Chapter 35: AAH! IT’S GIANT MONSTER FIGHTING TIME!!!
A pony walked upon a path covered in shadow. Although Celestia’s sun was on its early way into the sky, it almost seemed as though the light purposely avoided the place. The pony on the path didn’t really care anyways; he wanted to be in the dark for now, as well as alone. His eyes looked downward at his hooves and an angry frown adorned his muzzle. It was as if he was just walking, not caring where the path took him.
“Stupid. Stupid friends, stupid city, stupid ponies, stupid everything,” he muttered to himself. He continued to walk down the path that seemed to lead nowhere, simply muttering to himself. Unfortunately he wasn’t fully watching where he was walking and his hoof caught a small cleft, and he ended up going face first into the dirt. As the small dust cloud he created settled, the pony let out a yell. If any creature had been around, they would have heard a mixture of anger and sadness as he rose to his hooves, bucking and swing wildly at the air.
“STUPID STUPID STUPID! It’s all their fault! All I was doing was trying to live my life and they ruined it!” he screamed, small rivulets of tears rolling down his face. “I should change?! Why the hell should I change? Everything I was doing was going great!” The pony stopped to breathe, his chest rapidly moving back and forth as he tried to control his breathing. Once he calmed down, he started to talk again.
“That was until that… freak! Stupid human just shows up and starts messing things up. Who does he think he is? I know though. He’s just an outsider messing in everypony’s business. What gives him the right? He… he’s the douchebag, that’s what he is.” The pony chuckled.
“Yeah it really sounds like it,” the pony froze as a voice came out of nowhere. In a panic, the pony looked around, finding himself in some sort of cave. It was dark, but it was like the darkness was an actual thing, not just the lack of lighting.
“Wh-who’s there?” the stallion stammered
“Well that’s a tough question to answer, but I think you should explain yourself first, since this is my cave after all.” The voice’s answer did nothing to calm the pony.
“Look, I don’t want any trouble. It was an accident I ended up here.” The stallion was too terrified to even move.
“Well I believe you on that. I believe it’s actually impossible for any being to be able to look for and find this place. But you weren’t looking, were you? Too preoccupied with something else on your mind, something that fills you with anger and hate. What if I told you I could help you with whatever your problem is?” The stallion froze again, but not out of fear. This time it was out of curiosity.
“Why would you want to help me?” the stallion wondered out loud.
“Boredom mostly, I can’t tell you how long it’s been since anything has been here,”
“Well…hypothetically speaking, if I wanted to take you up on your deal, how might I?” The stallion took a couple steps forward his fear subsiding as ideas ran through his head.
“Just come forward and you’ll see,” the voice said to the stallion as the darkness around him seemed to part as if it were water.
The stallion took several slow steps forward, his hooves making a very soft ‘clop’ as they touched the stone beneath him. It didn’t take him long to figure out what the voice was referring to. His eyes widened as he came upon a monolith of stone. It stretched from the floor to the ceiling of the cave, the darkness seemed to be coming from its cold pure black surface. The stallion felt his chest get tight as he looked at it, as if it was giving of some kind of energy that was making him uncomfortable, but it did nothing to stop his eyes from looking over every inch of the object. As his eyes adjusted to it he saw symbols, oh so many symbols that he had never seen before, they certainly weren’t written in Equish.
“It does have a nice look to it doesn’t it?” the voice snapped the stallion out of his trance. “And if you want some help to deal with whatever your problem is all you have to do is touch it, just set your hoof flat upon its surface,” The pony looked at the intimidating thing before him, he wasn’t acting mystified, this time he was studying it, thinking about the choice he could make and weighing out all his options.
“What’s the catch?” the stallion tried his best to sound tough.
“You shall only feel a small amount of pain for a small time. That is all, I promise,” the voice told the stallion. The stallion stood there for a time, thinking and thinking, he rubbed his hoof against his chin so much that his skin felt raw.
