//------------------------------//
// Turmoil 
// Story: The Super Awesome Story About Stuff 
// by BlackRoseRaven 
//------------------------------//

Chapter Thirteen: Turmoil
~BlackRoseRaven

An oily tentacle slashed towards them, but Luna rebuked it with a blast of blue flames, blowing it apart into nothing but slime and ash. Yet the shapeshifting monstrosity attacking them only laughed loudly, filling the entire hallway as it slithered towards them, heads and jaws and eyes of every shape and size pushing out of the entity as it hissed in a thousand voices: “Your struggle only makes this sweeter...”
This hideous thing, whatever it was, seemed unstoppable and inescapable: they had barely made it out of the storage room alive, and they had immediately gotten separated from the Director in the scramble to escape the waves of black poison that had tried to swallow them up. But now, the living darkness was trying to mold itself into some sort of incoherent form, some kind of hideous mockery of life that was doing all it could to pursue them and terrify them into submission so it could devour them...
“Aye, we are marinating in our own fear. Steeping in our own terror!” Luna mocked angrily, backpedaling and grimacing as she did her best to resist the psychic static tearing through her mind. But the only thing distracting her was her own rage, as she resisted the urge to fling herself at the monstrosity, instead slashing her horn back and forth to send blue fireballs crashing into the thing to slow its progress, as she growled: “Although I must admit... vinegar and honey are both weak temptations compared to thy sickly provocations...”
Scrivener only grunted, even as his own body shivered in agreement: it was hard to resist the temptation to charge headlong at the oozing monstrosity. Yet all the same, he forced himself to backpedal in his ripped dress, muttering: “Nothing excites quite like anger.”
“That is why we get along so well, Scrivy.” Luna said ironically, and then she leapt backwards when the head of a dragon suddenly exploded out of the muck, biting at her savagely. The draconic head lashed to the side, narrowly missing Scrivener before it bit towards Marina, who flinched-
Sol Seraph slammed down through the back of the monstrosity's overextended neck, and the dragon head gargled as it was severed from the gangly appendage, its skull collapsing into nothing but slime and ash. The entity rolling down the hall after them halted and wailed at this, but it seemed surprised more than hurt as it asked in its countless echoes: “Why? Why do you fight us? You are us! You are shaped of our flesh!”
“You are in my way.” Sol Seraph replied coldly as she retreated to land beside Luna, flexing her body as she readied herself. “I am no one's pawn.”
“I do not know about that, thou wert quite the pawn of-” Luna cleared her throat when Scrivener glowered at her and Sol Seraph rolled her eyes. “But nay, nay, as long as thou art here, thou might as well make thyself useful, that is-”
The mass of slime and malice roared furiously, making the walls and floor shake with its rage, and the ponies stumbled before Marina's eyes widened as the ooze began to transform, hideous half-formed things stretching out- “It's charging!”
Luna snapped her horn out, and blades of ice tore out of the ground in a short fence, the many claws and appendages of the slime beast crashing into these and making it howl in frustration as it was caught against the frosty spikes.
Scrivener Blooms was already charging down the corridor to the doors at the other end, and he grimaced as he thought he saw dark shadows racing him along either wall in the corner of his eyes. But he didn't slow even as the doors at the end of the hall shuddered as black energy began to spread over them, the stallion throwing himself forwards and cannonballing his body straight into the double doors.
The old wood all-but-shattered as they were smashed open, and Scrivener rolled out into an enormous ballroom beyond. He managed to get his hooves under him and stagger up to his feet as Sol Seraph and Marina both ran past him, the Pegasus immediately flying up to the center of the debris-covered room as Marina began to hurry towards another set of doors-
“They're all locked.” Sol Seraph said calmly, but her voice carried through the entire room as she looked back and forth, continuing coldly: “The Redacted is blocking all possible exits. It has to be destroyed. And the Draconequus have to be killed.”
Luna scowled as she leapt into the room, glancing over her shoulder and cursing as the slimy, oozing monstrosity finally pulled itself past the spikes of frost, devouring the ice as it slithered its way down the hallway. “Part of me suspects this is just thy way of tricking us into murdering everything, Sol Seraph. But I agree that we must do something about this monster, its presence alone is...”
Luna ground her teeth together slowly, and then she quickly slashed her horn back and forth, channeling the anger and the fury bubbling in her into her magic. Walls of ice ripped upwards, forming a sparking, crystalline barrier that would hopefully at least slow the beast down, whatever it was... was it the Redacted?
No, for some reason, Luna felt like this was only a part of the Redacted, a stretching claw, an eager mouth, a staring eye...
She shook her head sharply as psychic static tingled through her brain, making it hard to focus, hard not to drop her guard. All the same, she managed to yank herself backwards, breathing hard as she turned and hurried to rejoin Scrivener Blooms in the center of the room.
After a few unsuccessful attempts to open the doors around the massive ballroom, Marina came to join them as well, the chocolate mare shaking her head as she fought to maintain her body's consistency, stumbling over the jagged wreckage of furniture and loose stone littering the hall. The psychic static was doing more than tearing at her mind and concentration, it was challenging her body, trying to peel her apart.
She shook herself out, but as that hideous thing's magic tried to invade and destroy her, at the same time she could feel it: the desperation, the despair, the raw anger that made up the creature, and... “It's coming. Everything is coming here. Everything and... nothing.”
Luna frowned as she looked sharply over at Marina, and Scrivener Blooms grimaced. But Sol Seraph seemed to be the first to understand as she landed beside the stallion, laughing shortly as she muttered: “Of course. Raise a child on lies and your lies are all they will believe.”
“That is something thou should know well, Sol Seraph.” Luna growled, and Sol smiled thinly at her before the sapphire mare looked back ahead, as the barrier she had erected trembled and began to melt, dark veins visibly spreading through the ice. “What is it?”
“Nothing important. Nothing that changes anything. We still have to kill everything in our way.” Sol Seraph said coldly, and Luna looked at the Pegasus for a moment, but the Pegasus didn't so much as glance in her direction, even as she said softly: “I would not give my life for the Praetor. I will not give my life for this entity, either.”
“What would thou give thy wretched excuse for a life for?” Luna growled, and Sol Seraph simply looked at her for a moment before she smiled, and the sapphire mare had to repress a shudder. “Thou art no volk. Thou art nothing but a-”
“For once, Luna Brynhild, shut up.” Sol Seraph said contemptibly, and Luna rumbled in frustration, but she was stopped from making any other remarks – or saying anything else foolish – by the sound of ice shattering and wet sludge hailing down into the ballroom.
