//------------------------------// // Fluttershy Corrupted?! A Terrible Power Awakens! // Story: My Little Pirates: Luffy's Adventures in Equestria // by Fullmetal Pony //------------------------------// The walls and ceilings of the hallway were little more than rubble now. A few teetering patches of stone still stood here and there but the slightest rumble threatened to topple them over. Blasts of magic, massive claws, and the shockwave of powerful blows were more than enough to demolish what remained, leaving little else but the floor to absorb the collateral damage of the fights. Even that was now scorched, melted, and cracked. Pinkie Pie and Applejack stood back to back. One of Pinkie’s legs glistened black while all of Applejack’s hooves held the same coloration. The two lion-like beasts paced around them, hot breath streaming past their slick fangs. With a growl, they both pounced at Pinkie and Applejack, claws extended and slicing through the air. One of the beast’s claws snipped the edge of Applejack’s hat while the other beast only managed to cleave through empty space. In one swift movement, Applejack had ducked low and Pinkie had limboed out of the beasts’ way. Like a spring, Pinkie raced back up and uppercut her haki-infused leg right into the beast’s jaw. At the same time, Applejack tucked her hindlegs and then bucked them into the other beast’s chest, the air cracking like thunder from the speed of her kick. Both beasts were knocked onto their backs with Applejack’s flying a good few meters through the air first. Pinkie retracted her once-again-pink leg and gave it a shake. “Ouchie! These guys are hard!” Two snorts forced both ponies to look away from each other and back at the beasts. Both were already getting up again despite their fresh injuries. The glare in their eyes actually appeared even more intense than before. Roaring loud enough to shake the floor around them, both beast bounded toward Pinkie and Applejack. Applejack crouched down, ready to unleash another kick. “And they’re hard to keep down.” Nearby, tusks came within inches of piercing Rarity’s chest. The amethyst beast swung its head around like an frenzied elephant, yet its attacks always missed by a hair. Sweat was pouring down Rarity’s face. A drop of it dripped into her eye just as the beast raised a massive claw. Rarity bent her knees a second too late and the beast’s massive leg plowed into her and threw her across the room. A gleam vanished from where she’d been struck, but a trio of shallow claw marks remained. The air felt frigid when she sucked it in to regain the breath the beast had knocked out of her. She glanced over to where she’d been only to see the beast already racing toward her. Gritting her teeth, she lit up her horn, the tip of it turning black. The beast launched into the air, intent on sinking either its fangs or its tusks into Rarity, but instead found itself goring a cracked barrier. Behind the rapidly crumbling dome of magic, Rarity struggled to her hooves with her mane now swirling around her, the tips shimmering with haki. “Thank Celestia you can’t laugh at this,” Rarity said before flying at the beast with her hair whipping through the air. Two blurs, one scaly brown and the other cyan that left a prismatic trail rocketed through what was left of the ceiling. Rainbow Dash and the winged monster helixed through broken pillars and arches, talons and blackened hooves clashing against each other. Dash looped above a crumbling row of stones, zoomed in, and kicked off it, sending out a small shockwave of color. The stones crashed down on the winged monster, but it just gave a screech and barreled through them. One block came at it too fast to dodge though. The beast flared out its talons and then slammed them into the stone, slicing it into chunks like it was wet clay. It was about to continue its pursuit of Dash when it let out a howl of pain. Dash had zipped around the beast and used the confusion to take it from behind, jabbing her hoof right in between its wings. Something cracked underneath her and the beast’s right wing seized up. “Ha! How’d you like th—” The beast spun around pulled Dash into its chest with a claw. Dash cried out when the beast’s talons clawed into her side. Both of them went into a free fall. Yet the beast just continued to exert more pressure on Dash, uncaring about the ground they were racing towards. Dash struggled to move and breath. Her right wing was free and flapped about in a panic, but did no good to release the beast’s hold on her. The rest of her limbs were held tight despite Dash flexing as hard as she could. The ground was rapidly getting closer. “Let. Me. Go!” Dash roared. Armament rushed over her wing and it slashed at the beast’s chest. A narrow yet deep cut now marred the beast. Gasping in pain, the beast loosened its hold on Dash and she zoomed out of its grasp an instant before the beast collided with the ground. Dash suddenly tilted to the right and tumbled to the ground, her still metallic wing slicing through the floor like butter. With a huff, she picked herself up. In the swirling dust caused by the fall, she could make out that