After minutes passed the stallion moved closer to the monolith and brought his hoof up. “Alright, I accept,” He said as his hoof came flat against the cool surface. Immediately the stallion felt energy coming off the rock and onto him. At first it was like getting struck with lighting, His body tensed as the energy surged quickly through him lighting up all his nerves, feeling like he was being shaken to the core. After a few seconds it passed and the stallion took deep breaths and noticed the pain was gone. He guessed the worst was over but then glanced to his hoof and noticed something was off. His hoof was still touching the monolith and he couldn’t move it. In fact, save for his neck, he couldn’t feel or move anything. It was then he noticed the heat, looking to where his hoof was there slowly started to glow a circle around where his hoof was.
“Wha-what’s going on?” He yelled, scared as the glow grew brighter and the heat hotter.
“Oh this? This is all part of the process, you freed me. Unfortunately ever since I was sealed here I lost and have forgotten my material form. Now being made out of darkness, hatred, and some various other things is cool but it’s not strong. No, to truly do what I want I need a body, and thankfully you are offering up yours,"
“B-but that’s not what we agreed!” the stallion began to panic, he watched as the glow no longer stayed on the monolith but started to crawl up his hoof. Not only that but the monolith itself started melting, dripping around him, and encircling him like the molten dripping had a mind of their own.
“We agreed that I would help you with your problem. But I have bigger ideas, I see a bigger picture than you do. Equestria is so big and fortunately I can use you to bring back a good amount of my power, so much hatred in that little head of yours. But I’ll tell you this, in my destruction and subjugation of Equestria it is most likely possible that I will fulfill you petty ambitions. I know it sounds like I tricked you, do you have anything to say about it?” The voice finished talking.
Unfortunately the stallion couldn’t respond, his body was slowly being encased by something he couldn’t figure out. And even if he could his mind was too preoccupied with his impending demise. Memories played out in his mind all the choices he made and everything he could have and should have done.
“Ek...ulg...uor...lk,” was the only noises he could make as tears slowly ran down his cheeks.
The voice chuckled as it behold the stallion’s last actions. “I’ll take that as a no,” it said before all the darkness and molten rock suddenly converged on the stallion.
______________________________________________________________________________
I stood there next to Twilight as we both looked at the mountain, I felt my pulse rise as I watched something slowly make its way out of the opening of the volcano in the distance. It was large and certainly looked like it didn’t want to make my day easier. After it escaped the mouth of the volcano it slowly started to make its way down, right in the direction of where we were standing.
“Dan?” Twilight’s voice broke me out of my trance at looking at the figure that looked like it was going to cross our path. Looking at her I could see she was worried but it was such a mix of things.
“Oh good looks like you’re the same way,” she said before she managed to smile a bit.
“What?”
“Your face, I can see that you’re worried but there’s more to it than that. I guess we’re thinking the same thing huh?” she said smiling like the usual unicorn I knew.
“I guess I’m that easy to read, huh?” I laughed even though something possibly evil made its way towards us. “What do you say that we go get, whatever that thing is, a welcome party ready?” I said making sure to give air quotes.
“But why...oh right, air quotes, I got it. I’ll go gather the girls and get the elements ready,”
“Send a letter to the princesses as well, if they don’t know about it already, I’d think it be a good idea to have some heavy firepower. And while you’re doing that I’ll take the squad and Titanus to head that thing off,” I told her as both of us quickly walked back into the tree house. Twilight grabbed some parchment and began to write while I assembled my armor and grabbed my dinosaur. Before I left I went over to Twilight and gave her a quick hug to comfort her.
I took to the sky, leaving Titanus to catch up. Jonagold met me outside of the barracks, I could hear a commotion on the inside, I guess everyone was prepping their gear.
“Guess you know about the explosion , the volcano, and the weird apparently evil being coming out of it and coming towards the town?”
“Wasn’t that hard not to know when you can see, hear and feel it,” Jona chuckled. “So you’re marefriend getting those the girls together and getting ready to blast whatever this thing is?”