The monstrous ooze flooded forwards, spilling like a black flood over the floor. Half-formed creatures rose up out of the slime, moaning, whispering, and gasping, and Luna bared her teeth and set herself before her eyes widened slightly in surprise as Sol Seraph said calmly: “You know the truth. You said so yourself: we must strike at the archer, not the arrows.”
“Then how do we do so, when the arrows are so large and vexing and demanding of our attentions, and we cannot see the archer?” Luna growled as she leaned forwards, her eyes flashing as the hideous mass of slime began to slowly twist itself into some massive, hulking shape, ripping up floorboards and pulling in broken chunks of debris from around the ballroom.
“Here we are again... back again, so soon...” said the thing in a thousand echoing voices, and Luna cringed and clenched her eyes shut as Marina gasped, hugging herself tightly as she felt her body rippling under its toxic power. Slowly, the monstrosity rose a face made of broken wood and shattered stone and living, hating black slime, massive and yet vaguely equine in its shape as it hissed: “And this time, there is nothing to save you. There is nothing to bring stability back to this world. We shall consume all. I shall be one, and you shall be me.”
The monstrous construct began to stride slowly forwards, and Scrivener shivered as he didn't just see the beast: he saw each of them, reflected in it, in the ripples and the shudders of its gelatinous body. “It's... building itself from both this world and us...”
“It is nothing more than shadows and reflection. Do not feed it. It is nothing but vermin.” Sol Seraph said derisively, shaking her head in disgust before her eyes flicked back over her shoulder. “The others are coming.”
Luna looked up sharply at this, narrowing her eyes slightly before she grinned wryly, muttering: “So all we must do is outlast the beast. Our link is not functioning yet, but... I feel as if Twilight has the answers that we yet require.”
“Answers are not enough. Actions are what matter.” Sol Seraph replied coldly, turning her eyes ahead to lock on the monstrosity as it laughed at them mockingly.
“As if your precious Twilight Sparkle can save the day this time. Your faith is blind. Friendship? Love? How will these empty promises save you?” mocked the monstrosity, as it slowly began to stalk towards them, arching its back like a cat as it loomed through the hall.
“'Tis not what love does, but what love gives us strength to do, creature.” Luna growled in response, her horn thrumming and her mane sparking with electricity before she grinned widely. “And 'tis most certainly not with 'love' and 'friendship' we will defeat thee, oh no. 'Tis with the smashing and the crushing and the pummeling!”
“We need to hold it off.” Sol Seraph said shortly, and then she lunged, driving straight for the face of the creature-
The monster easily slapped her out of the air,sending Sol Seraph bouncing and crashing painfully across the floor, but the Pegasus only smiled coldly as she rolled sharply up to her hooves, skidding to a halt: and before the beast could even laugh, an explosion ripped through the leg that it had slapped her away with, slime and debris hailing down and knocking the monster off-balance.
Luna immediately snapped her horn forwards, blasting its remaining forelimb with a blue fireball, and stone and slime flew in all directions as the monstrosity tumbled forwards on its face with a wet, sickening splat. It snarled in frustration as it immediately began to rebuild itself, even as monstrous appendages tore out of its back, claws and tendrils of ooze spread rapidly over the ground, grasping at whatever it could pull in to quicken its regeneration.
The monstrosity changed, another, horse-like head sprouting from its shoulders, its sockets blind hollows but its dripping maw filled with countless staring eyes, as its first head hissed: “Exhaust yourselves. The more you fight us, the stronger we become. I will destroy you. I will consume you. I will make you all mine, and you will never leave me...”
Luna began to charge her horn with magic again as Sol Seraph set herself, before Marina stepped forwards and snapped: “Wait! We need to do more than just knock it down!”
Luna began to open her mouth to argue, but as the monster picked itself back up, she realized that both of its forelegs hadn't just regrown, but split into two pairs of disfigured limbs that twitched and pulsated as they stretched eagerly out. They snagged into the ground as it moved forwards, grinning with its twin heads as the sapphire mare swore under her breath: it was growing stronger, fiercer...
“I will distract it. The monster is feeding on your emotions and your energy. Any damage you do to it will only make it stronger.” Sol Seraph said, unflinching and calm as she landed beside the sapphire mare.
The sapphire mare began to bare her teeth at the Pegasus, but to her surprise, it was Marina who stepped in, saying firmly even as she visibly shivered with the effort it took to hold her body together: “We just have to hold it off, correct? Let Sol Seraph distract it and help me then, Luna, I think I know how we can.”
Luna shifted a bit, but then she gave a quick nod to Marina as the chocolate mare looked back at her steadily, with a confidence she hadn't expected from the mare. But, she supposed, now the play was over, and none of them could afford to hide their strength any longer.
“What must we do?” Luna asked, and Marina gave a faint but determined smile as she looked over at the mare, Scrivener Blooms quickly approaching to offer his own help.
The monstrosity took a step towards them, then snarled as Sol Seraph leapt into the air and shot straight into its original head, making it stumble as the other head gaped after it, following her with the countless eyes filling its maw. But Sol Seraph was dauntless, even as tendrils of black ooze lashed up after her from the creature, even as its whispers filled her mind with furious, desperate, confused questions: “Why do you fight us? We should be as one! You are us! I am you!”
“You are pathetic.” Sol said coldly, as she weaved between several tendrils before she slammed her hooves down into the back of the creature's neck, then she launched herself off it, grimacing only slightly as claws ripped out of the creature's back and raked at her savagely, the monstrosity hissing as it turned its attention away from her-
Sol Seraph dropped from above the creature, streaking around in a curve to slam viciously into the back of one of its hind legs, and the monster fell back on its haunches with a wet splat. It lashed one of its split legs out with a roar as it turned towards her, shrieking: “You cannot stop us!”
“You are nothing but filth, and rot. I do not fear you.” Sol Seraph said contemptibly as she twisted out of the way of its attacks, unfettered by the morphing of its body: it was unpredictable, transforming, evolving as it fought, but the Pegasus never panicked, never wasted a movement, evading every attack, every mutation of the creature as she weaved around it before she suddenly dove.
