I stared into the mask of the monstrous man in front of me, placing the tip of my sword between myself and him. Squinting my eyes, I placed my feet further apart to solidify my stance, watching as the tower of meat and metal drew its twin swords. I strengthened my grip on my sword and cracked my neck as Manic Pandemonium loudly stomped his way towards me. I steeled myself and charged with a war-cry towards the metal monster before me.
With a clash of steal and sparks, our weapons collided and the vibrations shook down my arms as my weapon suddenly spouted cracks along the edge. Shoving back I twirled the blade and sheathed it. Pulling out my bow, I notched an arrow and let it fly.
The arrow twirled towards the metal man’s mask, with a lightning fast blur, a greenish coloured sword swiped the arrows to the left. A dark menacing growl echoed around me as the fight between Manic’s honour guard and the remaining survivors from the retreat overpowered the sounds of my own thoughts. The metal monstrosity rushed me and I brought my bow up in self defence. A sickening crack was heard and I went flying back into a Dwarven pillar with a grunt.
“It SeEms ThAT YoU STiLl LaCK MEaNs tO DeFeaT mE!”
I grunted and looked at the shattered bow in my hands. Throwing it to the side I stood up on shaky legs. “Hookay… let’s see what I have here.”
I swished my hand in front of me and brought up my inventory menu. Searching swiftly through some of the contents of the packages, I found something of use. “He…he…he…”
Pulling the long metallic weapon out of my pocket, the hum of energy being charged echoed throughout the cave as I tore the remains of my shirt off. Slapping the barrel of the Mining Laser into the palm of my hand, I spread my wings and boosted myself closer to Manic and pointed the gun straight at his head.
“Dodge this!”
A red bolt of energy discharged from the weapon and slammed into the spine of his blocking sword and sent him flying backwards. Pressing a few buttons on the side of the mining laser, I changed it into scatter mode.
“LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!!!”
The mining laser charged and fired its scatter round, tearing pieces of the ground and ceiling apart on its course to its intended target. While the gun fired, I flapped my wings and boosted myself to the left of Manic. I pulled the trigger twice and boosted away from the twin swords arcing down at me. I skidded to a stop further away than I’d intended. Charging another scatter blast, I pointed it towards Manic- wait… where did he go?
Holding the tool in front of me, I turned sharply around, searching for my enemy. I heard a whistling and rolled to avoid the twin swords that impaled where I originally was. Groaning, I stood back up again, it seems that my left wing was broken from the amount of hits I’d taken… as well as most of my armor.
“…shit…” Three hearts left… I had to end this quickly…
I stood panting before the titan of a monster man before me. My mining laser dangerously low on power with only a few scatter shots left. A dark laugh echoed around the room. The owner’s voice no longer distorted from the lack of a helmet, I must’ve gotten a good hit in if he’s missing that. Manic pulled his twin great swords out of the ground and scoffed at me. “It seems, that you are no match for me still Walker. Perhaps you would like to come quietly and save me the trouble of beating you into the ground further.”
Manic’s face clearly showed the murderous glee that he was feeling towards me. I scowled and spat a small amount of blood from my mouth. He chuckled, his silver hair swaying with it. I could clearly see the dark blue almost black veins bulge underneath his sickly pale skin. Gross…
“Shall we continue?”
I spread one of my wings out behind me, the other dragged broken on the floor. The feathers on both of them in complete disarray, I’d need to fix them later- if I even get out of here. “Before we begin, I have something to say…”
His head cocked to the side, curiosity outweighing his want to kill me. “Very well, speak.”
I pressed the mode button on the mining tool, switching it onto a high powered setting. “Your mother was a HAMSTER, and your father smelt of ELDERBERRIES!”
I pulled the trigger and fired the laser from the gun. The explosion of power burned slightly at my skin as the humongous beam of energy exploded on Manic’s armour, sending him flying and crashing into the side of the Dwarven architecture. The impact made the mountain around me shudder as the entire wall was blown away, clearly showing the outside in the distance. We must have been far underground for the sky to look so far away.
