Bat out of Hell

by Coufnsiou

The Bat Pulls Most of the Stops

I was getting annoyed. So, so, SO annoyed. I had trained a litteral millennia while these two self-proclaimed “gods” sat and signed legislation for the better half of that time! Yet they were still putting up a fight! It was screwing with my understanding of reality as I knew it, which is saying a lot. No, I wouldn’t let this stop me. These two walking glue sticks would NOT lock me up a second time.

A little known fact, here at least, is that I had studied Japanese while in highschool and college, nominated one of the biggest otakus and frequenters of 4chan on campus. In case you're wondering, I frequently posted /b/ and lurked on /f/ and /v/. More to the point, I lifted my hand holding Murciélago, and pointed a single black nailed finger at the pair of Princesses. When you've been stuck in a pit for a millennia, you've got a lot of time to practice. I remembered my incantations, readying my spiritual energy.

“Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Red Flame Cannon!” At the end of my incantation, exactly what I had expected to happen had materialized in front of me. Like all those centuries I had spent practicing, a massive red beam, twice if not four times the size my Cero ripped towards the pretty pony princesses. It continued till it met a hill off in the distance, exploding and scattering boulders and debris across whatever field was unfortunate enough to be behind that now crescent shaped hill. The sister duo flew from the blast, Celestia to the left and Luna to the right, an attempt to flank me. There was a weakness I figured while practicing Kidō mind you. The more energy used, the weaker or slower you got depending on the strength of the Kidō or Bakudō. Not only that, but if you wanted the Kidō to pack more punch, you had to go through the whole incantation, taking time and giving your opponents a window. A window that these equines were too stupid to use in time.  

I lifted my sword above my head, bringing it down to meet the two blades and subsequently the horses wielding them, I guess it’s time to stop leading them on. They were already panting, I had barely broken a sweat. Might aswell level the playing field for them. I sheathed my blade in one swift moment and ducked under the two swords, coming back up and grabbing them by the necks and holding them in place with my arms in a friendly manner, like a couple at the movies.

“Allow me to show you…the true power of an Espada.” They were struggling to get out of my improvise chokehold, but I wouldn't let go. No, I had something really special in mind for these two.

“Way of Destruction Number 96…”  They struggled, finally wrenching themselves free of my grasp and flying out as quickly as possible. I tried to smirk as wide as I could, but only managed a small grin.

 
“Single Blade Cremation.”

We had managed to narrowly escape the blast. The red pillar scorched our sides as we flew, the initial shock wave also knocking us off balance. We lost control, veering toward the castle grounds which had been all but decimated. Our ears were ringing, and our vision blurry,but never the less we could make out the form of a massive, burning red pillar.

Nay, not a pillar… a blade! A sword in the same shape as his... In the center was a form, robes fluttering in the flames as he stood there, taking the brunt of the attack. Tia landed next to us, obviously having escaped the blast much faster than us.

“Luna! Are you alright?” We could not answer. He simply stood there, burning in the fiery crimson inferno that seemed to stretch on for eternity. It finally started to die down, revealing his now spurned and nicked form, small marks covering almost every inch of his (athletic and toned) body. His upper robe had been reduced to nothing, revealing something neither my sister nor I had seen. On the left of his chest was an archaic number... 4. His lower robe was tattered, ripped and dirtied, fluttering like wings that had been ripped apart and could no longer fly, as if fallen from grace.

He stood there, looking down on us as if he had earned the position. His glare held the stares of thousands of poor souls who were unfortunate enough to have crossed his path, eons of suffering culminated in one emerald glance, countless millennia of pain and destruction following him wherever he went.

A revelation had hit both my sister and I. When he had transformed into that vile bat creature, where only the Elements could have stopped him, he was holding back. He had just blown a crater the size of a small settler town in the gardens, wrecking the statues and plants, scorching the earth, taking a quarter of the castle with him.. He took the brunt of the blast and even then, seemed unfazed, as if the explosion had simply tickled him. He had been holding back. 

He began stepping down, standing on some invisible stairway before finally reaching the charred and burnt ground. We stood with the aid of our sister and readied our weapons. He had killed them. He had killed our Night Guard. He had killed our friends. We would make him PAY. Blind anger taking us over once more, we charged at the ashen monster, raising our sword. A stinging pain had started in our chest. He just walked calmly along, mocking us. His form began to flitter, as if fading away. An after image.

