead already.” William called forth tendrils of shadow to entangle the former human, only to have them dispelled by a flash of light.
Midnight swung his sword, unleashing a hail of needle sized splinters of ice and charged with a lightning wrapped blade.
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Scootaloo panted as she glared at the demon blooded warrior. It was amazing how powerful he was with just a lesser demon. She shivered slightly, trying to fathom how powerful Mage Guard must be with a demon lord powering them.
“You impress me, little horse,” the man said. “You've kept up with me quite nicely despite your obvious handicap.”
Scootaloo didn't respond. In part it was out of defiance, but mostly she was tired and hurt. The cuts she was sporting all over her body stung and made moving painful, but she wasn't going to give up.
“What? You don't want to talk to me?” he chided. “Fine, I'll just have to end this little dance.”
In a blur, he lunged forward, barely giving the orange pegasus time to parry the blade of ice that formed on his hand. Once again, she was put on the defensive, struggling to avoid the lethal blows. She was almost as fast as him, but simply had no experience fighting an opponent like this, and it was showing.
The clang of steel and ice rang out as their battle raged. A double thrust, Scootaloo parried one and shifted to the side, dodging the other. The avoided strike suddenly changed directions, slashing sideways at Scootaloo's neck. The pegasus pushed away, corkscrewing backwards. The Blood Guard followed after and in mid twist swiped his frozen weapon across her back, cutting into her flesh and spine.
Scootaloo screamed in pain as she hit the ground, hard. She tried to get to her hooves but she couldn't seem to get her hind legs to move. Suddenly, she was forced up by her mane, screaming in pain.
“I must admit, I had fun. Unfortunately, this has to end. Goodbye.”
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Rainbow twisted in mid air, barely avoiding the blade from separating her head from her shoulders. Her own scythe swung upwards, trying to catch the flying human off guard, but his second blade intercepted the attack.
With a smirk, Rainbow sent a surge of lightning through her weapon. The Blood Guard countered as his air seal emitted its own electric attack, quickly overtaking the less experienced pony's spell. The high current flowed into the weather mare, thankfully passing straight into the wings where they were discharged via her natural pegasus defenses. It still did some damage, but not the lethal amount the human was likely hoping for.
Rainbow growled, infuriated by her relentless opponent. Her anger was forgotten at the sound of a gut wrenching scream. She looked down in time to see Scootaloo hit the ground.
“Scoots!” Rainbow shot off in the direction of her fallen daughter, only to be intercepted by the foot of her current nemesis.
She quickly righted herself from the kick in time to see the other human holding Scootaloo by the mane. The human spun around, whipping Scoots around with him and launched her into the air.
Rainbow Dash shot forward, wings pumping harder than ever before.
The ground based Blood Guard's seal lit up with energy before firing a lance of ice at the helpless filly.
Wings pushed to the breaking point, time seemed to slow down as Rainbow watched the javelin hurling through the air, its serrated edges designed to cause the most damage.
The spear buried itself into the young pegasus' chest, bursting through her back, with enough force to launch her away from the battlefield and toward the forest.
“No! Rainbow screamed in grief as she pushed herself harder. The twins wouldn't allow that, though, and both hovered in her path, grinning wickedly.
Rainbow watched her daughter disappear beneath the trees through tear filled eyes.
“Oh, brother, let me kill this one. You already got one.”
Rainbow's attention was shifted to the two monsters. The monsters that took her little Scoots. The monsters that want to take her friends. The monsters that want to take her whole world. All her sorrow and grief suddenly turned to pure, righteous fury.
Something in the pegasus snapped. She let out a primal scream as a flash of light surrounded her neck. The Blood Guard fell back into their fighting stances, ready for whatever attack was about to be unleashed. That attack, however, turned out to be a gold necklace with a ruby lightning bolt adorning the front... a ruby lightning bolt that was glowing brighter and brighter. The lightning bolt and fire cloak runes on her fetlocks shined equally bright as they began to shift and change.
“That's impossible,” one of the elites said in shock as the runes were replaced by circles with tiny runic writing along the inside edge and a symbol in the center, three swirls in one and a flame in the other.
An air seal and fire seal.
Just as the shock was wearing off, the pony's new air seal began to glow even brighter as black clouds filled the skies above and lightning painted the sky. A new expression was seen on their faces as they recognized what was happening...
Fear.
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“No!” Applebloom yelled as her friend was sent flying through the air, a large shard of ice embedded in her chest.
She took off after Scootaloo in a desperate bid to save her life. She was so focused on her friend, she didn't notice her Element Armor flash into being on her barrel, nor did she notice two of her runes changing.
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Rarity took another shot, trying to clear the way for Applebloom to get to their wounded comrade.
“Love, your Element!” Virgil said in surprise.
Rarity looked down to see the glowing gem and then yelped as two of her runes lit up.
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“Stay with me!” Fluttershy shouted as the stallion on her back bled on her. “Why did you do that, you... dummy!”
“S-sorry, Shy,” Blue Streak said. “Couldn't... Couldn't let you get stabbed. You're more important than me. You're an Element Bearer.”