“Yup I’m also calling in some heavy fire support from Canterlot. Not that I don’t think the Elements can’t handle it but…this seems different from the other evil things that attack Equestria.”
“I can understand that, I’ve never seen anything turn a mountain into a volcano either. Feeling nervous?”
“Just a little,” I said as the commotion on the inside stopped. I waited and watched as the door slammed open and the rest of the squad slowly made their way out and formed a line. When we were in the war games I didn’t get to see a great deal of everypony’s personal armor but now I could get a better look.
Swift’s was very traditional, armor plating that covered a good portion of her but allowed for flight and good maneuverability. Attached to her wings were two swords; one onyx black, and the other a very bright white.
Flintlock looked like patchwork, but with good reason. On every different piece of him was something that looked like he could put together into some kind of explosive. He kept looking himself over, making sure that he had everything.
Shadow came out wearing a robe and hood, I thought it weird but as he got closer i saw there was a bit more to it. Chainmail lined a good bit of the outside and some plating covered his legs. Maybe it was hard to see it from a distance since the glaive strapped to his back did grab attention first.
Everyone else came out in the same fashion. Storm Breaker with his bow and additional crossbow. Shadow Dancer Came out in a cloak, stealth being his game I didn’t want to say that it might not hold up against a monster that was possibly made out of part lava. Lore Keeper came out with various scrolls and magic accessories attached to him, I could literally feel the power from some of them; having magic could be weird sometimes. Red Star’s armor looked like it was collecting energy with all these glowing red ports on it. Flash Bang had found a way to seal his name sake spell in some vials, and after tampering with a crossbow he basically invented Equestria’s first flash bang grenade and grenade launcher; if I got out of this I would have to talk to him about it. Scribble Page was the last out, All the way back when we were both in Canterlot, Swift had told him that he needed to work on his strength and he had taken that to heart. He had bulked up quite a bit, And while Lore Keeper was busy with the magic scrolls Scribble took it upon himself to borrow his Claymore.
Everypony lined up and stood still at attention, I stood slightly off to the side as Jonagold checked them all out. After he was done he walked back over to me and gave a slight nod, I took that as my cue to begin.
“Alright everyone, as you know early this morning, something decided to take this nice peaceful day and turn it on its head. As of right now some unknown entity is coming down from its newly created volcano home and headed in this general direction. Our mission at the moment is to be the welcome wagon. We are to intercept it, and find out if it hostile,”
“And if it is hostile?” Swift asked as Titanus’ loud foots signaled his arrival.
“Well that’s the reason I brought some heavy artillery. If the entity proves hostile till the elements as well as the Princesses arrive. This is strictly defense everybody. I do not want anybody taking any unnecessary risks. Is that understood?” I asked and was met with a bunch of head nods. “Alright then, let’s move out!” and with that well all headed to the outskirt of the town in the direction of where whatever it was should be coming towards us.
We all stood there in a field outside of Ponyville, our eyes on the Everfree Forest, and the smoke rising from it in the distance. Slowly the noises began to grow louder, and a shape began to become clearer. I could feel my hand shaking slightly, I kept flexing it as I tried to steady myself.
“Nervous?” I jumped slightly As Jonagold came up on my side and asked.
“That apparent?”
“You’re the only thing I know personally with hands, so it’s easier to notice when you’re doing so much with them,”
“Huh never thought about it that way. Well I guess I am, never been in a fight like this,”
“You lead troops before,”
“Yeah but there was no possibility of death then,”
“What about in the Coliseum?”
“Different kind of circumstances, though I can see your point. Guess I’m just hoping that Twilight, the girls, and the Princesses get here quick,”
“You think we can’t handle whatever’s coming?”