She slammed into the ground in front of the slime-beast, then lunged off the floor and flapped her wings hard, shooting like a bullet through the eye-filled maw of the creature. But the beast slammed its jaws shut around her even as it wailed in misery, and there were several loud, horrendous crunches before the monster whiplashed its half-broken head to the side, spitting out both the Pegasus and several ruined, slimy eyeballs.
The Pegasus crashed to the ground in the hail of ooze and malice, bouncing brokenly backwards before she fell still on her back. She shivered, but only grit her teeth, refusing to cry out in pain in spite of the fact her wings had been visibly ripped and torn up, and her body was covered in what looked almost like acid burns, the equipment she was wearing visibly steaming and corroding away.
The beast barely gave her a look as it turned its attention back towards the other ponies, before it hissed in surprise when several brown balls slammed into its body and head. The monstrosity shook itself, then laughed loudly as the spheres melted and were pulled quickly into its form. “Do you sacrifice yourselves to me so willingly? Are you so eager to become part of us?”
Marina gasped quietly, shivering in pain: her body was visibly thinner from using her own chocolate body to give strength to the attack, but all the same she looked up with determination as she focused through the pain, replying with a surprising fearlessness: “No. But I refuse to be afraid of you, either.”
She gritted her teeth as Luna tilted her horn towards Marina, channeling her own magic into the mare's: it was something between spell, and pure expression of will, making the chocolate that had been greedily absorbed into the monster's body boil with energy.
The monster snarled, then roared in frustration as slabs of stone and broken bits of wood tumbled out of its form, as the energized chocolate spread through its frame, eating away the slime-beast's cohesion. It wriggled back and forth, and Scrivener gritted his teeth, muttering: “You were right. It has no solidity by itself.”
As more junk and debris fell out of the creature, the monstrosity lost more of its shape, howling as it sank towards the ground, but even Luna could see it was the positive energy that was doing the most damage to the monstrosity. And Marina could feel it, through the faint link she still shared with that chocolate twisting and spreading through the beast, even as her chocolate literally boiled itself away: the positive charge of energy, that magic that contrasted the hate, the poison, the living shadow of this Redacted thing, it was eating through it like acid.
The behemoth stumbled towards them, then howled in fury as its legs gave out from beneath it, the slime-beast sloshing to the floor with a loud splat as chunks of the debris it had absorbed flew out of its body. It quivered on the ground, body now only a half-formed mass, one of its heads melted away and the other rapidly decaying even as it struggled to raise it and glare at them furiously. “We will not be stopped by this alone... you are weak, you are pathetic, and your family is dead, Marina!”
Marina's eyes widened in shock, and the slime-beast grinned as it felt that quiver in her energy, felt that change in her emotions as it whispered almost lovingly: “And your father never loved you. You just happened to be an easy pony to separate from the rest of the herd... to make into his chocolate plaything. Daddy doesn't care, Daddy doesn't care, Daddy doesn't care...”
The hideous thing singsonged in a thousand different voices, sludgy head tilting back and forth, and Marina snarled even as she fought back tears, her body shaking before she leaned forwards and shouted, unable to stop herself: “Shut up! Shut up, what do you know about-”
The slime-beast leaned forwards and vomited out a burst of dark ichors that hit the trio of ponies like a shotgun blast. Marina's concentration was disrupted as she bounced backwards, gasping as the energy seared its way into her chocolate before she rolled on her side and screamed in agony as she felt that black ooze trying to eat its way into her, heard the monster whisper in her mind, with anger, and hate and fear, yes, it was so afraid of them and that was what was driving it to destroy:
“You gave to us, so let us give to you.”
Marina screamed, rolling backwards on the ground as one of her eyes began to turn black, feeling the darkness, the loathing, the loss and the emptiness and the meaningless spreading through her, devouring her, making her-
The slime beast flinched as something slammed into it, before it snarled in fury even as the black ooze of its half-formed back lashed up to seize around Sol Seraph. But the Pegasus didn't fight the creature as she looked past it, ignoring the tendrils wrapping around her, the jaws and claws forming all around her as she was pulled down into the hideous thing: “Luna Brynhild.”
Luna looked up, gasping softly, her body steaming from the black poison that had coated it, and the eyes of the two met for a moment before Sol Seraph gave a strange smile even as she said: “I am disappointed in your abject failure. Do better. I expect more from you, the next time we meet. And I promise you: we will meet again”
The slime-beast pulled Sol Seraph down, and Sol Seraph rose her head slightly, looking proudly towards the ceiling, refusing to bend, to break, to scream or cry out as she acted without fear or hesitation, removing one of her bracers before she silently settled her hoof against the long scar over her foreleg, saying quietly: “You were weak, Ardor. But you were also strong. One last time... I will ask for your strength.”
For a moment, there was nothing as the slime-beast began to quickly reform, as Marina writhed beneath its torture and Luna and Scrivener dragged themselves up from the ground. But as the Pegasus began to disappear into the ooze, the beast suddenly rippled before it arched its body, the gelatinous monster twisting itself helplessly back and forth as golden flames exploded up from its back.
It fell to the ground, howling in misery as Sol Seraph became a burning star of bright fire, and Luna winced away from the intensity of the heat as Marina gasped, then shook herself violently on instinct, bleeding chocolate even as her body forced out the black poison inside her. Scrivener Blooms staggered up to his own hooves, staring with shock as Sol Seraph and the monstrosity both burned, before this Redacted and hideous thing wailed: “You betray us!”
The only response was for the roaring flames to rise higher, the golden blaze becoming brighter, and the slime-beast  collapsed forwards as it lost all cohesion, becoming little more than a flood of black water that splashed helplessly out over the ballroom floor. Scrivener grasped Marina, helping support her as they backed slowly away from it, and Luna grimaced as she looked into the golden flames, breathing hard as she murmured: “You would mock love, creature... but now, love makes a mockery of thee.”
Luna shook her head briefly, then narrowed her eyes as the golden flames slowly began to dissipate, the inferno, the burning star that Sol Seraph had become beginning to fade. And as it faded, the boiling black slime beneath it roiled and began to rapidly pull itself back together, humping up into a singular mass as it sluggishly started to regenerate.
Perhaps Sol Seraph hadn't done more than slow it down, but it gave Luna the chance she needed to grasp Marina, tossing her over Scrivener's back and carrying her across the ballroom, away from the gurgling, whimpering thing. Its voices were confused, howling and shouting at themselves, tearing through their minds in painful slashes of psychic static, but Luna did her best to ignore the echoes as she muttered: “I hate to admit it, Scrivy... but I wish that I had fought her.”
