//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: A Hero Will Rise // Story: Martin: Chronicle Of A Hero // by CrypticMetaphor //------------------------------// Phobos sat upon the throne that once belonged to the foolish king that resided over Avilon; the Moniums were skulking around the city keeping watch for any possible intruders that dared enter. He looked to his left and saw the black eyed king and the griffin with the one red eye both silently curled into the fettle position muttering incoherently in fear. Phobos then leaned back and shut his eyes for a minute in contemplation, he reflected on how he had gotten this far when he felt a familiar presence, or more specifically seven familiar presences. Phobos turned to one of the Moniums that were present, “Prepare a welcoming party, we have guests” * On a nearby trail leading to the border of the city, six mares and one human were approaching their goal with determined strides. Martin was doing a few practice swings with his sword and then sheathed it when he accidently took two hairs off the tip of Rainbows tail; thankfully it sort of blended in with its already jagged style and she didn’t really notice. Soon the city came into view and they already noticed that the city wasn’t supposed to give off the atmosphere it was giving at that moment, one of despair and utter dread. They all just stood there and noticed shapes moving around below, AJ immediately pointed this out and was about to rush to see if they were residents. Twilight stopped her and shook her head, “those are not griffins, and something tells me Phobos isn’t going to let us get close without a fight” Rainbow Dash smacked both of her front hooves together, “fine by me, let’s take em down!” Rainbow rushed down the trail letting out a battle cry as everypony else went in pursuit trying to stop the crazy mare. As they ran they all briefly noticed that griffins and various tourist ponies alike were laying on the ground with blackened eyes, some were just trembling where as others were simply rocking back and forth in the fettle position muttering in fright. They soon arrived in the center of the city, Rainbow having stopped flying and was now looking around confused at the lack of bad guys. Applejack gave her a smack upside the head to which she voiced her pain, “Dash, if the thought of rushin head first into a fight crosses yer mind again, DO NOT LISTEN TO IT!” Dash just grumbled as she rubbed her head, she then noticed Martin looking around with a more concerned expression, “Hey Martin what’s wrong?” Martin unsheathed the sword as he sighed, “We just walked into a trap” The second he said this, Moniums swarmed out of alleyways and from the top of buildings via climbing down the walls. All of them then stood back to back as the Moniums circled around, they made a noise that sounded like a mixture between a hiss and an airy laugh before they rushed at the group with bestial ferocity. As soon as they got close, Twilight’s horn burned bright and a barrier materialized around her and her friends in a matter of seconds. Twilight was clenching her teeth in concentration as the Moniums slammed against the barrier, Martin immediately turned to her, “How long do you think you can keep this up for Twi?” Twilight answered in a very strained voice, “I’m not sure, I’ve only used this spell on my house once, but never in an actual fight” The barrier began to crack like cheap glass as the Moniums continued their assault; this caused both Rarity and Fluttershy to yelp in fear as the cracks began to increase. One of the Moniums broke its head through and took a snap at Applejack, who in response bucked it right in the face causing it to be sent flying into one of it comrades. Martin and the six tightened formation as they prepared to fight, Pinkie put on her best war face as a Moniums claw broke through the barrier. But what happened next shocked them all, it started with a low humming sound coming from behind all of them, then it began to grow, soon they all turned and noticed Twilights horn was glowing brighter and brighter until its aura turned white. Before any words could be said the horns energy began to grow massive, this seemed to cause the entire barrier to turn white and the cracks and holes were instantly repaired, then the dome began to shrink. Soon it became so small that everypony had to stand on their hind legs and press in very tight to avoid any kind of injury from their shrinking sanctuary. Then all the Moniums, seeing this as a possible advantage leapt all at once at the barrier, which then proceeded to expand in a flash. Any Moniums that touched the barrier exploded into wisps of black smoke, however the barrier passed through the surrounding buildings leaving them completely unharmed. After the barrier subsided, Rainbow flew over to the exhausted Twilight, “Twilight that was so AWESOME! I had no idea you could do that!” Twilight got to her hooves slightly wobbly, to which Rarity helped her balance, “I…I didn’t either, I’ve never done that before” Rarity let her gently off of her as she looked at her equally confused friend, “If you didn’t do it Twilight, do you suppose something might have caused it?” Twilight nodded still feeling slightly lightheaded, “It’s possible, I mean as you once said, unicorn magic just doesn’t happen for no