“I think we can handle it for a while, but defeat it? It literally blew the top off a mountain, even with Titanus I don’t think we can bring it down,”
“Nice to know you’re not under or overestimating us and yourself,” Swift dropped in between the two of us and pointed ahead of us. “I think it’s time we test your estimate, heads up,”
In my conversation I had barely noticed that our target had finally come into full view and was at the border of the forest. If I wasn’t trying to keep it together at the moment I think I would have let my jaw drop.
It was about as tall as the trees; those it hadn’t crushed or burned down on its way here. From what I could make out it looked very much like a centaur, body of a horse, torso of a human or minotaur, but it’s head was more like a pony’s or horse’s. but that’s where the similarities stopped. It’s “skin” if I could call it that seemed to mix and swirl. From what I could see on it, it looked to be combined of lava, rock, darkness, and something else I couldn’t identify. Besides its normal centaur like shape, tentacles waved in all directions from practically all parts of its body.
I looked at it’s head and as the colors of it’s skin moved and changed I noticed two things which I could only guess were its eyes. I watched as they slowly looked around and then either locked onto me or the place where I was standing.
“Oh good finally some of the local populace…And something else?” it said slowly taking a couple of steps towards us. “Haven’t seen one of you before but you seem very familiar…oh you were the thing that he was talking about!” it pointed at me as it talked, making me feel kinda nervous.
“OK that’s definitely not what I expect to hear. Identify yourself!” I was caught off guard at first but tried to sound serious in front of this intimidating creature.
“Ah, well I do have a name, but it has been so long I don’t know if it still strikes fear into the hearts of mortals or not,” I really didn't like the sound of that sentence. “Tell me little ponies, Does the name Tirek still inspire fear in your souls?”
Taking a quick glance I saw Jonagold and Lore lock up, their eyes wide with fear. The others seemed to notice this and shifted in their stances slightly. I looked back at the creature, at least now I knew his name, maybe the princesses would recognize him.
“Well at least I haven’t been completely forgotten, that means it will be easier to terrify all the creatures, all those who remember will be terrified again and I can terrify new mortals. Oh the fun I’m going to have,” he chuckled to himself.
“And what makes you think we are going to allow you to do that,” I said trying to seem intimidating to something much bigger than me.
“Oh are you the first line of defense? I had hoped you were worshippers of mine…then again I can’t really recall if I ever had any of those. The memories of the pony I took are still in the way a little bit, for some reason it has to do with you,” he pointed at me not with his hands but with every single tentacle that was coming out of him, I didn’t take that as a good sign.
“What is that supposed to mean?” my heart raced a bit, I didn’t like the fact that numerous tentacles were still pointed at me.
“Oh you shouldn’t worry about that, there’s nothing you can do about that. And I hate to sound cliché, but what you should really be worried about. IS THIS!!!” three tentacles launched forward with a good amount of speed.
I dodged right to avoid the first and a quick left hook sent the second tentacle crashing to my right. I jumped over the last tentacle and on the way down I grabbed my sword and impaled it through the tentacle into the ground. “Alpha squad, LIGHT HIM UP!” I shouted glaring at Tirek.
Flash Bang reacted first, horn glowing white a spell shot out towards Tirek, not knowing what to make of it and not appearing to be threatened by it he just stood there. When the spell reached inches from his face it went off. From behind my helmet I could get a better view without blinding myself. A magnificently bright explosion happened. Tirek reeled back from it his arms and a few tentacles waving in multiple directions Storm Breaker shot next, letting loose a couple of arrows from his bow, they moved fast, some of them hitting the tentacles waving around wildly. Seconds after finding their mark they exploded with magic energy.
“WHY YOU IMPUDENT...!” Tirek bellowed, his tentacles stopped waving and pointed themselves at us.
“Jona, Swift, Scribble, Shadow’s on me! Hold the line!” I pulled my sword from the tentacle and watched it slither back before I raised my sword. I sidestepped one that came straight at me and sliced into it with my sword, I wasn’t sure if it even hurt Tirek seeing as how chopping into these tentacles didn’t seem to faze him. As I battled the one in front of me a shadow fell over me, I jumped away leaving my sword stuck. Another shadow fell on me but before I could react I heard a whoosh above me, Swift flew over my head and with a particularly hard flap the swords extended slightly off her wings, with her speed they easily started cutting through the tentacles as she flew circles around it.