Scrivener grunted, then he looked up as something sparked through the psychic static, as the world around them trembled violently. The slime-beast seemed to sense it too, as several enormous, horse-like heads rose up out of the gathering pool, wild, staring eyes opening throughout the black ooze as it rasped: “You are foolish... do not challenge us... do not challenge me! I am stronger! Obey!”
“Weak dogs bark loudest.” Luna growled, as the world trembled around them, before she looked up as dust hailed down from the ceiling, cracks beginning to spread through the stone above as she said calmly: “The strong do not bark. They simply do.”
The pool of slime roared at them in mixed voices, then shrieked in fear and anger and a thousand other toxic emotions as something smashed through the ceiling, flipping violently several times before it clanged loudly into the floor. The huge object rung once, a toll like a mourning bell echoing through reality before the shape hidden in the cloud of dust vanished.
There was a flap of wings, and a gust of wind cleared the air, leaving Twilight Sparkle standing calmly in front of Luna, Scrivener, and Marina, her body thrumming with her focused magic. For a moment, she only stood as the hydra-like slime screamed and snarled and hissed at her, before the purple mare dropped her head slightly as behind her, Luna said cheerfully: “Well, thou hast always known how to make an entrance!”
“Insulate yourselves with your magic.” Twilight instructed quickly, and Luna huffed but then nodded, her horn glowing and layering both herself and Scrivener Blooms in energy. Her eyes widened in shock the moment she was cloaked in the magic, and Twilight smiled briefly as she nodded slowly, before she turned fearlessly around and strode towards them, putting her back to the beast-
The mass of slime roared as it lunged forwards, becoming a toxic, black wave, and Luna and Scrivener both snarled as Marina leaned up, desperate, shouting: “Twilight, look out, it's-”
“It's not real.” Twilight said softly, and she looked calmly over her shoulder at the mass of black ooze, as it rushed towards her, before she smiled even as the mass, the flood, became a hundred biting jaws, a thousand reaching claws, all filled with eyes and hate and loathing as it splashed down on her in a savage torrent.
And Twilight continued to stand, unfettered, unafraid, unharmed, as the monster shrieked in a thousand gibbering voices, twisting wildly around her, but never touching her, as insubstantial as smoke, as harmless as a passing shadow. It writhed and howled, but Twilight didn't give in to it as she returned her attention to the others, saying quietly: “Don't give it power.”
The monstrosity writhed and coiled around her, and Luna stared in disbelief as Scrivener tilted his head slowly. Marina shook her own head weakly, before she flinched when she felt a sudden heat spread through her body... but after a moment, it became soothing, as Twilight smiled at her and said gently: “Sorry. I can't match your energy quite right, but... this should still protect you from the atmosphere. That's all this monster is, you know: concentrated hatred, rage, despair. And like... hate, like anger, like sadness, it can only hurt you when you let it, no matter how strong and invincible it seems.”
The flood of blackness roared as it twisted around Twilight... but shielded from the psychic static by the insulation of magic, now able to decipher those voices beyond just the wild emotion they were filled with, the threats and the hissing it cloaked its words in... Marina could hear pleading. Crying. Whimpering, and whispering, even as it turned its attention towards the trio of ponies.
“I will annihilate you! You will become us!” the monster roared.
“Please don't leave me. Stay with me. I don't want to be alone anymore.” the sad, miserable thing whispered beneath its screams.
The slime and malice lurched forwards, and Marina flinched, clenched her eyes shut... but Twilight was right. It flowed around them, flowed over them, like black fog. And this time, it kept going, washing past them and fleeing to the other side of the ballroom, where it crashed its way through a door and continued onward, twisting and lurching away.
“It was like a living illusion. It wasn't attacking us physically. It was making us experience pain, but not actually wounding us.” Scrivener muttered, as he reached up to touch his face. “How did you know?”
“I wasn't entirely sure, but... I had a feeling.” Twilight admitted, and Scrivener and Luna stared at her, but the purple mare only smiled slightly. “You two are the ones always telling me to trust my instincts. But that's also why it was gathering up the... well, 'physical' pieces of this realm to shape itself, even though it could already be anything it wanted...”
“So it could hit us with big rocks.” Scrivener said: it was a simplification, but he understood: an insubstantial creature, adding physical mass to itself to pretend it was real. But then... “How could it manipulate the physical world, though?”
“Do you think that's really a floor under your hooves, Scrivy? Is this really air we're breathing right now?” Twilight asked pointedly, and Scrivener blinked before the purple mare shook her head slowly, saying quietly: “This world has a lot of rules to it, though. That's why he used 'Draconequus' as the catalysts. Because he needed something that, by his own rules, could break his own rules.”
“The Narrator.” Luna said quietly, before she frowned uneasily as she shook her head and asked: “But what about the Redacted? I thought we were the ones that had figured all this out, that it was because we killed Pluto that the Redacted was loose, and-”
“It is. It is and it isn't. It's hard to put into words, but easy to understand.” Twilight said as she shook her head as she turned nervously back towards the center of the ballroom, looking slowly back and forth as a chill passed through the air. “What you saw was only part of the Redacted. A mask, a... a reaching hand.”
Marina frowned as she rose her head, and Scrivener Blooms nervously tilted his own, saying slowly: “Our link isn't exactly working, but I have a bad feeling that means-”
The world trembled around them, and Scrivener grimaced as the walls began to rot, black ooze spilling out of them as the floor trembled beneath their hooves. Twilight stood her ground, raising her head high as she shouted: “Narrator! I want to talk to you! End this, stop this now!”
But Twilight's cries were in vain, because the Narrator couldn't respond. The Narrator was helpless, don't you understand? The Narrator is helpless against these imaginings come to life, he's lost control, he can't save anyone, let alone himself!
(He doesn't want to let go. He cannot let go. You will stay forever. Stay forever. NEVER LEAVE.)
Twilight flinched and Luna bared her fangs at the voice that echoed and tore through her mind, and Marina shuddered as she grabbed at her head, her body boiling for a moment as if the magic that held her together was being electrified by that living energy that tore through her.
