WOOOO! 10th Chapter (What, it says right there...)
Okay, I know it isn't the real 10th chapter, but Pinkie would be proud for celebrating anyway. I just know it. If you've made it this far, congratulations, have an internet muffin, you deserve it.
Now, read on! There's much in store for you!
I have seen my fair share of bloodshed, but it is only for the good of all, and I weep for those lost...
-Celestia
Chapter 10
Confrontations and Collapses
Light
Fuzzy fuzzy fuzzy…
This really needs to stop happening…
I mean, I didn’t drink that much, did I?
Oh, wait…
Shit
My eyes shot open as I realized the implications of what had just happened. It all went something along the lines of punch a deity, piss off another deity, scare a whole bunch of random ponies shitless and proceed to demolish a section of a town.
Smooth…
I lost any optimism I had had to begin with as my eyes took in the picture of a wall of dirt. I was lying in a fairly deep crater, smoke rising gently as the whole ensemble cooled off. Small tendrils had reached out from my body while I was unconscious, making me more vapor-like, so I quickly pulled them in and returned to a semi-solid state. As I pulled in some of the high rising streamers, I heard a few gasps and some murmuring.
I groaned as I figured out that this meant company.
And something told me that my appearance wouldn’t be very welcome considering what I had just done…
I tried to rise to my feet, and promptly tripped over the hem of my coat, getting a face full of dirt. I got up, again, and made my way up to the curved edge of the crater. The crater itself was more diagonal than anything, possibly due to my angle of impact. I couldn’t remember much from the flight, but what I did see was that I had landed in a small town.
It seemed oddly familiar…
Well fuck.
I sighed and started my ascent up the side of the mound. It was deeper then I had first thought, about the height of a house, and the steep sides made climbing difficult. For a moment I considered just Phasing and drifting out over the top, but in my current state I probably would have just drifted back to the bottom and settled down to rest.
That’s the problem with that form, it makes anything comfortable…
I snapped out of my small daydream with a start and saw that I was actually nearing the top of the hole. I reached my hands over the edge and pulled my weight up with great difficulty, letting out a small grunt of exhaustion.
And then, all too soon, I was on the top, the heat waves shimmering and making my already distorted form even worse. The sun beat down harshly, and if I could go by that it meant that the Princess was pissed. I could feel the light emanating from it, tugging at my hair and clothes and flicking them about.
I waited for a moment, admiring the sky, before lowering my gaze slightly. It wasn’t the thing that I had been looking forward to the most…
Applejack
“Oh. My. Gosh. Did you guys see that?! It was all like whoosh! Smack! Boom!”
The hyperactive blue pony let out a small squeal. “That. Was. AWESOME! I wonder what could have done that! It must be pretty cool! Well, I mean, not as cool as me of course, but still pretty cool… Hey, does anypony know ex-“
“Whoa whoa whoa, slo’ down there sugarcube, we jus’ need ta go have a good look at wha did that. I’ mighta hurt somepony for all we know!” Applejack wiped her hoof on the ground to remove any trace that it had just been planted firmly in Rainbow’s mouth and pointed it at their partially ruined surroundings, damaged by the shockwave moments earlier. Rainbow Dash glared at her friend for a moment before her expression softened.
“Meh, I guess you’re right. Come on girls!” Without waiting for a response the cyan Pegasus had darted into the air and was over the rooftops in seconds, heading straight for the source of the commotion. Applejack sighed.
“Well, ya’ll ready ta go look for Rainbow?”
Rartiy huffed. “If we must, although I must say dear I do loath to get even a bit of dirt on my beautiful coat, and Rainbow looks like she is heading for quite a lot of it. But I suppose I can find it in my heart to forgive her for that…” She trailed off as she noticed AJ staring at her. “That means yes.”
“Alrighty then… Fluttershy?”