While Swift attacked the tentacles in the sky and Jonagold, Scribble, and I were shoulder to shoulder, taking a shot at anything that came our way. Both Shadow Dancer and Shadow Flame were on both flanks watching and attacking any tentacles that went wide.
“Gah it’s like there’s no end to these things!” Scribble yelled as he brought the claymore down on another tentacle.
“Yeah and being made of lava doesn’t do us any favors either,” I punched a tentacle, my magic giving me some protection from the lava.
“ARGH!” I heard Jona scream behind me. Looking over I saw him kneeling clutching one of his hooves while a a tentacle aimed to impale him.
“JONA!” I blasted the tentacle, managing to basically disintegrate part of it. Rushing over managed to throw him over my shoulder. Using one hand to hold him and the other to keep blasting anything that came my way I shouted to everyone “Alright everybody fall back! LORE! Set up a shield on the double!” I kept looking between him and the tentacles.
“Dammit Sonofa- that really freaking hurts!” Jona growled. “One of those freaking things caught my leg, could feel the armor melting around my hoof, glad I managed to pull it out or I would been in more trouble than these damn burns. Thanks for the save Dan,” he said as we got closer to everyone else.
“No problem, you would have done the same for me,” I said placing him down on the ground. “Lore where are we on that shield?” I said as I saw the tentacles group up and head for us.
“Just one more and… got it!” he finished doing something with a scroll and energy exploded outward in a bubble. The tentacles hit it and bounced off, not able to get through as it kept expanding until it covered Titanus.
“Oh so you have some tricks up your sleeve?” Tirek seemed impressed but I really wasn’t devoting any attention as to if he was being sarcastic or not.
“Lore how long will this hold?” I asked.
“A couple minutes at most if nothing too bad happens. We can get out and shoot from in here but nothing he shoots should be able to get in.” Lore answered as we both watched Tirek take a couple of whacks at the shield and even drop lava on it. I sighed inwardly as I watched it fall down the shield.
“Well…I was hoping to use this of enemies of higher caliber,” I heard Tirek growl. “But since you put up a nice defense allow me show off a little offense,” he said as all his tentacles formed a half circle around him. Slowly little black balls began to from near the tip of each tentacle.
“Oh that does not look good,” Flintlock stated the obvious.
“Titanus,” I got his attention. “Get ready to fire on my word ok?” he responded with his usual slow nod, his eyes narrowing as he went back to watching Tirek.
The monster stuck his hands out, the dark balls of energy slowly moving and gathering where his hands were placed. Each orb melded together into a bigger one which doubled in size every time. “You should feel proud that you’ve made me at least this serious, I only use attacks like this on much more powerful foes,”
Time seemed to slow down as I focused on him, his hands move back and I can feel myself tense up. My lips purse, ready to issue an order. I have to time it perfectly or we are going to be in a ton of trouble. His hands and arm extend and I barely see the energy in his hands flux before I shout.
“TITANUS NOW!!!” The ancient hears me, shoulder cannons already primed. I heard it before I could see it, but it was so good to see two huge twin burst of red energy fly over my head towards the attack coming at us.
I hit the ground hard on my back, I didn’t move for awhile as I lay there coughing. I opened my eyes to pretty much nothing but dust. I slowly got up making sure that I wasn’t injured. I made out a large shadow in the dust, the long protrusion making me think it was Titanus.
“Titanus, that you boy?” I called out, receiving a low roar, or groan, I wasn’t sure.
“Why are you asking about the heavily armored giant dinosaur and not us fragile little ponies?” Swift voice came from in front of me. After a couple of steps I found the Pegasus slowly getting to her feet.