“Narrator, we all hurt, we all... experience pain, but you can't let that rule you! Come on, you are in control, you just-”
But the world shook, cutting Twilight Sparkle off before several glass balls hailed down from the rotten hole in the ceiling above: they exploded in powerful conflagrations one after the other, forming a wall of fire between Twilight Sparkle and the companions she had come to save.
She looked over her shoulder, and Loki landed in front of her with a callous grin, lunging forwards as a knife seemed to appear like magic in his hoof. He drove this into Twilight's throat, and her eyes bulged as Luna and Scrivener both shouted denials, staring through the wall of flame as Twilight Sparkle trembled before she fell limply on her side, Loki stepping back with a cold smile even as a voice screamed from above: “You promised! No! You promised!”
“I dd. And like I said, a little bit of pain, and then she'll be here forever. They'll all be here, forever.” Loki said contemptibly, brushing at himself distastefully. A moment later, Shining Armor flopped to the ground beside him, but the foal seemed heedless of the fall: it should have killed him, at least left him stunned, but he scrambled to his hooves in only a moment before he bolted for Twilight's body.
A moment later, River Styx and his younger brother both landed. Luna glared furiously through the wall of flames, tensing herself, and Scrivener Blooms gave a short nod to her as he knelt beside Marina, wrapping a foreleg around her to support the chocolate mare.
She leapt across the wall of flame, and Loki grinned at her before he half-turned and almost mockingly slapped her out of the air, knocking her face-first into the ground with a resounding crunch as he said contritely: “You'll have to be faster than that.”
Luna shoved herself up to her hooves, glaring furiously at Loki, humiliated more than hurt, but startled as well. This stallion was Styx's twin, grinning from ear-to-ear, fast and strong and oh so very real...
Real, like how Shining Armor was almost real, as he cried loudly, clutching Twilight's body. And Styx... seemed faded, she thought.
She thought of Sol Seraph. She thought of Ignominious. She thought of the others they had caught glances of...
“Parasite, and leech.” Luna said coldly, as she slowly straightened, her eyes flicking towards Styx's younger brother, towards Styx's genet... and she noticed that in spite of how Loki grinned and preened and mocked them, whether they were real or not... “Thou art beneath contempt. At least these other shades have the dignity to mold themselves of memory and wish, but not to devour those whom they claim to 'love...'”
“Oh, please. I'm doing him a favor! Helping him lighten up, figuratively and literally.” Loki said condescendingly, gesturing at Styx as if he wasn't even present, and the unicorn's brow furrowed ever so slightly. Luna looked towards him, and she saw... poison, she thought. She recognized that look, that disassociation all too well... “He wanted to be just like me, after all. So I'm helping him be, just like me.”
“Thou would make him thy slave before thou consumes all that he is.” Luna smiled contemptibly as she straightened, as Styx's little brother frowned uncertainly, and Shining Armor whimpered as he looked up from Twilight, tears rolling down his cheeks. “Liar and trickster. Nothing like the Loki I knew after all: thou art a murderer. Thou art user, and abuser. Thou art villain. So what is thy great plan?”
“My plan? Oh, it's very simple. I'm going to get out of here. And none of you are going to stop me.” Loki replied with a smile as his horn thrummed with malice, and several shadowy ponies formed on either side of him, the specters staring hollowly at Luna with their spotlight eyes, and Luna shivered: these were neither illusion nor wraith. These were husks, formed of negative energy, the bled-out emotions of all of those who had suffered in this cruel subdimensional space...
They were Redacted. Loki was Redacted. They were all parts of the Redacted.
The Redacted was not one thing. It was everything, and it was nothing.
(It is pain. It is sorrow. It is loss. It is hate. It is fear. It is afraid.)
Redacted is what we call the things we have tried to remove, and instead...
(left SCARS.)
Redacted is the word for the black pits left when we try to erase what can never be undone, what can never be washed away. For the identities we have stolen, for the characters we have made up, whom we try to hide from the light of day in the abyss, the emptiness, the behind-the-curtain.
But not all things can simply be shoved away.
Loki laughed loudly, shaking his head with a wide, cheerful grin as his eyes glittered with malice. “Redacted this, Narrator that... lies and nonsense, all of it! And I have seen through it all. I understand. And I am insulted, by the way, by your more-than-implication that I'm not going to live up to my end of the bargain I made with my brothers. I certainly am going to take care of them! Precious care of them!” Loki winked as he did a playful little hop-step towards Luna, but his eyes were still cold, merciless. “I just have to take care of myself first. Don't we all?”
Luna snorted contemptibly, and Shining Armor trembled before his eyes widened in shock as Twilight Sparkle slowly rose her head, and Loki staggered back in shock as River Styx's own eyes widened and his little brother yelped and hid behind him. “I have always put my family first.”
Twilight Sparkle slowly pushed herself up to her hooves, and the knife simply fell out of her throat with a hiss of black smoke, as she rolled her head slowly on her shoulders, black-edged spreading as the runes around her cutie mark thrummed, her head rising high as stitching snaked over her face, the mare saying quietly: “I gave my life for my family.”
Twilight leaned forwards, and the stitches vanished as her mane shivered before bursting into black flames, a single streak of white light flaring to life through the living shadow of her locks. “I gave my honor and my innocence for my family.”
The mare stepped forwards, and reality thrummed, making Loki flinch backwards his shadowy thralls hissed and rasped wordlessly. “We can't destroy the Redacted. Only the Narrator can bring a stop to this. Stop fighting us, Loki. I'll ask you one last time-”
“Boring!” Loki shouted, flinging an explosive sphere suddenly at Twilight's face, and the mare grimaced as she tilted her head out of the way before her eyes widened as Loki grinned cruelly and pulled on an almost-invisible string wrapped around the orb, yanking it on a different course in midair and straight for Scrivener and Marina.
The stallion wrapped his forelegs tightly around Marina, covering her with his body before the sphere slammed into his back and exploded, knocking them both sprawling as Marina cried out and Scrivener was knocked crashing bonelessly over the floor, rolling to a sprawl in front of the wall of flames. Luna flinched visibly, gasping as burns spread over her own back before several of the thralls of shadow tackled her, while Loki snarled and leapt towards Twilight as his horn glowed with magic, even as he shouted: “Styx, are you going to let them kill me? They want to kill your family!”
Styx blinked, gritting his teeth before he looked down as Shining Armor ran towards him, grabbing his foreleg and crying out desperately: “Don't do it! You don't have to do it!”