“Um, only if Rainbow really needs me…”
“Ok then, An’ Pinks? You comin’?” She looked around the area briefly. “Pinkie? Piiiiinkie? Where are ya girl?” She sighed. “Well, I think I’ve got an idea where she went. So now we need to go get Rainbow and Pinkie…”
She looked around at the three other ponies, one of which was cowering under the table. “Let’s go get ‘em then…”
Rainbow Dash
The excited Pegasus let out another small squeal as she alighted on the ground next to her pink friend, not even questioning how she had gotten there first. In front of both of them was a medium sized crater with smoke rising lazily from it. A crowd had gathered around it already. Whispers and rumors circulated like wildfire, all of which were speculations on what could have caused this.
And then abruptly they all stopped with a collective gasp. A small black tendril of some unidentifiable material had risen over the top and looked to just be hovering there. The tip lashed slowly at the air while the lower end extended somewhere below to be lost from sight. And then the tendril simply retreated back into the hole as quickly and unexpectedly as it had arrived.
The whispering started again; this time with a more noticeable tinge of fear and apprehension added to the mix. The crowd backed away slightly as a sound rose over the lip of the crater. The crunching of dirt underhoof, but somehow different.
A faint white sheen lit up the edge ever so faintly, distorted slightly as it was by the lines of heat rising from the mouth of the crater. The white sheen grew brighter as whatever it was attached to came closer. A strange appendage reached over the lip and grasped it, using the grip to haul itself up. Rainbow’s expression turned to one of fear, and then anger, as she saw what emerged.
The tension was thick enough to cut with a brick…
To her right, Pinkie was preparing to fight, a dog-like growl emanating from her small form. Rainbow pawed the ground, leaving a small indent, before charging…
Light
Wow, this really brings back memories…
I sidestepped the clumsy charge and allowed the Pegasus to rush past me. This was all bringing back memories of my first encounter in Equestria, in fact…
No way, it is her! Ha, what are the chances of meeting that same pony again!
I managed a small chuckle before having the air squeezed out of me. The blue pony had already recovered from her initial attack and had wheeled around to have another go, hitting me solidly in the stomach. The pony pushed me over, and tackled me into a submissive position. Or at least submissive for a pony. For me it only involved bending my knee a bit. It must have been meant to break a pony’s joint, but whatever.
I Phased and slid out from under her, rematerializing back on my feet next to her. The pony, unused to fighting a thing that wasn’t even solid, backed away, fear evident behind her cocky features. I looked around quickly. The spectators were watching with open mouths, shocked by the sudden violence. A voice came out of nowhere.
“Everypony, stop this thing! It is a danger and must be brought to justice! It probably just wandered out of the Everfree anyway!”
The pony in question was standing to my left, so I spun and looked at him. It was an incredibly large ice white pony, with a scar running across his left eye. He had a symbol of a claw on his flank.
I really need to find out what those mean…
I resolved to ask later, so turned back to face the blue pony. Apparently the white one didn’t like that.
“Hey, you! Look at me when I talk to you! Even if you can’t talk, then listen! If you don’t leave right know then me and my squad will have to take you out!”
I ignored the statement and continued to glare at the pony. She seemed to have recognized me from my last… visit… Unfortunately none of the others did. They probably hadn’t even been told about the attack at all.
The angry white one shouted again. “If you do not respond in any way, my group will take that as a sign of defiance!” I ignored him again. “Very well.”
The blue one started to say something.
“Ummm, Tracker? I really think that you should leave this guy alone…”
The white pony shifted his glare from me to the blue pony. “Rainbow, I can’t do that. And besides, this guy will be easy. I once took out a manticore single hoofedly, and this guy is tiny in comparison.”
“No, I mean th-“
“Rainbow, I told you, we’ve got this.”
As he said this, four other equally large ponies gathered around him. One was a unicorn, two were pegasi, while the last was neither, the same as this ‘Tracker’ pony…
I sighed and turned to face them directly, fully aware of what they were about to attempt. “Guys, you really don’t want to start a fight that you can’t finish…”
Tracker looked taken aback for a second before recovering. “Silence beast, you don’t know who you are dealing with here. We’ve taken out fully-grown hydras, packs of timber wolves, manticores, and even a frost dragon. You have no chance!”
I smiled, and this seemed to unnerve the self-proclaimed monster hunters.
