War Heart saw the large creature before him.
It was a minotaur, now grey skinned like the other creatures. It was still a massive beast and looked as strong as it normally would be. War Heart could see the green glow in its eyes. At the moment it was facing War Heart. It chewed the flesh of its latest victim. The fingertips of the minotaur had the skin flayed off and the digits of the bones looked sharpened. It only stared at War Heart with a confused expression. War Heart walked towards it, glaring as he did so.
The creature rose from its prey and walked towards War Heart, towering over him.
War Heart looked up at him, showing not even a hint of fear in his expression. The minotaur stared down at War Heart still, motionless as they were face to face.
The rest of the party froze and waited for something to happen, wondering why such a standoff had come to pass.
War Heart cracked his neck and threw his axe aside. He proceeded to crack his knuckles. War Heart backed up slowly, the minotaur only watched as he did so. War Heart then leapt into the air, using his wings to give him a boost and land a kick in the minotaur’s face.
The beast stumbled back slightly, clutching its nose from the blow. It roared at War Heart as it charged at him.
War Heart readied himself to dodge the incoming giant, then dived to his right. He narrowly avoided being gored by the minotaur. He jumped onto its back and wrapped one of his arms around its neck, holding on as he punched at the back of its head. While War Heart was doing this he saw a small glimmer of green light trail off from the beast, it led away at an incline. It disappeared as quickly as he noticed it and War Heart soon felt a giant hand grab him and throw him into a nearby building, the impact knocking the wind out of him. He gasped for air as he sat on the ground against the now broken brick wall.
The minotaur trudged towards War Heart, ready to deliver a devastating kick to his opponent. He rose his leg and forced it towards War Heart, a cloud of dust coming from the newly created rubble of the wall.
As the dust cleared it was clear that the creature had taken down half the wall, and that War Heart had apparently dodged to his left by only a foot. War Heart then bull rushed the beast, forcing it to lose balance and fall to the ground with a great crash. He jumped onto it and started punching it in the face. Only able to get a few hits in before being swatted away by the creature’s massive arms. War Heart rolled for a few feet before regaining his stance. He spotted the green glowing string again, “What is that…?”
The Minotaur rose to a standing position, going over to the wall and grabbed a large piece of rubble that was as big as War Heart, and held it above its head. He then hurled it at War Heart.
He was surprised that the minotaur had thrown rubble that size at him. In a flash of instinct he decided to try to break through it, knowing it would hit the party if he dodges it. He wound back his arm and punched into the wall that flew at him as hard as he could, seeing the same green glow pour that he saw in these creatures’ eyes now pouring out of his arm. As the wall and his fist made contact, the wall cracked and shattered off of him.
The rest of the party just watched in wide-eyed awe as he destroyed the massive projectile. They all knew that was far beyond the physical limits of normal people.
War Heart stood there panting, somewhat startled by the fact he showed such power. He then winced as he felt a sharp pain flash throughout his entire arm. He couldn’t bear to move it as the bones cracked as he tried to do so. He cradled his arm and watched as the minotaur walked towards him. The minotaur raised its leg, preparing to stomp War Heart into the pavement. War Heart looked away, preparing himself for the hit.
To his surprise, he did not feel a thing. He looked back to see Sweetie Belle with the Minotaur’s hoof in her grasp, struggling to hold against the pressure, “I require assistance.”, Sweetie Belle announced to her comrades.
Scootaloo was already rushing towards the battle, in a hurry to help out. As she drew closer to the minotaur she jumped into the air and landed on the Beast’s face. The impact caused the creature to stumble backwards, taking the pressure off Sweetie. Scoot then crouched and kicked off of the beast, performing an aerial backflip and landing on the ground again.