“Then you should have hit him, not get in the way!” Blue had never heard Fluttershy so angry before.
“Guess I wasn't thinking.”
“What happened?” Redheart asked as the flightless stallion was deposited on a mat nearby.
“Sword to the abdomen, punctured his spleen. I stopped most of the bleeding,” the normally timid mare said with a rare conviction.
“Good job. I got it from here... When did you get your Element?”
“My Element?” Fluttershy echoed in confusion. She looked down at the golden artifact, blinking slowly. “Where did this come from?”
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Sweetie was too focused and her panicked run through the forest toward her fallen friend to notice the flashes of light, or the sudden weight of her Element.
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Slowly.
Carefully.
Quietly.
A lavender ghost.
Twilight crept through the archives building, searching for the server that held the data for their discovered worlds. Just as she was passing a pair of guards, a flash of light came from directly above her, drawing her attention... as well as the humans'.
“What the hell?”
Twilight looked at the guards.
The guards looked at Twilight.
“Horse apples.”
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In the middle of the battle, Jacob fought along side Applejack and Pinkie while Ymir continued to fire away with its beam weapon. The cannon had already run out of ammo and was discarded to reduce weight and, thus, power usage. He, too, had discarded his rifle in favor for a sword.
“What the hey?!” Applejack exclaimed.
Jacob turned around to see a gold necklace had appeared around the two mares' necks, both adorned with a glowing jewel. The same glow could be seen on their fetlocks where two of their runes seemed to change right before his eyes.
“What? That's impossible,” the man said, mostly to himself.
“How 'bout sharin'!” AJ shot back as her ax cleaved a soldier's side.
“Your runes. I think they just turned into seals.”
“But I thought only humans can have those?” Pinkie asked as she removed her daggers from a man's lungs.
“I don't-” he was cut off by a peal of thunder and lightning.
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“Kill her, quick!” one of the Blood guard yelled as he lunged at the enraged mare, joined by his brother, only to be held back by the gale force winds swirling around her.
The fighting below ground to a stop as every eye was on the spectacle above.
A shimmering ring of runes began swirling around the pegasus as she began to glow with energy. With a bang that shook the very air, her body seemed to dematerialize and shoot upward as a bolt of lightning into the dark storm clouds that had formed above. The clouds began to swirl and descend like a twister, but instead of touching down, it curved away from the ground as a massive scaled head burst forth with a mighty roar. Long, needle-like teeth lined its mouth, and golden plates that looked like they would be jewelry if not for the fact that they grew from its body, circled its head like a crown. A pair of huge feathered wings shot out from the sides, dispersing the rest of the clouds from the long, serpentine body, the spines along its back resembling those on the head.
The great beast twisted around, glaring at the two humans. Its mouth opened wide enough to swallow twenty men. One of the men, the one that Rainbow had been fighting shoved the other out of the way just as a powerful bolt of lightning cracked the sky, incinerating him in an instant.
The human army reacted as appropriately as they could. They panicked, rushing for the safety of the portal.
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The rifle fire died down quickly when they realized she was shielded. Now, they were coming at her with sword, ax, and spear. Twilight, however, was not an easy target. Getting close to her meant getting close to her powerful unicorn magic. She tried using her runes, but whatever her Element did had changed it. Now whenever she focused through them, they just glowed faintly.
She groaned as she ducked behind the wall. This was just one problem after another since she and Midnight separated. First her Element decided to show up and alert the entire facility to her presence, then when she finally made it to the server room, she realized Midnight had the explosives, and now she was going to have to do something she was going to regret.
The unicorn mage closed her eyes and focused on her mana font, drawing from it a dangerous level of energy. The air crackling with magic was the only warning, before she was suddenly surrounded by a storm of magic, eyes glowing with untold power. One tried to charge her only to be flung away. Spells that were meant to slay the intruder were only absorbed by the orb that was growing around her.
Twilight struggled to hold her focus through the intense headache that was pounding at her skull. With a yell, she released the magic. The last thing the Kordan soldiers saw was a wall of white.
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Midnight danced backward, dodging the stone spikes bursting from the ground at his hooves. This was a difficult fight for him. His opponent was much stronger, meaning one wrong step could be his last. The gashes on his chest and forehead proved that much, as did the numerous burn marks.
A beam of light shot from Midnight's hoof, barely missing the not-quite-as-battered Mage Guard as he rolled to the side. William countered with a dozen blades of every element flying through the air. Midnight sped his perception with a mind seal spell, making everything seem to slow down. A body spell to increase his agility allowed him to dodge every one without a scratch.
“Not bad,” the demonized man said with a smirk. “You haven't lost your touch. Hell, I think you're actually better than you were before.”
“When you live in a world where everyone's mana font is the size of one of the more powerful Blood Guard, you learn to do without,” Midnight replied as he lobbed three balls of molten lava at his foe.
A blast of ice froze one, and the others were dodged. William's thigh was splattered some when the orbs burst apart on the ground, eliciting a yelp of pain.