“Well, then. I should be able to deal with you all easily then…” I cracked my neck, and then my knuckles, loudly. “Let’s have some fun with this.”
“Didn’t you just listen?! You can’t win this fight! We’ve fought beasts mightier than you and won!”
I chuckled. “Oh yes, you’ve beaten massive guys, but not worse than me.” I gave them an insane grin. “Now, who wants to party?”
Tracker
“-wants to party?”
The things insane grin sent shivers down the experienced fighter’s spine. This creature was showing absolutely no fear, even when severely injured, as it must have been. Nothing could come out of a fall like that unscathed. But this thing looked fine.
To his left, the unicorn of the group, Charge, was preparing a spell to subdue the creature. As it neared completion, Tracker could hear small grunts of exertion from his companion. When he looked, Charge had beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. He leaned over. “What’s wrong?” He hissed in Charge’s ear.
“I can’t. Seem. To get. A lock on him. The field around. Him is. Severely distorted. Warped.” The sentence could only barely be heard as the unicorn struggled for breath, before sliding sideways to the ground, exhausted from trying to subdue the monster.
The thing in front of them looked bored.
“You know, it is rude to keep a dangerous monster waiting. And I thought that hunters were supposed to be proper gentlemen…” The thing made a small ‘tsk’ noise coupled with a wag of its appendage in disapproval. Flare lost his temper. The crimson red pegasus to Tracker’s immediate right leapt off the ground and flew towards the monster like an arrow loosed from a bow.
He flew straight towards the thing.
He flew straight into the thing.
He flew straight out of the thing?
All of the gathered ponies gave small gasps of relief as they saw the terrifying being dissipate and flicker out of existence. The force of but a single pegasus had been enough to destroy it, it seemed. A few cheers hesitantly emerged from the crowd of onlookers.
They quickly died down when they heard the laughter. It echoed from everywhere and nowhere at once, rolling around, bouncing off the surroundings and being amplified. Then the voice spoke.
“Oh bravo, I didn’t think that one of you would be that brash. You know, if I had wanted to cause you any real harm you would most certainly be dead right now.”
As the voice spoke, a small distortion popped into existence next to Flare. It pulsed, and the resulting shockwave smashed into Flare in a maelstrom of bass, sending him tumbling unconscious onto the ground. The distortion bent around itself and opened up to reveal the creature, which stepped out from behind it as though it was a curtain.
The thing clapped its hands slowly.
“As I said, good effort. I’d give maybe an eight, but then deduct for the lack of caution and any self-preservation, so maybe, I don’t know, a six? How does that sound? Hmmm?”
No response.
“Oh fine, have it your way, seven it is.”
Tracker found his voice, with great difficulty, and spoke to the creature.
“This is your last chance. Surrender now and we will not attack.”
The creature laughed at the statement. “Oh come on dude, you’ve already attacked me, and I think you know that I’m not gonna surrender… Oh, and you might want this guy back, it’ll make the fight more interesting.”
The creature waved an arm, and a tendril of what appeared to be solid shadow reached out, plucked Flare up, and deposited him softly next to his squad. Charge staggered over to his stunned friend and touched his horn to Flare’s head. A small burst of magic later and the Pegasus was awake, albeit sore.
The group of five turned to the creature as one. They ran at it.
It laughed.
Light
This is becoming one really weird day…
I struggled to stop myself from laughing out loud. The ‘monster hunters’ were complete idiots. They were doing the usual ‘walk in, give too many warnings, blada blada bla’ routine. Still, at least they gave warnings, more than what could be said about the Peacekeepers back home. Regardless, the fighting was getting old quickly, especially for the first day of movement for months.
But still, I loved how amateurish these hunters are. It would be fun to… ‘teach’ them…
For a moment it occurred to me that I might have gone slightly insane from boredom, and this was backed up by the fact that I was having fun screwing with all of these ponies, but hey, the opportunity was too good to pass up.
Eventually, the moron that had run at me was woken up by the unicorn, and they all faced me. It was time for things to heat up. Finally.