Apple Bloom ran towards Sweetie Belle, nodding at her while she approached. Sweetie Belle crouched and interlocked her fingers, making a place for Apple Bloom to step onto. Apple Bloom ran up to Sweetie Belle, stepping onto her hands and let herself be thrown into the air by her. She flew through the air towards the minotaur that was on the ground. She landed on top of it and began to punch it in the face repeatedly.
The minotaur took a few of the hits before batting Apple Bloom away, sending her rolling a few feet away unconscious.
Scoot watched her friend take the massive hit to the head, “Apple Bloom!”, she shouted in concern for her friend. She then glared at the minotaur that was picking itself up off the ground, “Big mistake…”, she threatened as she equipped her knives.
Sweetie Belle looked to Apple Bloom and then back to the minotaur, “Threat Level Escalated, Entering level 2. Calculating new attack protocols…”, she droned on in her digital monotone. Her eyes glowed red, “Attack Protocol Sequences Complete. Initiate Attack Protocol 127.”, she announced in a deeper voice than usual as she sprinted towards the beast, faster than she has before. She leaped at the minotaur, landing on its shoulders and grabbing it by the horns.
The minotaur grabbed Sweetie and attempted to pull her off, but to no avail.
Sweetie snapped of the horns of the minotaur with a sickening crack. She jumped off the beast and dove underneath it, rolling behind it. She then jumped onto its back, stabbing its horns into it. She climbed on top of the beast and started pulling its jaws open. It roared as she started to break its jaw, making futile attempts to shut its mouth. She snapped its jaw open and jammed her arm down its throat, silencing it as its larynx was torn out by Sweetie. She squished the organ in her hand and tossed it aside. She then hung on the beast by holding its jaw and thrust her arm into its chest, she pulled out a black glob which one would assume would be a heart. Sweetie kicked away from the beast, taking its jaw with her. She landed in front of it, waiting for its next move.
Scootaloo was busy pulling Apple Bloom away, knowing Sweetie Belle can take care of herself.
The minotaur writhed in agony, choking on the black ooze that poured from its wounds. It fell to its knees in front of Sweetie.
Sweetie walked to its back and yanked out one of its horns that she stabbed into it. She kicked out its leg and stomped on the back of its knee, shattering the bones. She walked back to its head and jammed the horn into the top of its skull, making a cracking noise as she drove it into its brain and pierced its cranium. She stomped on the horn, forcing it to have a last full body twitch in its now inanimate state, “Enemy Nullified. Reducing Threat Levels. Disengage Combat Protocols.”, Sweetie announced as her voice went back to its regular tone and her eyes back to their original colour. She turned around and walked to War Heart, who was eyeing her rather oddly. She walked past him and rejoined the group.
War Heart stood up and looked at the now inanimate minotaur. He watched as the green glow poured out of its eyes and into him. He breathed deeply as the strange feeling passed. He turned to the party to see Cura looking after Apple Bloom. He trudged towards them, still cradling his broken arm. He walked over to Cura, “Is she okay?”
Cura was using her magic to examine Apple Bloom’s wounds, “Minor Damage. I think she took a hit to the head but nothing fatal…”, she turned to War Heart. She noticed he was cradling his arm, “So I see you finally pushed yourself a little too far…”, she motioned for him to kneel. He did as she wanted, allowing her to shift his bones back into place and heal them. She shook her head at him, “I didn’t think you could pull off smashing through something like that at all. You’re lucky you didn’t have it worse.”
War Heart moved his hand around, it didn’t hurt anymore, “Thanks, Cura.”
Cura nodded at him and smiled, “Anytime, War Heart.”
War Heart looked down at unconscious Apple Bloom, “What do we do about her?”
Sweetie Belle stepped forward, “I will carry her while we travel.”
War Heart nodded, “All right, I’m confident you can handle that.”, he turned away and went to go fetch his axe. He saw a glimmer of green in the air, almost like a faint trail. He rubbed his chin and thought on it, “We’re going this way!”, he announced to the party as they all started to move towards him. Sweetie Belle dropped the minotaurs jaw and picked up Apple Bloom and started piggy-backing her. Some of the others walked while pulling sleds while others just walked along and conversed.