“Because you hate it when I make you seem weak. Is everybody else ok?” I heard groans coming from all different directions, I could start making out ponies easier as the dust settled.
“Well I don’t expect that to last really,” Tirek voice sounded like it came from right behind me. I jumped up and spun around, only to see a tentacle inches from me. It slammed into my chest. For the few seconds it touched me I could the intense heat from it spreading across my chest piece. The heat let off as I flew backwards. I hit what I could only guess was Titanus and crumpled into an upright position.
“DAN!” I could hear multiple shouts and the sounds of hooves coming towards me.
“Jarvis report,” I coughed taking a couple of strained deep breaths.
“Armor is at thirty five percent sir. I would advise not taking another hit like that, otherwise the armor will be structurally compromised,” the voice told me as I massaged my aching neck.
“Advised and noted, just try to keep it together for now,” I said looking up, most of the squad was around me and Tirek was slowly advancing, arms cross and I can only assume a smug grin on his face.
“Well now this is much easier, I’ve got all of you together. Much easier to get rid of you this way. Did you pathetic little ponies and…whatever you are, honestly think you had a chance of defeating me?” I looked up into his face, trying to think of some kind of plan to make sure we all didn’t die here and noticed a couple of dots in the sky.
Normally I would have tried to play it off with a poker face, but this time I couldn’t keep it in. I smiled and started chuckling which soon turned into loud laughter.
“Oh well it looks like one of you has finally lost their mind, I was wondering if I could still cause people to do that,”
“No that’s not it,” I shook my head at him catching my breath a little. “Who ever said that we were here to defeat you? Sure wasn’t me. We’re just the first line of defense, the guys and gals holding you here while the heavy artillery arrives,”
“Oh really? And just when exactly is your 'heavy artillery' going to arrive?” he said right before a large ring on light blue magic lassoed around his torso.
Seeing the surprised look on his face I just smirked and said “About now, thanks for letting us distract you,” As they got a bit closer I could see Cadence whose magic was holding Tirek whip her head backwards. Tirek was pulled off his feet with force into the air with.
I watched, slightly in awe as he sailed up into the air, and then with a simple twist Cadence flung him down into the ground. He hit the ground with an impact of a small explosion. Dust and bits of earth flew off in every direction.
Tirek Slowly got to his feet as Luna and Celestia reached over head, the aura around their horns instead of being their usual transparent were solid. In a show of power each fired at Tirek. Two beams descended from the sky. One yellow and the other blue hit tirek and bombarded him with their power. The wind and pressure were so great that I put my hand in front of my face to block some of it, until a magic shield of a familiar color materialized in front of us.
“Dan!” I heard Twilight call. She came running up with the rest of the girls and her brother; his magic providing the shield.
“Oh hey nice of you guys to show up,” I said as Twilight hugged me. In the few seconds of peace we had, Applejack checked on her dad, Rainbow Dash checked on Swift, Pinkie gave Flintlock a snack and Fluttershy helped get Titanus back on his feet.
“So the princesses look like they are going all out here,” I said watching as the beams of energy kept pummeling Tirek into a crater.
“Yeah you should have seen it in Canterlot, I was there when they sensed his power. I’ve seen them look down ruthless griffon ambassadors and dignitaries while still giving those calm smiles and never ever flinching. But boy when they felt this guy’s magic I saw surprise and then pure anger, even scared me for a second,” He told me as Celestia, Luna, and Cadence landed after the beams had finished. I simply stood there and thought about it for a second before nodding. “What, no smart comeback?”
“Not after that light show. They must really hate this Tirek guy...thing…monster,” I responded keeping my eyes on the princess until I felt two hooves yank my face down.
“Did you say TIREK!” my eyes were met with Twilight’s as she basically shouted at me.
“Um that’s what he said his name was…exactly how bad is he?”