I dropped the mining laser and fell to my knees. Others around me were groaning in pain and trying to get up from their respective fights. One of the soldiers limped over to me and helped me up.
“Come’on sir, we need to get out of here. The others are probably waiting for us…”
I weakly nodded, and using my sword as a makeshift cane, we limped down the corridors towards the exit of the mountain. The light of the outside shined down at us, I squint my eyes against the blinding light. Altogether there were only ten others who survived the attack from the original thirty. That was including me.
V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V Battlefield of Rockwall V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V
Numerous battles were being fought over the battlefield as warriors clashed against monsters. Many monsters carried arms and armour to protect them from the sun that breathed down its hellish light upon the dark-spawned killers. Metal clashed on metal as screams of both terror, and battle was heard across the plains.
A dark shadow was cast down upon the fighters below, many looking up to see the looming darkness of the Wither. Its three heads spewed poison and its pores ooze a cloud of darkness, a black cloud forming over the field.
A single loud horn echoed around the battlefield, a bright light came from the horizon as a golden and silver Artisian ship glided through the air to turn sharply and halt port facing towards the Wither.
The three heads of the Wither let out a loud screech as several silver lights rocketed from the portside of the golden and silver ship. Five shots missed the Wither while two slammed directly into the beast’s belly, causing black blood to gush out of wounds inflicted by the cannons. The wounds themselves were glowing with silver light that cauterized the wounds as well as continuously burn at the Wither’s bone and skin.
Several more shots fired off from the ship as its engines propelled it forwards. Flags flapped from the balloons that held it aloft, the image showing a silver star shining brightly a sun, whilst on the hull as an iron and gold replica of said image was attached to the hull of the ship.
The airship The Celestial Dawn had arrived upon the battlefield.
The Celestial Dawn glided hauntingly forwards as hundreds of black orbs were tossed from the sides of the ship, falling down to the ground below as the ship itself continued its assault on the Wither. A cry of war echoed around the battlefield as the orbs, now confirmed as Ender Pearls, shattered upon the ground. A haze of purple and black smoke erupted from the shattered shells as hundreds of Aether Guard stood from their crouched positions, drew their Zanite blades and charged at the monsters around them.
Three soldiers stood out amongst the thousands around them. The first stood tall and proud, The Hammer of Notch in one hand and a Lightning sword in the other. He slaughtered the undead monsters around him with naught but a single flick of either hammer or blade. His servitor arm gripping randomly at monsters and throwing them into others as his mechanical blue eye winked merrily as the gold surrounding it reflected the faces of the monsters he killed.
His long cloak flapped about in a twirling dance of death as his hammer caved in the head of a monster and his sword cut of the head of another. His brown, blood stained boots crushing skulls and breaking bones as he tread like death itself upon the battlefield. The aura of authority the figure held raised the moral of his troops as they danced the dance of death. Lord Dylan laughed as the monsters fell before his might.
Teams of Pegasi flew about, raining death with their wingblades or striking from clouds with bolts of lightning, it seemed as if the heavens themselves had descended upon the battlefield to bring their wrath upon the monsters. The second soldier, a Pegasus pony, stood out as he twirled, dived and flew through the lines of monsters. His bright blue coat and sky blue mane standing out from the dark as night armor he wore. Sergeant Stormy Skies had a concentrated look on his face as he dived out of the way of an arrow, and returned the favor by slicing the head of the Skeleton as he flew past it.
The third soldier smirked as he twirled his gravitite quarterstaff around him. A ring of Zombies surrounded the Captain of the Aether Guard. He chuckled softly as the ring of zombie’s converged on him. The Captain slammed the butt of his staff into the ground and repulsed the ring of zombies around him. Dashing forwards, he danced around the zombie and cracked open the monsters head, his gravatite quarterstaff sending it flying to smash into the few surrounding zombies. A zombie jumped at him, Captain Dragoon_Scale simply uppercutted the zombie with the butt of his staff sending it flying upwards and out of sight. He chuckled and focused back onto the rest of them.