her opponent too was back on its claws. Its yellow eyes pierced through the cloud at Dash. Rather than meet the glare, Dash closed her eyes and drew her breath. Haki raced over her other wing turning her feathers into to an array of blades. Her knees bent slightly under the new weight, but she could take it. “Alright,” she said, raising her head. “Let’s do this.” In between their own battles, all four girls and the beasts would jump or fly back when a rain of hellish fireballs or an errant beam of purple magic blasted through the battlefield. In the middle of this assault were Tirek and Twilight. A bit of smoke curled up from Twilight’s horn while Tirek’s hands glowed bright even when he wasn’t launching his attacks. His chains dangled from a holster around his waist, their rattling occasionally drawing a glance from Twilight. “Something wrong, little pony?” Tirek sneered. His eyes lit up with delight while Twilight barely dodged another volley of fireballs. “Don’t worry about the chains, I’m saving those especially for Celestia! Her magic is actually a problem, but yours is nothing worse than a mosquito bite.” A blast of magic hit him square on the chin, yet when the smoke settled, not even Tirek’s beard had been unsettled. His grin widened. “See?” Twilight lowered her head and let out a defeated sigh. “I do… I see right through you.” A glint of scarlet caught Tirek’s attention. His nostrils flared when he saw that a wispy red glow now outlined his body. “Clever. What gave this doppleganger away?” “You left yourself too open,” Twilight replied while Tirek’s shade threw another spell at her. It clashed against a barrier but dissipated after a moment. Twilight undid the barrier, her breathing a little more labored now. “Even if my magic is weaker than Celestia’s, it should have at least done superficial damage to your hair and fur. Not using those anti-magic chains was another red flag.” Tirek roared and stampeded at Twilight. His massive hooves only managed to trample the already shredded carpet. He snarled when he felt the air distort around his back and reached around to grab Twilight as she teleported onto him. In an instant, she launched another spell into him and vanished again before he could seize her. “If you know I’m not here, why waste your magic?” he grunted. “I’m not,” Twilight replied. “No spell can sustain itself, even such a powerful doppelganger one. You’re still connected to your real body and now I’m going to find where you’re hiding!” Twilight smirked out Tirek, but her expression suddenly sank. With wide eyes, she twisted over to a another section of the castle, still undamaged. Goosebumps erupted across her body. “Hoping to find I’m actually an enfeeble conjurer that masks my weakness behind corrupted ponies and illusions?” Tirek let out a menacing chuckle. “I’m afraid that even without my magic, I could lay Equestria to waste. Although, having it makes it much easier to ensure the Elements won’t be able to stop me this time!” Twilight pawed the ground in front of her with a hoof, horn ready to launch another attack. “What have you done to Fluttershy?” “I’m actually still doing it, but her corruption will be complete soon.” Tirek didn’t move to attack Twilight anymore, he just sneered down at her. “Once that’s done, you’ll lose your access to the Elements and even my pets will prove too much for the likes a normal ponies like you!” Nearby, Dash spun to the left with her wing cleaving through the winged beast’s chest. Dozens of cuts now lined its torso and its front legs. Yet, the first cuts no longer bled and fresh scales were already forming over the oldest of them. The monsters facing the others were similarly bruised and beaten, yet their wounds from the start of the fight were also steadily healing over. Meanwhile, the girls were all breathing heavily and drenched in sweat. Only Applejack’s hooves remained black while the others could barely manage to summon haki in tiny splotches to defend against attacks that were hitting them more and more frequently. “Soon you will all fall,” Tirek bellowed. “Then I’ll have plenty of time to figure out how I’ll present your bodies to Celestia!” ~~~ The glow around Fluttershy grew more concentrated with each passing second. Her initial cries of pain were shifting into snarls of rage. In her vain struggle to get free of Tirek’s iron grip, her mane had gotten tossed into a wild state, revealing that her ears were sharpening. In desperation, she flung herself to the side and tried to bite down on Tirek’s hand, but was unable to reach. “Feisty once you get a little agitated, aren’t you?” Tirek violently shook his hand, snapping Fluttershy’s head back and leaving her in a daze. “You can only fight for so long though, just like your pathetic friends.” A light caught Tirek in the eyes, forcing him to blink. The necklace draped over Fluttershy’s chest gave off a pink glow, its aura keeping Tirek’s at bay. With a snort, Tirek reached out to grab it. “So it’s your Element putting up all this resistance eh? Well, you won’t be needing th—” An enormous torrent of flame exploded into Tirek’s stomach. He roared while the attack continued