River Styx grimaced, then he looked back over his shoulder at his younger brother, Lamp whimpering worriedly, both of the ponies staring at him with wide eyes before he was knocked staggering with a wince as there was a great burst of sapphire hellfire, Luna roaring in fury as she tore her way through the thralls by pure force of magic before she dove toward Loki.
Loki slashed his horn out, blowing out the firewall with the burst of wind as he knocked Luna and Twilight both backwards: and all around them, dark poison began to ebb out of the walls and floor, reeking smoke and bubbling slime flooding the world, seeking to
(RECLAIM. OURS. JOIN US.)
Twilight spread her wings to try and balance herself as she was knocked backwards, and Loki grinned as he ducked beneath a slash of Luna's horn while concentrating his magic, and a cyclone of wind erupted beneath Twilight, catching her open wings and flinging her high into the air. Then he smoothly dodged to the side, avoiding a stomp from Luna, who swore as several thralls tackled her and attempted to wrestle her down as they sapped the vitality from her body.
But before Loki could be too proud of himself, a missile of magic shot down from the air and hammered into his face, shattering his features like porcelain as he howled in misery. He clutched for a moment at his features, then looked up with a snarl as his hoof fell away to reveal a black, bubbling pit, his eye nothing but a glaring spotlight as Twilight said coldly: “Stop.”
Loki looked sharply over his shoulder, and he snarled at River Styx, who was simply standing protectively beside his little brother, staying close to all that was good in his life as Shining Armor clutched to his leg and cried helplessly, and- “Styx! If they kill me, your brother dies!”
River Styx's eyes widened, and when he looked towards Luna and Twilight, Loki bared his fangs at the younger stallion, who winced and dropped his head away from Loki fearfully as he stammered: “Y-Yes, I... I mean...”
Styx began to look back towards his brother, and Loki snarled in frustration before he swore as Luna tackled him, driving him to the ground. He rolled agilely backwards and kicked her off, but he was immediately caught by another blast of magic from Twilight, howling and stumbling to the side as part of his shoulder was torn away, cracks spreading down his entire limb.
“Kill the stallion or your brother dies!” Loki roared, and River Styx gritted his teeth as he looked back at his younger brother, but he seemed fine, even if he was cowering away, looking terrified, like he was-
Loki snapped his horn out: and a hurricane force wind pummeled into both Luna and Twilight, driving them both skidding backwards before he bared his teeth as his horn gave a second, darker pulse. The slime and smoke in the area reacted violently, tendrils of blackness twisting suddenly upwards. Luna snarled as she covered her face with her forelegs as they lashed across her like whips, and Twilight winced as she ducked beneath another: Loki's toxic magic was giving the slime and malice more power... “Loki, stop!”
“Never!” Loki retorted, and then he grinned callously as his eyes flicked towards Styx and his youngest brother, snarling: “Do what I say!”
River Styx bared his teeth at his twisted twin, before his eyes flicked back to his brother as the stallion reached up and grabbed his shoulder, saying suddenly, desperately: “Styx, you can't!”
Twilight Sparkle began to flick her horn forwards, but a wave of black ooze suddenly erupted out of the floor in front of her, becoming a massive set of jaws that slammed shut around her. Luna snarled, distracted by this, and then she was blown off her hooves and right into the waiting embrace of Loki's thralls, which tackled her to the ground and pinned her under their combined weight, as Loki growled: “You have to.”
The youngest brother opened his mouth, and then he gargled as a noose of black ooze snapped up and wrapped around his throat. He grasped at this helplessly, then clenched his eyes shut as he was yanked face-first into the ground with a thump, Shining Armor shouting and grabbing wildly at the noose of ooze as Styx stumbled backwards, then stared at Loki with disbelief.
Loki looked back, cold and ruthless and heartless, before he gave a too-wide grin, showing off too many teeth in his broken features as shadow and poison ebbed out of him, as darkness eagerly twisted around him as he whispered: “You have to. Or your younger brother dies.”
“Loki...” River Styx growled, taking a step towards him, but Loki only smiled coldly.
“What, Styx?” he asked contritely, and then he snarled suddenly and leaned forwards, snapping: “Worthless idiot! Nothing has changed! They have to die, one way or the other. It's the only way we'll be free. So free us! Kill them...” Loki narrowed his eyes, and the noose around the stallion's throat tightened. “Or your brother dies. I'm just making it a little more obvious how he'll die.”
River Styx began to take a step towards Loki, but then his younger brother gasped and spasmed as Shining Armor cried out, and Loki said softly: “No no no. Wrong direction, Styx. That's the way to watching your brother choke to death like rat in a trap. Go the other way. We can all be one happy family, Styx, as long as you learn to listen. And don't even think about using your magic. Two winds can't blow in opposite directions, you know.”
The two glared at each other for a few moments, and then Shining Armor stumbled forwards before he shouted angrily: “Why are you doing this, Loki? Stop it, you leave them alone, you stop it and leave-”
Without a twitch, Loki drew a knife from under his cloak and flung it into Shining Armor, the colt gasping in shock as he stumbled backwards before he looked down at himself. He whimpered again as he reached up to touch the knife in his breast, as Styx stared in shock, and Loki said coldly: “You see, Styx, I am like you, but better: my actions serve two purposes here. One, I have gotten rid of a pest. Two, you now are aware that I will not hesitate to kill anyone who interferes with my plans. Unlike you. Always so weak, brother! I thought you were willing to actually protect the ponies you care about, but apparently not, if it means getting your hooves dirty.”
Shining Armor slowly fell to the ground, gasping once, hugging himself as he shivered weakly before he closed his eyes. And to Styx's shock, the colt slowly turned to dark slime that melted quickly away through the floorboards, Loki saying mildly: “See? Anything that dies here, is stuck here forever. You don't want that, do you, Styxie? Now hurry up. Kill Scrivener Blooms. Three birds with one stone.”
River Styx slowly turned towards where Scrivener was sitting with Marina, and the stallion looked at them for a few moments as he breathed slowly in and out before he gritted his teeth. He looked back at his brother, choking to death: he looked towards Loki, who was grinning callously; he looked towards the pit, where Twilight Sparkle had vanished, and he looked towards Luna, who was buried beneath the life-sucking thralls.
They were in the darkness, and there was no way out.