“How bad? HOW BAD!?! On a scale of one to ten of evil he’s a perfect ten I’m surprised you guys aren’t hurt more. I mean I know you guys are well trained but this guy makes Discord look nice by comparison!” Twilight rambled as she checked me for any injuries I might have somehow missed.
“Hmm maybe that’s why Celestia and Luna are so serious at the moment,”
Oh you haven’t even begun to see serious yet Dan,” Cadence said as Shining opened up an entrance in his shield for her. “If you thought your fight with her was anything just watch,” she said motioning two the two Alicorn standing near the crater, watching as Tirek black form slowly made it way out.
“You had a fight with the princess?” Twilight asked in a hushed tone.
“It was during our whole 'I’m in love with you but don’t know how to say it' thing, I was in the guard and apparently it’s a mandatory initiation,”
“Well I hope you didn’t hurt her,”
“Hurt her! She literally pushed me into the ground! Six times! In a row! It was me you should be worried about in that kind of situation, did you even see that attack her and Luna did? I don’t think you have to worry about them,” my whispering got loud as I tried to make my point that Princess Celestia was a grown mare and could definitely defend herself.
“Shhh you two it’s about to start,” Cadence shushed us as Tirek finally regained his composure.
“Ah to be hit with such a strong attack like that. Filled with intent to obliterate and destroy,” he said eyes closed with a smile on his face. “It’s been so long Luna, Celestia,” his eyes opened but they were not the black that I had seen. Purple and white swirled in a way I couldn’t described. It was what like what happened when a shark attacked its prey.
“Don’t act all pleasant you demon, we sealed you all those years ago, how did you escape?” Luna shouted at him, clearly in no mood for pleasantries from the enemy. Celestia on the other hand stood still. I could feel a pressure emanating from her.
“Escape…well I really wouldn’t call it an escape. I mean I was set free…by one of your little ponies, even,” he said smiling, trying to get a rise out of either of the two rulers. Neither of them budged at his attempt. “It was weird knowing how you enchanted my seal so that anyone searching for it could never find it, but he wasn’t. Apparently he was just walking thinking to himself, probably for quite a long time. So I told him that if he released me I would help him with his problems. It’s still a bit fuzzy but going through his memories I believe that thing over there was the cause of most of his problems, something about calling him a “douchebag” or something,”
I’ve never felt any stiffer than I did right then. Immediately memories clicked into place. My breathing became ragged as I glanced at Swift wide eyed, she looked at me the same way I was looking at her.
“So I spoon fed him that and let him think about it for a bit and what do you know he bought it. I felt so glad when I consumed him that I knew that I could still lie though my teeth. You know-“
“What do you mean by consume?” Celestia broke her statue like pose to ask a question.
“Well as you probably remember, when you sealed me with the Elements of Harmony you basically turned my body into an ethereal energy that couldn’t wreak havoc on anything. So when the poor sap broke my seal I needed a way to become…tangible so we say? So I took him and broke him down. I used his mortal body to create this shell you see before you, it’s a bit thin but I made the best with the little I had to work with. I used his life force to bind my new from together, well at least what was left of it…I think scaring him while I slowly took over him wasted a bit of it. And then finally once I was ready I took his soul and...” He glanced back at the volcano. “Well it’s kind of obvious what I did there,” his evil grin turned into a malicious snarl.
Most of us stood motionless, taking in his words and trying to think of something to be our next move. Thankfully for us all Celestia had already decided. Six blasts of magic fired from her horn faster than I could see. All of them hit Tirek and stopped binding him in place. It was just a brief moment in time after they hit him but before he tried to free himself Celestia charged. With a flash of magic she summoned what I could only assume was her personal weapon, when I was with the guard in Canterlot I had heard rumors but that actuality of it barely did it justice. It was a huge Mace, large enough to squash anything Celestia sized. A golden ball with silver spikes attached to a white staff, it certainly reminded me about how Celestia could be sometimes, especially with the nobles, blunt with just a little threat of stinging. She galloped up to Tirek and with a quick spin on her hooves slammed her weapon face first into him.