reason, maybe I activated a counter spell I read somewhere” Pinkie pointed toward the castle interrupting the two unicorns, “Wowie, that’s a big castle, I mean hey I’ve seen big castles before but boy it’s HUUUUGE!!!” Applejack stood beside the pink pony, “Ya’ll suppose Phobos is in there?” Martin joined them with the rest of the six behind him, “Let’s see, omni powerful villain with a huge ego and god complex with the entire intention of conquering a large land in mind...” Pinkie then added, “Don’t forget an army of those meanie beasties” Martin nodded, “and the meanie beasties, eeeeyup, it’s safe to say that’s where he is” Applejack chuckled slightly as he did a slight imitation of her big brother; they all then began to walk toward the castle making sure to check any possible hiding places where the “meanie beasties” could be hiding, Pinkie even checked under a flower pot just in case, soon they all arrived at the castle’s main gate and stood there staring. Rainbow Dash then flew to the gate and took on a brave expression, “alright, let’s do this!” Just as she raised her hooves to open the gates, they opened on their own revealing several “meanie beasties” standing in rows leading toward the main doors. They made no move to attack any of them as they walked very slowly inside the castle; Rainbow stuck her tongue out at one of them as the doors shut. Soon the saw one of the creatures staring at them, well it would be if it had eyes instead of a smooth section, it then seemed to beckon for them to follow as it led them onward deeper into the castle, as they came to the throne room corridor they noticed an injured black eyed griffin whimpering in the corner, she seemed a bit leaner than most female griffins. Martin reached a hand out to help her; she then looked right at him and recoiled away in absolute fear, Martin pulled back not wanting to make things worse. The doors opened revealing Phobos on Lord Highwind’s throne; the creature approached Phobos as if to ask if it did a good job, in response Phobos just pointed at it causing it to disintegrate into black smoke wisps. Phobos looked at all of them as they entered, Fluttershy then pointed at the two griffins beside the throne, “It’s the king!” Soon all of them immediately noticed this and took on offensive stances to which Phobos regarded with disinterest, “Did you not learn from our last encounter, your feeble if not laughable abilities won’t do a thing against me”, this caused every face in the group to take on an agitated look, “But to business, is there anything on the matter of my proposal? Have you anything to say on the matter?” Martin walked forward slightly still clenching his sword, “As a matter of fact there is”, he then pointed with his thumb at the six, “look at the ponies, now back to me, now look back at the ponies, back to me, I am not a pony, I am a man, look at the ground…” Phobos cast a slight glance downwards, and then he looked up and saw Martin in the air going for his head with the sword…which he easily caught with one hand, “If that is the case”, the sword was then wrenched from Martin’s hand and thrown out the window Gilda had used to escape through, “Then you have all sealed your fate”. Phobos then backhanded Martin across the room back to his friends who immediately went to see if he was alright, Martin looked up at them with a pained smile, “I screwed that up royally didn’t I?” Applejack then looked down at him and patted his head, “Meh, accidents happen to the best of us” Martin just smiled at the pony as he sat up, and then AJ was ripped off the ground in the blink of an eye by an invisible force and into the waiting hand of Phobos, who just fixed them with a cold glare, “friendship, such a ridiculous sentiment”, before Applejack could even take a breath, she was black eyed before her friends. All of them gasped in unison as Phobos dropped AJ like a sack of potatoes, her Stetson falling off and hitting the ground as Phobos just stared down at her now whimpering form, and for the first time, a grin appeared on his face, the grin itself sent chills through all the shocked ponies, except for Martin who just stood there completely shocked. * Aequivalere just shook his head as he stared through the viewing window, he then looked at the white cloaked Sortitus, “Honesty as failed, and Harmony is no longer an option, your champion has failed” Sortitus just shook his head and simply replied, “Phobos should not have done that” Aequivalere just cast a confused look at his partner who merely gestured toward the window. * One thought ran through Martins head several times as he looked at the ground, “The three of you, no, all of you are my friends and I treasure that deeply, I will never let anything hurt you girls, nothing” Martin then clenched his fists in anger as Phobos merely cast all of them a look that could only be described as someone looking at dirt on their finest attire, “The three of you, no, all of you are my friends and I treasure that deeply, I will never let anything hurt you girls, nothing” Martin’s knuckles then turned white as his fists trembled, Phobos turned around having lost interest, “I will never let anything hurt you girls, nothing” Martin then rushed forward without warning, Phobos turned around long enough to see Martin’s fist connect with his chin, and soon the Lord of Fear