River Styx closed his eyes for a moment, and then he nodded once before he turned silently towards Scrivener and Marina. He walked slowly towards them as Scrivener looked up with a wry smile, the earth pony slowly pushing himself up to his hooves as Marina shivered on the ground and hugged herself, looking pleadingly up at Styx.
Styx looked at Scrivener only briefly before he returned his eyes to Marina. And after a moment, he asked almost abruptly: “Sol Seraph. Where is she?”
Scrivener looked at Marina, and Marina smiled faintly as she looked up at Styx, saying quietly: “She died to protect us. And she died to... save herself, I suppose.”
Styx cast his eyes down at this in surprise, thinking of the mare, everything she had been, and how... “I suppose I admired her. But I suppose there was... a lot to admire in her.”
River Styx laughed briefly, and then he clenched his eyes shut when Loki snarled, the order echoing through his mind painfully: “Stop wasting time and kill him!”
“I might be a dude in a dress, but I'm not going to go down easily, you know.” Scrivener said wryly, and River Styx smiled grimly as his horn began to thrum with magic.
“I know.” River Styx said, and then he leapt forwards, slashing towards Scrivener Blooms.
The earth pony was swift, dodging to the side as Loki grinned slowly, licking his lips as Luna shouted and swore, watching almost desperately. Styx was cold and precise, blades of wing ripping across Scrivener's body to try and disorient him as the stallion closed in carefully on his larger prey.
Scrivener gritted his teeth as a blade of wind tore one of the straps of his dress loose, nearly ripping it off his body. He staggered, and Styx drove forwards, before wincing when Scrivener lunged at him, using his heavier body to drive the unicorn back before they grappled, even as Marina shouted at him and Loki laughed and reality around them seemed to grow darker...
A tentacle of black energy tore out of the ground, lashing out and snaring around one of Scrivener's hind legs, and the stallion gasped as he was yanked backwards and pulled off-balance. As he fell, Styx flung him down before dropping on top of him, pinning him to the ground as he gritted his teeth, and Loki crowed: “Yes, now kill him! Kill him!”
Styx trembled for a moment, then he began to raise a hoof as his horn glowed, before he flinched in shock as he was blasted by a wave of force. It didn't hurt him, but surprised him as he stared towards Marina, who was breathing hard but standing up, trembling but glaring at him as she whispered: “Don't make me do this, River Styx.”
“You... can't.” Styx said disbelievingly, and then he stared in shock as several tendrils of dark slime lashed up out of the ground, seizing around Marina and choking her, hefting her into the air as Loki laughed loudly.
“You're right, she can't!” Loki growled, grinning wider as he began to walk forwards. His eyes burned with power and madness, not seeming to realize that an eager trail of dark slime followed in his wake, or that miasma was burning off his body, as he hissed: “Kill her. Kill them all. Come on, Styx! It's just us, right? You, me and your brother! We're all that matter, so kill her, and let's go!”
River Styx looked back towards his younger brother, who was trembling on the ground, the tendril withdrawn from around his neck as he stared at his brother desperately. Then he turned his eyes back towards Loki, who had stepped up beside him: fearless, monstrous, his handsomeness lost to the hideous cracks spreading through a body that was full of hate, and rot, and... the emptiness and the hunger that had infected this cheery sociopath. “Well? Oh, fine, I'll do it myself.”
Loki's horn began to glow darkly, before he frowned as Styx reached up and grasped the spire, then he shook his head and said quietly: “I'll do it. I have to do it.”
Loki smiled at this, and Styx stepped forwards to look up at Marina. He approached her slowly, gazing up into her eyes as her chocolate body visibly, slowly melted away in the grip of the black poison, and Marina gazed back down at him silently before the stallion's horn began to glow, as he said: “Sorry. For everything.”
Marina only gave a faint smile, and then she closed her eyes as River Styx breathed quietly before he gritted his teeth, then leaned forwards and speared his horn into her. Marina gasped, clenching her eyes shut and shivering, but she wasn't afraid, she wasn't afraid-
Styx tore his horn back, coated in chocolate that he charged with energy before he spun around and shot the missile of hardened chocolate straight into Loki's face. It shattered a hole in the stallion's features, knocking him staggering backwards with a scream of shock, disrupting his concentration over his magic, and Marina gasped as she fell to the ground when Styx tackled Loki.
The two crashed and rolled backwards, and Loki snarled in fury and disbelief as Styx's hooves found his throat, crushing down on him. But as he pushed Loki down, the floor around him rotted, tendrils of black ooze lashing up greedily around them both, as the corrupted twin howled, fighting and struggling wildly even as poisonous fumes spilled up from the black hollow of his face: “What are you doing? I am everything you wanted to be! I am trying to save us all!”
“No.” Styx said calmly, as he pushed down, gritting his teeth as he felt them both beginning to sink into the poison. “You are everything I was afraid of becoming. But I'm not scared of you anymore, and I won't listen to your lies. Like you said, Loki. I'm not afraid of dying. I'm not afraid of killing myself, if it will save my little brother.”
The faceless stallion howled in fury, before he turned an enraged snarl towards their younger sibling, who stared at them, reached out for them... for them both, even as Loki screamed: “If we die, he dies! He's always needed us!”
But Styx only smiled faintly at this, before his eyes widened as Loki screamed as he lunged upwards, and suddenly he wasn't crushing down on a stallion, but instead stretching down into dark, foul slime as geysers of black poison splashed up around him, reeking, toxic smoke venting upwards as a thousand echoing voices rasped: “We will not let you go. I will not let any of you go.”
Styx gritted his teeth and reared back as dark ooze splashed up over him, clenching his eyes shut as he felt himself being pulled down after Loki, into the darkness, into the abyss, into the nothingness and the hell, even as he reached blindly out, tried to swim through the grasping sludge-
Something caught one of his hooves, and Styx looked up in shock to see Marina smiling at him, whispering: “Don't give up.”
Styx breathed hard as the slime pulled at him, and he could feel Marina struggling to hold on, to pull him back, even as the slime began to spread towards her. He looked blindly towards his brother, but Marina reached a hoof out and stopped him from turning his head, whispering: “Styx, for once in your life, make a decision for you.”
River Styx stared up at her, and as he felt himself being pulled down, he asked before he could stop himself: “What if my decision was to drown?”