“HOW DARE YOU!” her rage was apparent in every way it could. Her voice was louder than Luna’s Royal Canterlot Voice, Her mane changing from it’s soft rainbow colors to violent reds and oranges, and her eyes literally looked like they were on or made of fire. She continued swinging her Mace at Tirek who managed to shake of the first hit faster than I thought.
“Well it looks like the fun has started,” Luna said as she shouldered her own weapon, a large crescent blade as white as the moon.
“Where did that come from?” I asked staring at my reflection in the blade.
“I brought it out while you were busy watching the beginning of my sister’s rampage,” she told me before turning to speak to everyone. “Now here’s our plan of attack. My sister and I will deal with Tirek, the more damage we cause the easier it will be to seal him again. Shining, Cadence, you will be the second line of defense, shut down any attacks that get past us. Twilight, you and the other elements will wait for the opportunity to strike. Alpha squad I want you on long range attacks only, now that Tirek has some more powerful opponents; no offense, his attacks will become more destructive stay within range of Princess Cadence and Prince Armor. Is that understood everyone?” Everyone nodded and moved into their positions.
The next couple minutes were intense, Luna, Celestia, and Tirek fought on a scale most of us could only stare in awe at. The very world around us shook as their energies clashed. That wasn’t to say Tirek was only getting hit by their attacks.. All of us that could, threw everything we had at the demon, some of us literally. Every once and awhile I would look behind me, Twilight and the girls stood as they normally did, the white glow of the Elements shining around them.
I don’t know exactly how long we had been fighting but out of the blue I noticed something. We were winning, Tirek was taking many attacks, his movement was almost non-existent. Now I knew he wasn’t slow, he should be able to at least dodge better than he had been.
“What are you up to?” I murmured to myself. Unable to get rid of this gut feeling I dropped back closer to the girls.
I watched as Tirek went down onto his side, Celestia and Luna moving back from him a bit as they each took some deep breaths.
“Now girls, seal him away again!” Celestia shouted, her eyes never leaving her enemy.
On Celestia’s command Twilight and the girls slowly rose into the air, their eyes white and that was when I saw it. His tentacles, he had used them against Celestia and Luna but not to the extent he had with us, it seemed like some of them weren’t being controlled as well as they should have. If he wanted to try something with one of them he would have to reduce his movement so as not to make it obvious and keep it hidden.
“Twilight!” I turned and ran towards them as Tirke made his move. A tentacle burst from under the ground right next to the girls, immediately making. a beeline straight for them. The light of the Elements faded as the girls noticed the attack.
“Oh no you don’t!” I screamed managing to get in front of the tentacle and grabbing hold of it. My feet dug into the ground as it used its force to push me back.
“Thanks for the save Sugarcube,” Applejack said as the girls moved away from where I was holding the tentacle at bay.
“UGH! I can see why that pathetic pony didn’t like you, creature. You just keep getting in the WAY!” Tirek said shifting his form down and pushing some of his power into the tentacle. Once again time slowed down as I watched it happen. The small flux of energy ran up from the ground and up right to where my hands held the tentacle, the force lessened the grip I had and…
I can’t…I can’t think, my mind is blank. What is happening is on a different level from anything I’ve ever felt. Every muscle in my body is tensed, my teeth are ground together, moving any part of my body seems impossible. There’s heat coming from my chest, it burns but at the same time it feels wet. I can’t breathe, every time I try to take a breath my body locks up. Somehow I’m able to move my neck, lowering my head. I open my mouth and nothing comes out but croaks as I my vision confirms a fear from the back of my mind. I’m impaled, there’s something going through my chest and out the other side.
My hearing doesn’t seem to be working right, there are noises but it’s hard to differentiate. I can’t tell what it is though but out of one of the noises one is clearer than the others, it takes what seems like an eternity but I finally hear it. Someone is screaming, and they’re screaming my name. That voice, it’s Twilight.
“DAN!!!”