was sent in an arc toward the ceiling then to the ground. Martin then muttered one word under his breath as Phobos stood, “Shoryuken” Phobos then regarded Martin with a look of actual contempt at being hit by a mere mortal, “So that’s the way it going to be?” Martin just did a hand taunt in response as Phobos looked over at the six, “So be it” Phobos then waved his hand and before him spawned six ponies that were composed of solidified darkness with glowing red eyes, and they looked exactly like Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Applejack. Phobos looked at the six shadow ponies, “do what you will with the equines, the mortal is mine” His wings then extended in an instant, he then closed the distance between himself and Martin and grabbed the utterly surprised human by his throat in a vice grip then flew out of the window. Soon both Phobos and Martin were in the air flying upward at break neck speed; Martin knew if he didn’t do something soon he would die from suffocation, he just barely managed to notice a platform below them where most likely griffins would land to enter the castle through the roof. Martin then waited for the right moment, he then planted both feet firmly on Phobos’ stomach then he head butted him square in the face and pushed off. He then landed, with great difficulty mind you, on the platform and turned around sharply as he saw Phobos land behind him. The Lord of Fear’s wing retracted upon touching the ground as he regarded the mortal, “how is possible?” Martin just looked straight at him, “I don’t know it myself personally, but the fact of the matter is, I, Martin Fairbridges, do not fear you” Phobos then took on a completely confused expression that was almost foreign to him, “What?” Martin just took a step forward, “I realised you feed of fear to get power, but I guess you never had anyone ever appose you before because you always took one thing from them”, he then put a fist to his heart, “Bravery, and you hurt my friend and you’re going to pay for it” Martin then rushed the Lord of Fear and proceeded to engage him in combat, Martin threw punch after punch, kick after kick, but all Phobos did was redirect them or dodge around them with ease. After another volley of blows from Martin, Phobos delivered a swift punch to his chest which shattered the armor plate and sent Martin skidding across the ground. Martin then got up and rushed Phobos again, all the while with the intention of beating him within an inch of his life. * Twilight and her friends however were doing their best against their evil duplicates, but whatever they did wouldn’t do any good. The shadow ponies knew all of their moves and even had a few of their own which were innate to their forms, Shadow Dash had Rainbow pinned to a wall because its wings had become a mass of tentacles, Shadow Pie was currently trying to chase down her counterpart, but with no success, Shadow Rarity and Shadowshy were both trying to get their counterparts, but Rarity was defending herself and the yellow pegasus by throwing various objects of varying size at them. Shadow Sparkle and Twilight were engaged in a magical duel and it was currently swinging in Shadow Sparkle’s corner. Twilight was desperate, because she couldn’t think straight, but soon she noticed that Shadowjack had barely moved at all, almost like it was waiting for something. Twilight was then blasted across the way and into a vase which caused her to see stars, Shadow Sparkle then moved in for the climax to their duel. * Martin was panting from the punishment he had sustained from him and Phobos’ duel; he could already feel bruises beginning to form on his torso, but he still rushed in to fight. Phobos this time took no time in dodging or blocking, all he did was block one punch, delivered four of his own to Martin’s torso in rapid succession, then he placed his open palm a foot from Martin’s face and a psionic blast hit Martin square in the face causing him to fly back faster, and hit the ground harder than the previous times. Phobos just looked down with pity at the fallen Martin, “Why, Mortal, why? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting?” Then a genuine look of annoyance appeared upon Phobos’ face as he continued, “Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than their survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Could it perhaps be for love? Illusions, fool. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as weak and feeble as mortals are themselves”, Phobos’ then regained himself slightly as a tremble of anger entered his voice, “although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, you insolent worm. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting”. Martin chuckled as he realized how this speech appeared so similar to one he heard somewhere before which caused Phobos’ to become angered to the point of spitting out the last words in rage, “Why, Martin Fairbridges!? Why!? Why do you persist!?” Martin just smiled as he wiped some blood from the corner of his mouth and responded to the speech with four simple words, “Because I’m a hero” Yes that speech is similar from the matrix revolutions, i had to go with it cause it fit the mood, but its in my own words and i only just took small excripts from it, espescially the big words. Next time the fight continues :)