They all looked so silly when they attacked. I couldn’t help it anymore. I laughed. The first one, a light green pegasus, leapt at me, but wasn’t able to land a proper hit on my body, confused by the blurred edges and flowing nature of it. A single roundhouse to the head later and he was down. A yellow pony tried to go low, but I jumped over and tripped him up with a tendril, incapacitating him.
Two down, three to go.
The red pegasus seemed to have learnt his lesson, and was waiting to attack instead of blindly rushing in. He was just hovering in midair, and I wondered what he was doing. Then the unicorn tried to attack. The two of them must have agreed to attack together. The unicorn tried to fire his energy at me, but I Phased and dodged each one in a flurry of bright light. I rushed him and slammed into him. Hard. As a joke I made some small stars appear over his head and start circling slowly.
The pegasus took the opportunity to sneak behind me, but I twirled around and opened my mouth. That was something that I only ever did when I really wanted to scare. He got a great look at something that looked like it had been dredged up from the bowels of hell itself.
Needless to say it didn’t look very nice, but at least it only looked like that in the form I was in.
The red pegasus stumbled back as fast as he could and sprinted off into the crowd, leaving only a small trail of dust as a memory.
Four down, one left…
Tracker
Tracker watched, worried, as his team was dispatched by the creature. It had a general air of contempt as it took out his companions as if they were no more than flies to be swatted away.
And the worst part was that they were some of the best hunters in the business.
He watched as his deputy ran off into the crowd screaming his head off. Luckily Tracker himself didn’t get a good look at the gaping, fiery maw.
And then it turned to him.
There was no sign of a battle but for the three unconscious bodies lying nearby. The ground was barely scuffed, and the swirling vortex resolved into the more familiar shape of the creature. It was Tracker’s turn.
He bent down to attack, knowing that it would most likely be futile, and pawed the ground. The creature stood there inspecting its claw thing at the end of its arm. Tracker started to charge…
An angry Goddess of the Sun dropped down onto the ground in front of him.
The onlookers gasped as they saw their Princess appear, and then ran the risk of outright fainting when her Sister appeared alongside. Both looked tired and sore. And both looked pissed.
All of the ponies in the area immediately either dropped into a hasty bow, or sneakily backed away to safety.
The thing just sighed.
Light
Oh god, this again.
Why can’t they just accept the fact that I’m out of that bloody statue?!
It really would make things so much easier…
I stared at the Princesses. They looked extremely tired and angry. Celestia didn’t even waste any time before trying to kill me. Mere seconds after she was joined by her sister, a violent inferno burst into existence at the tip of her horn, blasting away any shadows in the area. I could feel the heat waves radiating from it. Somehow, there was absolutely no smoke rising from the top as she launched it at me.
I dived to the side and rolled, letting the ball dissipate the moment it passed me by as I slid back to my feet with an annoyed look on my face. All of the bystanders screamed in terror and fled from the fight. I gave a snort. “Honestly?! You don’t even have the decency to at least make some sort of promise or anything? Jeez, call yourself a hero why don’t you…”
I swaggered towards the duo in an attempt to annoy them further. That probably wasn’t the best choice, but hey, I’d been in a statue for two months…
Celestia and Luna eyed me warily as I approached. I stopped when I was within easy reaching distance.
The clearing was silent.
I broke it to them bluntly. “What do you want?”
Celestia looked surprised that I chose to speak, but the look quickly changed to one of distrust and open hostility. “We’ve come to put you back in your prison.”
I shook my head. “Not gonna happen.”
Her eyes narrowed. “We will not stop until you are detained.”
“So be it.”
I scooped up a shadow from a nearby alley and slammed it into the side of Celestia, knocking her to my left and into a building. She collapsed into the dirt.
Luna glared at me.
As she did so, I felt guilt spreading throughout my body. I was unsure why, and confused why this single pony had that effect on me. I looked away to break the evil eye contact of death and to check on Celestia.
But when I looked, she was already up. And ready to strike.
The same ball of flames from before had gathered around her horn, but it was different, having an angry red tinge to it that flared wildly.
She released the energy, and it flew towards me. I tried to roll, but something prevented me. Luna had used her horn to erect a makeshift barrier around me of a deep violet light. It was too powerful to break through without some sort of run up, so I Phased to try and pass through it. Or at least, I tried to.