to push against him. Fluttershy slipped out on his hand and fell to the ground just before Tirek was launched off his hooves. He flew clean across the hall in mess of limbs, flame and smoke. The adjacent wall caved under his weight when he smacked into it, sending an avalanche of broken glass and stone onto him. The remaining stream of fire shrank back down and reformed into Ace’s right foreleg. Wheezing for air, he went to his knees, a few drops of sweat spilling onto the floor alongside a bit of the blood dribbling from his mouth. With a clenched jaw, he pushed against the ground and managed to get back to his hooves. Fluttershy was just a few feet away from him, but each step sucked the breath out of him and sent a sharp pain through his core. A violent shaking froze Ace. One of Tirek’s arms clawed out of the wreckage across the hall followed by the rest of his torso. The black fur of his chest and stomach and the skin underneath was now hidden or replaced by smoldering embers and ash. He shook uncontrollably and clenched his jaw so tightly that it looked like his fangs could crack at any moment. With a roar that dwarfed all his others, everything in his immediate vicinity disintegrated into nothing. Even a chunk of the floor directly below him was vaporized. With a grunt, he swiped through the smoke his destruction and injuries had caused. His muscles seemed ready to rip out of his skin. His eyes were in a similar state, filled with such a concentrated rage that they would have paralyzed anypony that had the misfortune of getting caught in their sight. Despite the initial shock of seeing Tirek rise up, Ace turned away from Fluttershy and limped ahead of her. Now both she and Luffy were directly behind him. Ignoring his injuries, Ace tightened his muscles and stared down Tirek with just as powerful a glare, but without the same anger that made Tirek grind his fangs. “Human,” Tirek growled, “you would have died either way, but now you’ve ensured that I take my time with you!” “Give it your best shot.” Ace spat towards Tirek. “You have another thing coming if you think I’ll let you get near Luffy!” Tirek blinked and then laughed. “Is that what that earlier attack was about? That useless invalid on the bed? Ha! If you’d had any brains you’d have grabbed him while I was dealing with the Element Bearer. I have greater concerns right now than pursuing two wayward humans anyway.” Tirek took a step forward but had to pause and put a hand to his abdomen. Ace took the opportunity to summon flames around his body. This produced strained cackle from Tirek. “That fool Blackbeard wasted his time coming here on you?” Tirek gave his head a shake and grinned. “I’ll give you credit for catching me off my guard and I’ll be hurting for a bit, but all eventually fall before Tirek. Fists, hooves, weapons, magic? All they can do is slow me down. Even the greatest magic in this land can only weaken me long enough to be imprisoned again. What can one tiny Devil Fruit user do?” Ace glanced to the left and noticed one of Fluttershy’s legs twitch. He then glared back at Tirek. “I can kick your ass long enough for someone else to show up and get Luffy out of here.” Despite the pain it caused him, Tirek laughed louder than ever. “Oh, I’d forgotten how hilarious it is to hear somepony that’s about to die still think things will work out for their loved ones at least! I at least thought humans were a bit smarter than that!” “Tch.” Ace lowed and shook his head. “You’ve got a point, these ponies are pretty stupid sometimes.” Tirek snorted when Ace raised his head again. “They’ve got stuff that’s precious to them too though. I’ve got Luffy to protect but even if I was just a dumb pony, you’d still royally piss me off!” Something seemed to crack inside Tirek. The shaking in his muscles stopped and instead a violent aura trailed off him. A bit of froth came to his mouth as he let out an animalistic cry that had the power of a thunderclap. Despite Ace charging up another large attack, Tirek plowed straight at him. A blast of pressure caused Tirek to come to a screeching halt. The crazed look in his eyes faded and sentience returned to them. At the same time, Ace nearly blacked out, but the pain running through his torso kept him concious. He was chilled to the bone yet at the same time felt as if he was next to a great fire, something far more intense than anything he could summon. The ground near Ace suddenly cratered. The stone hadn’t even shattered, the force on it had been so great as to mold the floor into a new shape. A second later, a sonic boom shattered the air right in front of Tirek’s chest. The wind was knocked out of him while he flew high into the air. Gasping from breath, he became aware that something was rammed into his chest, preventing him from fully expanding his chest. Eyes like the most radiant rubies glared back at him, sending a cold shiver down his spine. Fluttershy bared a fresh set of fangs at Tirek before driving her hooves deeper into his gut. In spite of her vastly smaller frame, she continued to lift further into the sky while the castle got smaller and smaller beneath them. The