“That's impressive,” William said through a wince. “Your lady friend?”
“Hers makes yours look small.”
“You're kidding?”
His answer didn't come from Midnight, but from the massive blast of magical energy from the building behind him. The Mage Guard turned to stare in awe at the massive release of pure magical energy.
“Was that-” he began to ask as he turned back to his old friend just in time to see a wind cloaked sword flying at his neck.
Acting quickly, he dropped down, the enchanted blade taking a chunk of hair and scalp as it passed. With even less time to react, he caught the flying shield that followed right behind, the sharpened edge biting into his hand. His eyes shot wide as he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. He dropped the shield to the side and looked down at the stallion holding the mage form scimitar buried in his gut. Midnight let the construct dissipate and both he and William fell back, sitting in scorched dirt.
William pressed his hand to the wound, his breath coming in short, labored bursts. “I... I'm glad it was you... David. No shame... there.”
Midnight forced himself to his hooves and went to his old friend's side. “I'm sorry it came to this.”
“Don't be.” William eased himself back, laying down. “Just do me a favor... die an old man... surrounded by friends and family. Be the first... Mage Guard to ever do that.”
“I plan on it,” Midnight promised.
A smile crept onto William's face as the light faded from his eyes.
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The great beast circled overhead, raining lightning far more powerful than anything in nature. Several of the humans, seeing there was no chance of reaching the portal alive, scattered, running anywhere they thought would be safe.
Many ran toward the ponies and dropped to their knees, begging mercy. Seeing the beast above was ignoring them, the unicorns began weaving the intricate spells that would stifle their magic while earth ponies and pegasi restrained them.
“Traitors!” The ponies and humans turned to look at the source of the voice, the surviving Blood Guard. He seethed with dark energy, glaring at the group. “As the ranking officer, I sentence you all to dea-agh!” His rage vanished as a narrow, curved blade burst from his chest.
“You piece of shit. You'd kill your own men?”
He looked back at the orange pegasus, eyes wide in fear and confusion. “Y-you're dead.”
Scootaloo grinned maliciously. “I got better.”
In the blink of an eye, she pulled the sword from his torso and removed his head. The others stared in shock at who they thought they had lost. The first one to move was Redheart, her professionalism kicking in.
“Remove your armor,” she ordered. “I need to see the wound.”
“Uh...” Scootaloo suddenly became nervous. “I... I don't know if that's-”
“Now,” the nurse ordered. “I need to see what I'm doing.”
Scootaloo sighed and focused on her Element, willing it away. Redheart's brow furrowed in confusion as she examined the pegasus... not even finding a scratch.
“What..? Where's the wound?”
“It... uh... Healed?” Scootaloo ventured.
“How?”
“Um... I don't know.” Scootaloo could feel Applejack's glare on her.
Lucky for her, a roar took their attention away from her and back to the beast. They turned around to see its body start to glow as it hurtled toward the ground. It collided not a hundred yards from the group, vanishing and leaving a singed mass of cyan fur and feathers.
“Mom!” Scootaloo ran after her mother, followed closely by Applejack and Redheart.
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Twilight limped from the rubble, her head spinning as her brain felt like it was trying to force its way out through her horn. The mana potion had worn off as well and the crash from that promised the pain would last for close to an hour. The temporary loss of the ability to produce one's own mana was the reason those potions were rarely used.
She saw Midnight standing over the form of the Mage guard and picked up the pace. She immediately noticed the look of sorrow on his face. It didn't take long to guess why.
“You knew him, I take it?” she asked.
“He was a friend once.” Midnight looked up to his love. “Come on. Let's go before everyone shows up.”
“I hope you still have some fight in you, because I'm spent.”
Midnight chuckled. “I didn't realize I still had the bombs until you were already gone.”
“I was too scared to think. That guy was really Mage Guard, wasn't he?”
“Yeah. In a few hours, his body will burst into flame and the demon inside him will revert to a dagger, ready for the next host.” As the walked back, Midnight noticed something odd. “Why is it so quiet?”
Twilight looked around, listening for any sounds that indicated life. “I... I don't know. Do you think the explosion scared them away?”
“No,” Midnight said. “Something's wrong.”
The two made their way through the suddenly deserted facility, keeping ever vigilant for traps and ambushes. Eventually, they made it back to the gate room and stepped inside. What they saw was enough to make them both pale and cause Twilight's stomach to lurch.
“At least we know where everyone is,” Midnight said, trying to keep the disgust out of his voice.
“What... What could do... this? You can't even tell they were human.”
Every inch of the massive room was painted red with blood and gore. Intestine was strung up like streamers along the walls, while heads were lined up along the path to the gate, their mouths stuffed with their hearts.
Midnight was already setting the explosives. “I'm not completely sure, but let's not-”
“That’s not true. You know exactly who could do this,” said a deep, smooth voice. The color in Midnight's face seemed to drain away and his breath caught in his throat. The voice that still haunted his nightmares rang in his ears as he began to tremble. “Isn't that true, father?”