A squadron of Angelic Guards were fighting a large group of Wither Skeletons, wielding Holy swords and wearing Valkyrie Armour to protect and destroy their foes. The Angels fought; dealing massive amounts of damage to the Wither Skeletons as they decapitated them, Angels also fell in battle against the Wither Skeletons.
A commanding shout sounded over the clash of steel as Lord Dylan Wood held his hammer above his head. He shouted out to his troops, inspiring courage to his warriors. “Hold this line my friends! We must buy them time to escape!”
“Even though we walk through the valley of shadow and corruption, we shall fear neither death nor decay, for thou art with us!”
“Thou art with us!” was the ferocious reply from his troops.
“Thy love and loyalty, they guide us. Thy kindness and honesty, they comfort us. And the light of thine generosity shall warm our cold hearts. Thy magic shall illuminate our path so we shall neither falter nor trip upon the rock beneath our feet. As long as friendship stands strong in these dark times… good will triumph over evil, and we! Shall! PREVAIL!”
“We Shall Prevail!”
The war cry echoed over the battlefield, horns sounding the charge as the ponies and Aether Guard fought, rushed forwards to meet the army of monster.
V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V On Top of a Hill V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V
Two figures stood on top of a hill as they watched the chaos unfold below them. One was eating out of a box of popcorn as he was snaked around the neck of the other. The second was impatiently tapping he holed hoof against the ground as her dragonfly wings buzzed in agitation.
“Discord, will you please control yourself! We have work to get done.”
“Come come, Cryssi! With Ol’ Smokey out of the way now, we have a better shot at getting in... Ugh, ‘His’ good graces.”
“That’s not the point! We need to move now, not later!”
“And miss out on all this delicious chaos…!” The draconequus gasped in a mocking way.
“I swear to the High Ones, Discord! I will vaporize you if we aren’t gone in the next several minutes.” Chrysalis hissed to the mismatched creature that hung around her neck.
“Oh, you’re no fun at all!”
Clicking his claws, the draconequus appeared standing next to the changeling queen. He placed his lion paw on her outer shell and snapped his claws again. The two disappeared in a flash of white, only to appear upon a white cloud.
“What is this place Discord…?”
“Ah, there you two are, I’ve been expecting you.”
The two turned around to face the feminine voice. The pony threw off her hood, revealing a flowing starry dark blue starry mane, a pair of cat like cyan eyes complete with fangs for teeth.
“Come, we have work to do.”
V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V Admin’s POV V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V
“Sound the horn, we made it out…”
After a nod from the soldier, he pulled a horn out and went further outside the exit of the mountain. I leaned against the wall, strength draining from me as the adrenaline wore off from my fight. I sighed softly and slid down to the ground. “Why does everything have to be so damn hard in this game…”
“Maybe because you try too hard…”
I turned towards the person- sorry, Pony speaking and chuckled hollowly. “And who are you?”
“Well… some call me Notch, Notch Bow.”
I curiously looked over the pony sitting next to me. He had a black coat with a brown mane and his eyes were kind’a a hazel blue- not unlike my own. I squint my eyes at him. “… Have we met before…? I feel like we have…”
Notch Bow simply chuckled and shook his head. “Not in this lifetime I’m afraid. I doubt I’d met you before, you seem like someone who would be remembered.”
I hummed and sniffed as the pony walked away. “Eh… he’s probably right. I mean come’on! I’ve never even met a freaking Notch Bow before.”
I scoffed at the silliness of it all and looked back at where he was sitting. Resting against the wall was a Diamond Pickaxe and something bundled up in a cloth. Curiously I reached over and opened up the cloth, it contained… a shard of some sort. It… kind’a looked like a part of a blade, fractured yes, but still part of one.
I looked over the shinning silver metal and noticed a script etched on it, hardly readable without the rest of the blade, but what was on this shard…
It showed a single hammer on it… was this a clue to its maker? The etching was in diamond so… who could it be? I knew of no other Admin’s or Operators who had diamond etchings on their crafts. I noticed the same design on the Diamond Pickaxe’s handle.