Before I could Phase, I was hit by the ball of searing plasma. I was sucked into the middle and held in position by some invisible force. For a moment, nothing happened.
And then I started to burn.
Unimaginable pain flowed through my body. I felt my bones melt and my flesh char. A strange smell entered my nostrils, and I gave a small start as I realized it was the smell of me burning. The firestorm tore me apart, and the strong turbulence flung every particle in different directions as my world faded to black and the fire consumed me…
Celestia
Celestia watched in satisfaction as a small fragment of her Sun was flung off the end of her horn towards Light. Her Sister had expected this, and done beautifully, using her magic to stall the dangerous escapee just long enough for her power to hit him.
The ball stopped once it had touched Light and sucked him into the very center. For a moment Celestia became worried, as she saw no effect. And then all at once, the fire started to alter Light.
The strange flowing form started to drip, while smoke rose from the top of the previously clean spell.
Then the scream came.
Celestia’s expression turned to one of comprehension, and then horror, and then agony. The sound was completely unearthly, as if it should never have existed. Without even turning, she knew that her Sister, and possibly every pony in Ponyville, was hearing the same noise. The haunting sound echoed through the streets, tumbling through open windows until it filled every cavity, every hole, every empty space. It was the sound of something being destroyed that shouldn’t.
And then it stopped.
Celestia’s world lit it as she opened her tightly shut eyes, not even remembering having closed them. A moistness was on her face as the tears rolled down her cheeks and fell to the ground. She looked at the ball in front of her. There was only a dense ball of light and darkness, and as she watched even that disappeared, swirling tighter and tighter until it exploded in a shockwave, spreading fragments everywhere. The consequent impact threw anything not secured into the air. Celestia was almost blown over by the force of it.
When she looked again, the fiery ball was gone, and there was nothing remaining of Light except for fragments that could be seen flitting into the distance, weaving in patterns comprehensible to none.
Light was gone…
Unseen by all, the fragments flew in a gentle arc before making a beeline, as if drawn by a magnet.
Straight towards the Everfree Forest. And Fluttershy’s cottage.
Unknown Location
In the silent room, a small beeping noise came from a dark bank of computers. The sole occupant of the room looked away from the only other active display in the room to check on the alert. A flicker of doubt passed across his face, hidden by the shadows thrown around the room by the sole source of light, illuminating the bare minimum.
He reached out and picked up a phone.
“Sir? This is the Watchman. I’ve just received an alert.”
An inaudible string of babble passed through the handset.
“Well, it was a high energy release warning.”
More noise.
“Yes sir, I checked that it wasn’t them, the rest are dead and the last one went missing not too long ago. I don’t think they will be heard from again. After all, they were just anarchists. But this appears to be from somewhere else. It also has a strange energy signal.”
The phone was dead. A single word slid down the line, filled with untold malice.
“Well sir, I’ve never seen this type of energy before, but the closest thing that I can relate it to it, well, light… I’m still not sure how that is even possible. But I got a lock on it and should be able to track it.”
In the room, a small hidden door slid open with a faint hissing noise. The Watchman looked up from the phone in his hand towards the new arrival. “Oh, sir! I didn’t realize that you would be arriving so quickly! Do you need to have a look at the alert?”
The new arrival nodded. The Watchman led the hidden figure over to the bank of computers. Moments later, the unfortunate Watchman’s brains were spread out over the walls for all to see. The cloaked figure stayed silent, smoke rising from the gun in its hand. It leaned over the bank and looked at the screen. A few seconds later it straightened back up, knowing that it could finally finish its plans. It looked at the body lying crumpled on the floor with distain.
The Director never left witnesses…
Shit just got real...
OW! Fuck!
Jesus, stop fucking hitting m-
OH GOD DAMMI-
...
Just stop.
"Not until you wash your mouth out with soap..."
Really?
"...Yeah..."
...
Fuck.
OW!
Okay, anyway...
Hope you enjoyed the new chapter, more should be coming soon. And as a response to the 'cliffhanger'...
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