Marina smiled at him in response, and then she leaned back and slowly pulled him upwards all the same, and River Styx gritted his teeth, but managed to reach up and catch the edge of the broken floor, pulling himself upwards and crawling out of the swirling darkness.
Scrivener Blooms smiled wryly as he picked himself up off the ground, before he looked up apparently without surprise as Twilight Sparkle seemed to appear beside him, reaching down and gently touching his back as she said quietly: “Sorry.”
“It's okay. I know you're busy. Things to do.” Scrivener shook himself out briefly, before he looked over at Luna, who was groaning loudly as she pulled herself slowly out from beneath the mass of ooze and ashes that the thralls had become when Loki had dissolved. “What happened?”
“You can't exist as two people, in two places, at once.” Twilight said softly, and she turned to watch as River Styx slowly climbed to his hooves, silently striding away from Marina towards his little brother, and Lamp.
The two looked up at him quietly, and River Styx looked back at them for a few moments before he shook his head and said softly: “You're not real.”
“I'm sorry.” his little brother said quietly, bowing his head silently, and Styx smiled briefly.
“No. Don't be. I could have stopped Loki any time, but I didn't. And I crafted you, the same way I saw my little brother...” River Styx looked away, shaking his head slowly. “Helpless. Unable to make his own decisions. Who needed me... to guide his hoof in everything.
“But you aren't like that. I depend on you as much as you depend on me... more, really.” River Styx looked back towards the stallion, gazing down at him quietly before she smiled faintly at his genet, adding: “Take care of him, Lamp. He needs you more than I do, right now.”
Lamp chirped happily, raising his head slightly, and his younger brother smiled hesitantly before he asked: “Should I go?”
Horses of Heaven, this was hard. But all the same, Styx forced himself to take a slow breath before he answered quietly: “That's your decision to make.”
His young brother looked slowly back and forth, at the miserable, dark world all around them, at the boiling slime and living malice. Lamp gently tugged at his ear, and after a moment, the young stallion nodded before he looked up at Styx, saying as if ashamed: “It's all a mess. I'm sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault.” Styx replied with surprising gentility, and then he hesitated, lowering his head, looking away for a moment...
And when he looked back up, his brother was gone.
For a moment, Styx stared at the empty space, and then he took a slow breath before he turned slowly around. But the others were still there: Luna and Scrivener and Twilight and Marina, and the stallion shifted awkwardly before he looked around and muttered: “Sorry. Anyway. How do we get out of here? It's like reality is rotting.”
“Now, Styx, there is no need to cry and give such long and pleading apologies, get up off thy knees, we know 'twas just a mistake that could have happened to any one of us.” Luna said ironically, before she winced when Twilight smacked the back of her head, whining: “That is what I do to Scrivy! Thou cannot do it to me!”
“We aren't out of this yet, Luna.” Twilight said with a gesture, as the world roiled around them. Because what did it matter, if the illusions, the shells, the manifestations of hate and longing and childlike desire returned to the mud from whence they had come? They would return. Reality was a weak and trembling thing, a wall of paper here: in time, their most rancid imaginings would be given life of their own, their most cherished memories would turn against them, and all for the want of a silly Narrator, who had just wanted to see his own memories, his own life made real...
“The play gave the world structure. A dream within a dream, within a dream.” Scrivener Blooms said slowly, as he straightened with a grimace, looking slowly around as echoing whispers traveled through the room around them. “The Draconequus were actors, just like us. Were they crafted by you, Narrator? Or do they each represent pieces of you...”
Styx frowned slowly, and then he reached up and touched his head, closing his eyes as he muttered: “The things most important to us... he got in my head because of Lamp. The simulacrum of Lamp... made me think about my brother being here. My brother being here, made me want to do anything to protect him. Sol Seraph warned me, over and over, that I was making Loki real.”
“Sol Seraph was never benevolent. But I will admit... she had a fierce will.” Luna said with a small smile, shaking her head briefly before she touched her own breast, thinking of Ignominious... and that deep desire, from the very first moment she had seen him, that for once... just once...
Twilight smiled faintly as well. “Shining Armor. My brother. But I never had a brother, so he was also a metaphor, wasn't he? Love, for my family.”
Marina laughed quietly, shaking her head slowly as she looked down and flexed one of her chocolate hooves slowly. “But he used Draconequus to rule the world. He hid behind 'chaos.' But I am fueled by chaos magic... it runs through my body. That's why I could channel the powers so easily, but couldn't be manipulated by it... and Plutocrat... that's why Plutocrat hated me, why his presence was so painful to me. He was here to control the chaos, and control the Redacted...”
“But he went out of control.” Twilight said softly, striding slowly forwards as she looked back and forth. “Narrator, come out. You can end this. This has to end. Please. You have all the answers. Just come out, and talk to us.”
How I wish I could... how I wish that I had some way to reach out, to speak to you all. But all I can do is make my voice echo. And you're all so close to the truth, but what will these answers do? The play wasn't just there to serve as a skeleton to manifest a story, an adventure, a lifetime around... it was a faulty trap, that they had been meant to escape, complete, and then 'go home.'
“We never would have really left, though. That's why you gave us a challenge that any pony could complete, as long as they were willing to play along, and the Draconequus were there to both enforce and twist the rules.” Twilight continued slowly, looking back and forth as the other ponies joined her side. “And when we 'left' this world to go back 'home,' what would happen? Would we just become part of this world somehow? Or would we form a new piece of this world for you... is that how Canterlot and so many places we've seen here are so distinct? Is that why there's so many members of the 'stage' crew? Narrator, you have to realize that if you're never letting these ponies leave, that is why the Redacted feels so strong, that is why you feel so guilty, so angry, like it's all hopeless, because you can't force these people to be friends! Especially not when you're stealing their life force-”
(It is a GIFT. I am no THIEF. I AM IN CONTROL.)
The world shook with fury, as the darkness became darker, as the shadows twisted towards them, as the world rumbled with ominious-
“You can't intimidate us.” Scrivener Blooms said quietly, raising his head high before he smiled wryly around at the other ponies. “In a way, we started this together. We made it through this together. We're ready to finish this together.”
And how the humble Narrator wishes
(you will not leave)
The ponies should run, they should turn and leave and run and flee and
(You Will Not Leave.)
The Redacted was coming, all that anger all that hate run away why won't you run away
YOU WILL NOT LEAVE.
YOU WILL NOT LEAVE.
YOU WILL NOT LEAVE.