“…huh…”
V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V Battlefield of Rockwall, Celestial Dawn V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V
The battlefield had fires erupting in random areas. Bodies littered the ground, Minecraftian, Pony and Monster alike, none were spared the cruel fate of death. Several or more figures walked amongst the dead, chanting in a language of a higher order. Incense spread its smoke across the battlefield, masking the stench of death from those walking in its wake.
Lord Dylan stood on top of The Celestial Dawn, his mechanical arm twirling slightly. He sighed, turned away from the view over the valley and walked back inside. He followed the signs to the medical bay and walked in, two forms resting upon the beds in there. One a pink and, slightly bruised, Pig. The other, the fallen Princess Celestia, bloody and beaten.
“How is she Doctor Stable?”
“She will make a full recovery, My Lord. But her wing joints have been seared shut, the nerves far too damaged to allow for the wings themselves to be reattached. Her magic reserves have also dropped immensely, we hypothesize that she now holds the same amount of power as her student does. Although, how this may affect her... we haven't the slightest clue. Most of what we are doing now is guesswork. The others and myself included, suggest symptoms such as drowsiness, sudden shakes in common with hypothermia among other symptoms that have yet to be seen.”
“…and what about him?” Lord Dylan gestured slightly to the resting form of Codelord.
“He will also make a full recovery… in fact. He already has and is now trespassing upon my hospitality. He has already tried several practical jokes to… lighten the mood…”
Dylan looked around the room, noticing the few scorch makes and helium balloons on, or floating against the ceiling.
“… I would be immensely grateful, My Lord, if you were to remove him from my care.”
A chorus of pops filled the room and a few of the balloons floating around the room fell to the floor in ripped pieces of rubber, immediately a higher than normal pitch voice started squeakily laughing.
“Ho! Oh Boy! I love the way Helium just makes your voice sound like a pre-schooler.”
Dylan’s hand slowly traveled its way down his face and sighed, squeakily.
“God dammit, Codelord… why do you continue to vex me.” Again, said in a squeaky voice.
“Aw come’on dude, ya know ya love it when we get our squeaky on.”
Doctor Stable didn’t say a word and just looked at Dylan in a pleading way, before leaving the room.
A few more balloons popped and fell to the floor.
“Hey! I sound like Alvin from the Chipmunks movie! Hahahah!”
‘This was going to be a long day…’
… A few hours later, the helium balloons were gone, and his voice and returned to normal. Leaving a sulking Codelord in his bed, Dylan checked up on Celestia.
“Hey there Celly, looks like you took a beating out there today, how’re you feeling?”
Celestia groaned and turned to face Dylan. “To be honest with you… like I got into Lord Festor’s Nordic Mead again…”
“Well, Doctor Stable said the headache should be going away after tomorrow, and that you should make a full recovery with magical aid by then as well.”
“Wonderful… wake me then will you?” Her head hit the pillow underneath it with a soft thud.
“Thought she’d have wanted to know we won the battle here.”
Dylan turned to face Codelord and grunted. “We’ve all had a long day my friend, and could each use our rest. Some… more than others.”
The two of them glanced at the resting- now unicorn, her soft breaths barely being heard by both of them.
“…I have yet to thank you for gifting us that Puritanium when we picked you up Codelord. So… thank you.”
Codelord’s eyes widened in surprise. “Hey, even I can’t be a joker 24/7, I can take things seriously.”
“…”
“…?”
Dylan cleared his throat before continuing. “We’ll be stopping in High Rockwall and dropping you lot off before returning to the Aether, there have been reports of spies amongst the guard.”
Lord Dylan left the room, heading down towards the control room, giving a silent acknowledgement to his other brethren on board as he passed them in the hallways. Reaching the Control Room, he sat in the captain’s chair and pressed the intercom button. “Navigator Scott, please take us in.”
“Right away My Lord.”
Dylan relaxed in his chair, looking outside the viewport of the Control Room. The burning city of High Rockwall stood in the foreground, its towers painted in red flames, its walls shattered and most of the city burning. He huffed and rested his head on his hand… it’s going to be a long day…
V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V High Rockwall War Room V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V
The surviving leaders of The Alliance (We voted on shortening it to just The Alliance, it was too long a name anyway), sat around the fractured table of the War Room. Many sporting injuries from the battle prior. The room had some missing walls, but it’d do for a meeting place for now.