Cura walked along next to Vinyl and Octavia. She saw this as her chance to finally talk to her about Riff, “Miss Scratch, I was wondering if I could ask you about Riff.”
Vinyl looked over to her, “Just call me Vinyl, and go ahead.”
“I’m curious about that ability of his. I heard music as he was trying to comfort you the other night. I noticed that nobody else seemed to hear it.”, Cura stated.
“I’m not hearing a question in there.”, Vinyl replied.
“Can he only project his thoughts to other Glows?”
Vinyl looked up to the sky and thought about it, “I think so, I don’t really know. I do know that I can hear it, though.”
“Alright, and just out of personal curiosity: Does he take any medication or use any sort of-”
“Drugs? Nah, that isn’t the way he is. I’ve known him for a long time.”
“Are you two close?”
“I see him as more of a big brother more than anything. He just isn’t interested in any romance. He only wants to chill out with everyone. At one point I did crush on him but that ship has passed.”
Cura nodded, “Thank you for answering my questions.”
“No problem, Doc.”
As they were all walking down the street Riff actually had his eyes open while walking. He stopped suddenly and just stood there.
Spectre noticed Riff stopped walking and looked back to him, “What’s the hold up, Riff?”
He pointed to the stop sign on the corner, “I’m waiting for the stop sign to change…”
Spectre covered her face with her hand, “Damn it, Riff… You’re such an idiot…”, she said as she walked over and pulled him along.
Riff walked next to Spectre. He looked at her, “Hey, Rose…”, he spoke in his spacey tone.
Spectre inhaled deeply in irritation, “Riff… I’ve told you a thousand times, I do not want to be called that…”
“Oh… Sorry…”, he apologised and looked off in a different direction. He looked back, “You play guitar, right, Rose?”
Spectre clenched her teeth in anger, “Yes, Riff, I play guitar…”
“Okay…”, Riff moved his hands into a position as if he was holding a guitar. His veins started to glow as he pretended to play an invisible guitar. He heard the music play in his head.
Spectre looked at Riff oddly, “What are you doing, Riff?”
Riff was either ignoring her or couldn’t hear.
Vinyl shouted back to them, “Nice music, Riff!”
Cura could hear the music in her head as she walked next to Vinyl, “Does he do this often?”
Vinyl smiled and nodded, “Yeah, great isn’t it?”
“I suppose, it isn’t my type of music.”
War Heart started having a piercing headache, not knowing the reason. He tried shrugging it off, not allowing himself to be hindered by such things. He continued to follow the faint flickering of green and lead the party to wherever it was going. As he turned a corner, he witnessed the central square of Manehattan.
The central square used to be a large plaza with a large lawn. It was now a barren and dead area filled with bodies of the dead. There stood a person in a black hood and robe in the center of the square.
War Heart motioned for everyone to stop, they all obeyed. He turned to them, “I’m going to scout out ahead… You all take a break.”, he ordered as he walked into the central square. He started to notice the green flickering was brighter here. He looked to the hooded person and saw that their entire body was glowing green and the flickering was leading to them. The hooded one turned to War Heart.
“So our champion finds us at last…”, it was a man with green glowing veins that lit up the inside of his hood. He removed his hood to reveal his messy purple hair and his deep purple eyes, “I suppose you don’t know what I am talking about though… So much potential and it is all lost because somebody’s meddling in our plans.”, he spoke to War Heart in a lifeless dull monotone.
“Who are you?”, War Heart asked, being only ten feet away.
“My name is not of any concern…”, he replied with his blank stare.
“Are you behind this?”, War Heart motioned to the destroyed area.
“This area… Yes… Why?”
“Because I’m here to gather the survivors… But now I’m starting to think I should just kill you and stop this mess altogether…”, War Heart pointed his axe towards the purple haired man.