air rippled around them, torn asunder by each powerful flap of the thick leathery wings that had replaced Fluttershy’s feathered ones. With the ease of handling a foal, Fluttershy lifted Tirek up with a hiss and threw him with all her strength back to the distant ground. In the brief moment of freedom, he drew breath, his shrunken pupils watching Fluttershy race towards him. With a pained grunt, he threw up a shield around himself. Rather than slow down, Fluttershy actually sped up, going fast enough that the air distorted and formed a cone around her. She threw one foreleg back and coated both it and a fair bit of her chest in armament haki. With a screech, she brought it down on the shield, shattering it into a hail of magical splinters. Before even the backlash of the broken spell could hit Tirek Fluttershy’s other foreleg decked him across the face. The force was so great that it sent out another small sonic boom and snapped Tirek into a different trajectory. Screaming in a mixture of rage and pain, he spiraled downward with Fluttershy in pursuit. ~~~ A few moments earlier, Tirek’s double had been laughing at Twilight while she continued to blast him with spell after spell. Suddenly, his body wavered and Twilight’s last attack blasted straight through him. Tirek faded away like mist, but Twilight didn’t have time to celebrate and began charging her horn with the magic needed to teleport over to Luffy’s room. The wall near Luffy’s room suddenly heaved outward with flames snaking up through the newly formed gaps. With a deafening crash, the wall gave in and tumbled down sending up a thick cloud of debris. “What the hay?” Dash spun around and landed a thunderous buck into the winged beast and sent it sprawling across the battlefield. Taking a breath, the blue returned to her wings and she zipped over to Twilight. “Twilight, what’s going on?.” “It’s Tirek.” Twilight clenched her jaw, the glow around her horn glowing brighter. “He’s gone after Fluttershy. I need to stop him now!” “Not if I get there fi—” Before Dash could rocket off the ground, a massive shape suddenly flew out from near Luffy’s room. The glow around Twilight’s horn vanished while her eyes widened, realizing that it was Tirek climbing into the sky despite his lack of wings. Even from afar, his large body made it easy to tell he was struggling to breath. Something appeared to be lodged up above his stomach. Dash watched in similar astonishment. “What in Tartarus did that?!” “I don’t know,” Twilight replied, “but we can’t waste this chance while Tirek is up there.” “I don’t think he’s gonna be up for long.” Both of them looked up to see that Tirek had apparently reached his apex and was now tumbling back down to Equestria. A slight red tint seeped into the air as the sunlight glistened off of a shield spell that raced over Tirek. An instant after it appeared though, it burst into pieces. A second later, Tirek radically changed course mid-air. The loud pop of the sound barrier breaking soon followed. Dash’s eyes narrowed up at the spot where the sonic boom had emanated from. For a split second, she spied the vague outline of a pony but it vanished as quickly as she’d spotted it. “What in Equestria is going on up there?” “We have bigger issues!” Twilight grabbed hold of Dash’s head and shifted it slightly. Dash paled seeing Tirek’s immense form careening towards them. “Everypony, hit the decks!” Dash screamed. Tirek smashed into the battleground like a meteor. Anything left of the walls and ceiling was obliterated. Even bits of the floor were torn out of their foundation by the force of the impact. Tirek’s beasts all dug their claws into the stones, but quickly found themselves losing their footing before being thrown into the air. Dash nearly met the same fate but smacked into a barrier instead and was pulled in close by Twilight. Applejack lifted off the ground, but Pinkie quickly reached out and held onto her with all her strength. Both of them whipped through the air, but remained tethered to the ground thanks to Pinkie’s now-black tail holding on tight to a rather large stone. Like Twilight, Rarity had managed to summon a barrier, albeit a much smaller one. It had only taken a few seconds, but now little remained of the castle around the ponies. Tirek’s beast lay strewn about, their battles and the fall of their master seemingly taking their toll on them. Tirek himself was in a similar state, lying in the middle a crater flat on his back. His eyes swam in his head, and he gave a wheezing cough. The wind was suddenly knocked out of him by a huge punch to the gut. He managed to give a shaky glance down to see that Fluttershy had delivered another blow to his already damaged core. He gasped in pain when she removed her blackened hoof and raced over to his head. Bending a leg back, the next blow looked like it would split Tirek’s head in two. “Fluttershy?!” Dash called out. Fluttershy turned at her with a hiss.The Element around her neck pulsated. Her eyes widened at the sight of Dash looking at her white as a ghost. Tirek’s horns crackled with energy. “Die!” he roared before unleashing a beam point blank on Fluttershy.