Shattered Illusions
Twilight stood stunned at what she saw. There was Sarah, frozen in place in a semi crouched position, her left arm raised defensively, her sword clenched in her teeth. She was not in her magnificent gown, nor her terrifying armor, but just a short sleeve shirt, light pants and a cloak that draped over her shoulders. As Lord Bright Harold walked calmly closer and Sarah did not move, Twilight realized just how powerful Harold was. The dispel wave had ignored the paralysis spell, a difficult task requiring a lot of power. If the paralysis spell had been cast with similar power it could freeze not just primary muscles, but internal ones like lungs. A paralysis with enough power could even stop a heart. For the Canterlot noble to have cast it so quickly, he must have readied the spell earlier and had a lot of practice with it.
"Cheater!" Pinkie huffed.
"Now Pinkie, Ah know you're a might upset that Sarah was hiding as-" Applejack started.
"No, not Sarah. That snooty noble!" Pinkie huffed again. "They agreed, no magic during the fight."
"Well he's caught her now." Twilight said, uncertain about this turn of events.
"You see!?" Harold shouted to the crowd, waving his hoof with a flare. "It was her all along!" He turned and began to advance upon her, his swords hovering close. "The princesses will reward me for uncovering your deception, and I'll mount your head above my mantle so everyone will know who finally defeated the Nightmare!"
He's going to KILL HER?! Twilight thought, panicked. She cast her glace around at the other creatures around her, all of whom seemed too stunned to move. Some of the younger ones had pushed or slipped closer to see the fight and were now staring in wide eyed horror at what had become an execution. Her horn started to glow as she pulled magic, uncertain what she would do but knowing she had to act.
Harold circled closer, unable to pass up a chance to gloat. "Well, I guess this is the end of you, Sarah. I'm sure you'd like to plead for your life, and I'd love to hear it, but I just don't have the time." He leaned in close. "Farewell."
There was a soft sound of cloth moving and the sickening crunch of steel on bone as Sarah's metallic right arm shot out from it's hiding place beneath her cloak and caught Harold in the jaw, sending him sprawling backwards. With his concentration broken the stun spell fell away and Sarah fell to her hands and knees gasping for breath, the sword slipping from her mouth and clattering to the ground.
With that, all Tarterus broke lose. Many ponies began running for the exit the canids had provided, while other creatures began to shout and bicker. Twilight's mind was going a mile a minute trying to come to terms with what was happening and plan ahead. Spells came to mind to freeze the crowd, to raise shields, to teleport a few ponies around. She was ready for anything.
Except the cursing.
"EVERY TIME!" Sarah screamed, climbing back to her feet and picking up her sword. "EVERY FUCKING TIME! Every time I make a little progress in getting out of this god damned castle YOU show up! And every time you do I KICK YOUR ASS! YOU NEVER LEARN!"
"Bitch!" Harold cried, firing off another spell at her. She blocked with her right arm, the mystic energies trying and failing to find some organic component to freeze. "The Princesses will reward me for-" He had to cut off his rant to defend against Sarah's blade.
"FUCK that noise!" Sarah screamed, actually pushing Harold back with the ferocity of her attack. "You think I'm going to let you go whining back to the princesses, letting you spin this shit however you want? I'm going to rip your lying tongue out and kick your teeth in!" She feinted with the sword in her left hand and when Harold tried to defend to his right, her right fist caught him in the face and knocked him nearly six feet. "I'd say I'm going to hit you so hard your children will be born bruised if you weren't to inadequate to satisfy a field mouse and that stick up your ass leaves no room for a better lover!"
"GUARDS!" Harold cried out, falling backwards and throwing off another spell. A trio of earth ponies rushed the stage, one pushing right past Twilight and drawing a short sword. Two managed to scramble up onto the wooden stage with only a little trouble, but the third made the mistake of trying to use an injured gryphon's wheelchair as a step stool and was now grappling with the elderly gryphon and a nearby zebra. He got free just in time to catch a nasty kick from Sarah that sent him sprawling.
"I'm going to take that calcified pimple you call a horn off with a belt sander!" Sarah yelled at Harold, parrying and dodging the guard's strikes like it was a graceful and deadly ballet. "Starting with the tip! I'm going to brand that worthless mark off your flanks and stick red hot nails in your eyes!"
Twilight felt sick listening to the abuse Sarah was spelling out for the hapless noble, and Applejack was actually retching at the thought of branding. Looking back towards the rear of the milling screaming crowd Twilight was happy to see that Pinkie had managed to keep track of most of the children at least, though she seemed divided between trying to cover each of their ears and covering her own. The kids looked scared, excited, and disgusted in varying degrees, a few even cheering Sarah on for each hit.