The man looked to the sky with a curious look on his face, “I don’t think you can… My powers are most likely above yours… I have been watching you for the entire time you have been here… My dozens of eyes following your every move…”
“I was wondering why the creatures don’t attack me on sight… Why is that?”, War Heart questioned.
“You are one of them… They are not the most intelligent of creatures, making them very obedient…”, he looked straight at War Heart, “Unfortunately for us, You have returned on the other side of this conflict. It seems that since you retained your higher brain functions, we cannot control you. We shall eliminate you.”
War Heart smirked, “I’d like to see you try.”
The man looked at War Heart’s feet, skeletal hands bursting from the earth and grabbing War Heart, tripping him. As War Heart fell to the ground, the bodies around the square rose from their resting place on the ground. The desiccated corpses walked over to War Heart and the Ancient one. The man opened up his robe to reveal armor made from yellowed bones, “I am master of bones. One of the dead masters…”, he announced as he backed away from War Heart.
War Heart yanked his legs out of the grasp of the skeletal hands. He was attacked by one of the animated corpses, it snarled as it tried to claw at him. War Heart swung his axe at it, catching it in the face, taking out its right eye and its nose.
The creature stumbled back from the hit and then screamed at War Heart. Another creature jumped at War Heart from behind, biting into his neck.
War Heart winced as he felt the teeth sink into his flesh. He jabbed the head of his axe into its face and made it release him before chopping into its skull. He then turned around to take care of the other one, to find its face had healed. He didn’t think twice before bashing the back end of his axe into its face, making a crunching sound on impact. He kicked it over and stomped on its head, its skull crumbling under the pressure. War Heart smirked at his victory, then looked up and realized he was surrounded by many of the Ghouls, as he had now decided to call them. The bite on his neck healed over as the green glow from the Ghouls he had just killed floated into his body.
The Ancient One looked at him curiously, “I see you are able to tap into the dead magic…”
War Heart was busy fighting the ghouls to notice the Ancient One speaking. He continued to brutalise them only to find their numbers were bordering on endless. He stopped for a moment and knew it was hopeless to keep fighting the hordes. He turned to the Ancient One, “Are we going to keep wasting each other’s time? Or are you going to fight me yourself?!”
The Ancient One rose an eyebrow at War Heart’s statement, “Very well… I shall fight you myself…”, he nodded at War Heart. Two of the ghouls walked over to him. He grabbed their faces and they had full body spasms as bones seeped out of their skin and covered the Ancient One. The new bones gave him a thick coat of armor. He also combined the two spines into a long whip while using some ribs to make a claw on his other hand.
War Heart took a deep breath, readying himself to take on the Ancient One. He started running towards him only to trip after his first step. War Heart looked down to see a skeletal hand gripping his leg. He rolled his eyes and pulled his leg out of its clutches. He looked up to see the spine whip snap at him. He rolled out of the way and watched it punch into the dirt. ‘That was close…’ he thought to himself before standing up.
The Ancient One pulled his spine whip back towards him, still keeping his neutral expression in the light of his failure. He awaited War Heart’s next move.
War Heart stood there watching the Ancient One, ‘Okay… If I run at him, he’ll just trip me with those skeleton hands…’, War Heart had a sudden flash of insight and then leapt into the air, taking flight. He smirked as the Ancient One just stared at him, ‘Heh… can’t get me up he-’, War Heart’s thought was interrupted by him suddenly being attacked by the extended spine whip snapping at him. It whipped through the air, War Heart narrowly avoiding it. He dove down towards, attempting to get around to the spinal whip. He found himself entangled and swung down to the ground by the whip, crashing into the dirt with tremendous force. War Heart winced from the impact, spitting up dirt and blood. “I think I bit my tongue…”, he spit out a piece of flesh, “Ow…”
The Ancient one released War Heart from the whip and waited once more.