We fell, the stinging in our chest had exploded into a myriad of pain. Landing on our side, we skid and slid across the ground, a slash across our chest. Before we fell, we had seen a blurred image of him, in the corner of our eye, as if he had danced past us, the blade not even slashing, but more lightly dragging along our chest.

Blood. I saw blood… it had been so long since I had seen blood like this. Not somepony elses but ours. My own blood, dripping from the wound. A scream had erupted behind us, blinding light of gold and green on both ends. The screeching of metal and songs of battle were mixing into a muffled cacophony. Everything was blurred. We felt a nudge at our side. A small figure, dressed in black and white. Behind it, a much larger figure, that of a very strong stallion, almost an ox. We felt an aura envelope us, carrying us onto the figures back. A Unicorn? We jumped through the air.

All went black

Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. Mark Twain said that, and I could not agree more. No, fuck it, I’m done. I am so done. I've officially had it. I don’t care if her eyes are glowing, or if that beam of light is getting clos-

Twice in one day. I was down, laying in an indent of one of the curves that made up the crater we were now fighting in. Within moments Celestia was on top of me, anger permeating her face and aura. Gravity seemed to increase the closer she came, and I was right now bearing the brunt of it. Granted this may have outright crushed lesser beings, I did feel it, but only as a slight chest pain. She probably snapped about her sister, cause never mind the countless others I’ve slaughtered. Bitch deserved it anyway!
 

“Do you hate me?” I asked monotonously, quoting the wrong villain. She brought her hoof up , bringing it down with tremendous speed to my face. It felt like a hammer descended on my face. This was not going as planned. Once more, she got in a good shot straight to my nose, I caught her hoof mid descent the third time around, forcing it back up with a shaking arm. She had somehow gotten stronger, but how?! I had been whittling away at her for a good several minutes and yet she was coming at me stronger than ever! This made no sense!!

I lifted my self back up with Celestia shaking hoof still in my hand, my expression finally changing from boredom to spite. I had actually considered the possibility of letting loose and just Resurrecting here and now. I shoved the thought out of my mind. This battle hadn't gone on for half as long as our first fight, but between that time, I hadn't considered Resurrecting till they got that boost from that weird diamond tree thing. Now however, Celestia was pushing me back, our swords clashing at unbelievable speeds. She was slowly but surely catching up to me…

Deadlock once more. I stared back into the abyssal white and mixing green that had consumed her eyes. She was pissed, angrier than a bull seeing his first red cape. Little fun fact, it’s the last thing they'll see before a blade strikes them in the neck.

I pushed back, forcing her away from me and bringing my sword down, she blocked and I just kept slashing. Every angle, up, down, left, right, diagonal, and everything in between...  NOW.

Our blades met and I shot my free hand out, stopping both our swords. Celestia stopped for a moment, no doubt shocked that I would risk injury to myself a second time, but not showing it on her face. I looked her dead in the eye. Silence is sometimes better than words.

He hurt Luna, he had to pay! He needed to PAY. Anger consumed me, the white glow of my stare slowly turning a sickly green with purple and black smoke rising from the corners of my eyes. Everything had turned into a haze of information, my senses heightened to where I could practically hear our blades singing in his grasp. He gazed into my eyes again, anger and hate contorting my face into an ugly expression as he faced me. When I looked back at him, I couldn’t read him. He seemed… determined.

A thousand mile stare, betraying that he was ever paying attention, telling me that he was no longer in this fight. He muttered something… a foreign tongue that only he seemed to speak, a language of demons if there ever was one. Suddenly another explosion, the initial shock from experiencing anything else red caused me to stagger. It wasn't a laser however, it wasn't anything remotely close. It was a cloud of... smoke?

I coughed and hacked at the sudden blast of harmless dust, a diversionary tactic. I rushed out of the cloud, flying high to attain a birds eye view. My neck and head darted around, almost snapping from the speed at which it turned. Frantically I looked around, for any sign of the pale grey monster. I swooped low onto the castle grounds, charred and kicked up dirt giving way from my landing. Once more I looked around. He was gone.

I gasped, remembering why I had snapped in the first place; “Luna!”