"I'm going to break your legs!" She called, knocking one of the guards off the stage. "And drag you to the edge of the Everfree!" Her right arm caught Harold's lighter blade as it came sailing through the air at her. There was a horrid screech and the bent and twisted blade fell to the floor. "And if you can drag your retarded ass back to the castle I'll give it to you! If you don't then I'll come back! I'll find you once a year, every year, and leave you a little aniversary scar! Your face, your back, your sides, will bear the marks of my rage for the rest of your pathetic life!" Sarah parried and flipped the last guard, leaving him tangled in a loose tablecloth. "But never your ears! I'm going to leave them alone so you can hear every cry, every scream of 'Oh god what is that THING?!' every day until the day I come to you and you beg for your death." Sarah's rage was shifting from the white hot fury to a much colder, deadlier tone. "And on that blessed day I will take great joy in telling you 'No' one last time!"
A guard stepped up and blocked Sarah's advance, shielding Harold from her wrath for a moment longer. It took everyone a moment to realize the guard was not one of the earth ponies who had attempted to assault her earlier. This one had better armor. This one had better weapons. This one had dark fur and a military training in his stance.
This one had black, bat like wings.
Stats
Page generated in 0.062 seconds
Total duration
917 users online
470,400 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
5178323 You inspired a small tweak to the next chapter with that comment.
*Smacks Lord Harold over the head numerous times with multiple Darwin Awards* Good lord, how are you not dead yet???? I'm all for having Blaze beat the shit out of this guy just because he's an ass if Sarah is sick of dealing with him. And Pinkie is right, he did cheat, so D and Machina should get to aid Sarah.
Oh, and the Crusaders have better managed to slip Pinkie's watch and stay as character defense for Sarah once Luna starts handing out judgement. Even Luna can't resist all four CMC giving her puppy dog eyes without feeling like a total jerk since she's trying to punish their friend.
5181920
I am very happy about this, especially the way you tweaked the movie's line to make it even better.
5182082 If Luna Judges Sarah in the wrong, and not this dumbass noble, then Luna is just defending someone who intended to murder the rightful leader of another country. In other words, regicide.
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY CLIFFHANGERS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Otherwise keep it up because this is so suspenseful and awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5182226 Remember, Sarah is a seasoned Dimension Jumper with hundreds of jumps under her belt. If you want to see someone without a clue go Dimension Jumping, read Phase Shift. It's not so much a sequel as a companion to this story.
5182159 Because otherwise all of Nightmare Night would be one chapter 12,000+ words long that I would never publish due to my constant desire to edit and rewrite, nor would it be able to change as quickly to comments like yours so that the story improves and evolves.
5182252 Thanks! If you find anything else, just send me a PM.
I don't blame her for her anger he had it coming.
5182566 I really appreciate this but, again, I ask you to pm me the corrections. Thanks.
To paraphrase another dimensional traveler I know... "Somepony is seriously asking to be introduced to a size nine steel toed boot, right in what passes for his stallionhood. Repeatedly, and with great force."
Aww, a little The Princess Bride reference. I love that movie. When this is all over is there any way we could put a little "animal really friendliness" spell on old Harold and throw him into a room full of R.O.U.S.'s.
5184486 glad you saw it.
5184221 Thanks! I'm loving RWBY, so much that I was tempted to have some of the thestrals, upon discovering the Ruby Rover tunnels do the "not and underground network but an UNDERGROUND network" shtick.
5184216 Yeah, looking back it's clear that my writing style and direction has improved over the length of this project. I'm glad you like the way the story developed.
5183916 I actually had .... other plans for Harold. There is a good reason why he's being such a prick about ownership of the castle, though that won't get revealed until later.
5183801 Working on it (the next chapter has three different versions written that I'm trying to condense into one that makes sense and isn't 6000 words,
5183695 Which one?! I'm not familiar with that phrase.
5184641
Heh, haven't had a chance to use it yet, but it is Eleanor's go-to threat. With variations for species and gender.
I have a bad, bad feeling about this... Sure, Sarah has every bit of evidence she needs to prove that she's in the right, but with the way things are shaping up, she may not get that chance.
Though I have a feeling I know who Death is there to pick up, and if I'm right I will be sad.
Luna's probably blocking her so that she can (how should I put this?)... take care of Harold herself.
Let the Royal beat-down commence! 