‘If only I could just reach him…’, War Heart thought for a moment before standing. He wound back and threw his axe towards the Ancient one, who caught it with his claw of ribs. As War Heart drew near the Ancient One, he forced his fist into the chest of the Master of Bones. War Heart smirked as his victory was certain. To his surprise he looked at the face of the Ancient One to see him staring back, unharmed. War Heart went wide-eyed for a second before being wrapped up by the spinal whip and thrown back. War Heart hit the ground with great force, spitting up more blood from his tongue.
“War Heart!”, Scootaloo shouted while sprinting towards him with knives drawn. She must have come after him, wondering what was taking him so long.
War Heart looked back at her, motioning her to stop, “No!”, he shouted to her.
Scoot stopped dead in her tracks, confused at why he would turn down the help.
War Heart stood up, ‘Okay… I’ll have to break those bones around him to get him…’, War Heart thought about the fight from earlier and how he punched through the large chunk of debris. He inhaled deeply, ‘I guess this is going to hurt…’, War Heart thought as he crouched slightly. He started running again, faster than he could possibly have run normally. He felt the bones in his legs started to break. The skeletal hands attempted to grasp at him but could not hold. War Heart quickly gained on the Master of Bones, winding back his arm for a punch. He thrust his fist forward into the chest of the Ancient One, bones snapped from both of them. War Heart had driven his fist into the lung of his enemy.
The Ancient One fell back onto the ground, keeping his composure. His expression remained unchanged as his breathing became unsteady, “It seems you have bested me…”, he struggled to get his words out as he had little air. He laid motionless on the ground as he spoke to War Heart, “By the customs… of our order… I will pass on my power… the dead magic cannot be forgotten…”, his body went limp and his eyes grey pale.
War Heart fell to the ground beside him, unable to stand on his broken legs. He looked over to the Master of Bones and saw the green glow, or what he now knew as ‘The Dead Magic’ pour out of the Ancient One and into him. War Heart felt the power he just gained. He looked at his legs and was able to feel where the bones were. He sat up to see Scootaloo sprinting over to him. His vision soon went dark and he fell back unconscious.
Scoot skidded to a halt in front of War Heart, “I gotta get you back to the doc!”, she said with urgency. She walked over to his side and let him lean on her for support, which she struggled with. He was pretty heavy and she had to support nearly all of his weight since he had both legs broken and was unconscious. She reached the party after a few minutes, most of them pretty surprised to see War Heart in such rough shape.
Cura sprinted over to War Heart, helping Scootaloo lay him down so she can examine him. She used her magic to see what the damage was, “Four broken ribs… His left arm and BOTH legs are in pieces…”, she opened his eye and flashed a light in it, seeing his iris contract. She sighed, “Well he’s alive…”, she looked in his mouth, “and missing the tip of his tongue…”, she shivered at the idea of biting off the tip of one’s own tongue. She began to set his bones back into place, letting them tear through the muscle and fat back into place. She healed any wounds that moving the bones had caused and wiped off her forehead. She started to feel weak from using so much magic in one sitting. She had finished fixing everything but his arms, but she would fix that tomorrow.
Scootaloo sat next to Cura, “I saw what happened…”
Cura looked at Scootaloo, “Let me guess, he decided to free fall off a six storey building into a mosh pit?”
“He was fighting some guy… They were surrounded by those monsters. The other guy was covered with bones. I saw War Heart finish him off. I have never seen anyone but Sweetie Belle move that fast. He punched into the guy’s chest through that bone armor.”
Cura looked at Scootaloo, “Well isn’t this adventuring becoming interesting…?”, she said sarcastically before standing up. She looked down at War Heart, “Put him on a sled, we’ll find some shelter…”, Cura walked over to Vinyl, “Why don’t you find somewhere that we can get food?”
Vinyl nodded at Cura, “Sure, I know that there is a grocery store a block from here.”, she signalled for everyone to follow her.