I leaned against the wall, the Diamond Pickaxe that was left by that suspicious pony before, hanging on my belt. I’d decided to use the Pick as my main weapon from now on. It was more durable than the silver sword I was using prior and more durable than my daggers. This reminds me, I need to get some throwing knives at some point.
I held the shard of the sword in my hand, staring at the single diamond hammer etched into the metal. I sighed and looked around me, they were at it again.
“The only way they could have gotten in, is if we were betrayed! That is the ONLY logical solution!”
Man… if these guys were ponies, they’d all have cutie marks in arguing- wait, what would that even look like?
Shaking my head and chuckling softly in amusement, I refocused my attention on the proceeding before me.
“We must find this traitor, it is vital to the continuation of our survival! The traitor could sell other secrets to the enemy!”
“You forget the enemy is merely toying with us! Herobrine could crash in at any moment and slay us all! The only reason we are alive is because he either finds us amusing or not worth his time!”
Probably the later rather than the former…
(You remember this right? Frozen Red, Addie Blue.) You do realise I can still hear you?
Ah, Frozey-bud! How’re you!
I am quite alright thank you Walker, how are things proceeding up there?
They’re at it again.
You could stop them you know?
But why would I end all of this funny business?
Because you are an Admin and like it or not, keeping the peace is your business.
I sighed and pushed myself gently off the wall, limping over to the war table and leaning on it.
“Like it or not you lot, the traitor is obviously not amongst us anymore. We need to focus on different agendas at this time! Not… squabble like dogs over scraps of meat!”
Lord Dylan nodded his head and added his piece. “Walker is right, we must focus on the tasks we can focus on. Finding the traitor right now is not our top priority- although it is amongst them.”
“First things first…” I pushed off the table and gestured around us. “… repairs need to have begun immediately after this gathering has finished.” General murmurs of agreement sounded throughout the room.
“But where will we get the supplies!”
I looked at the Minecraftian who said this. “I will supply them. You may use all of my available tools to begin your reconstruction of High Rockwall.” Having said this, I pulled out most of my Alchemical bags and dumped them on the table. Keeping only the few that held my personal items.
“Feel free to use these if you must, taking it all around with me is beginning to become frustrating. Honestly, there isn’t much I can do with this stuff.”
I equipped my Administrative cloak and pulled the hood over my head as I left the room. There’s too much to do, and talking with those people isn’t going to make it go faster.
Well, that went rather well, didn’t it?
I turned to face the voice and saw FrozenFire_ leaning against the wall with his staff across his back. He pushed off the wall, straightened his laboratory cloak out and walked up to me. He gestured for us to continue walking down the ruined corridors.
“As I was just thinking to myself, talking with them isn’t going to make this war go faster. If anything, it’s slowing us down when we could be out there helping those that need it.”
Yes, I agree. There are other things we need to focus on at this point. For example, we need to be finding Notch’s forge as well as the remaining shards of his sword. While we do have the handle of the sword, its charging gem, along with the shards of the blade, are still missing.
I nodded and looked over at the shattered stained glass windows. “We could be looking for those, but I was thinking more along the lines of an attack on the Nether Gate, as well as the prison inside.”
Frozen looked over at me with shock. Addie, an attack on the Nether Gate as well as the Tartarus prison would be a suicide mission!
“I know which was why I was thinking a six man squad in teams of three. One squad running diversion on the outside to lure the guards away from the Gate, and the prison. The other squad would sneak inside, kill the Warden and his Guards, free the prisoners and then take over the prison itself. Its cells are made of Dark Stone, and will come in handy when capturing our enemies.”
And what of the shards?
“We will be collecting those ourselves Frozen. We’ll need some volunteers to go to the Nether Gate, and some to come with us.”
And how exactly did you intend to get us inside? And which of us will be going to the Nether Gate?
I smirked. “Can you call a meeting? And, how many invisibility potions can you cook up in three days time…?”
End of Nightfall Arc