Knightfall
This is the continuation of the story of six mares who have yet to realize their own destinies.
A shell of blackness on the edge of the Everfree Forest, the last remnant of Descartes, that fades with the coming dawn. A comatose Fluttershy, lost to the waking world. An awakened Rarity, charged with the powers of the South Gale. A confused Shining Armor, under assault by unknown enemies.
A storm is about to break over Equestria, and what it will bring is anypony’s guess.
“The Order of Koaxia”
Chapter 9
Knightfall
Shining Armor instantly reacted.
Nearly a decade's worth of training and experience kicked in, and he twisted his body around in mid-air, righting himself and placing his hooves beneath him just before he slammed into the ground. Only his timely reflexes kept him from suffering what would have been a disabling fall, and he was instead sent into a powerful skid as the ground crumbled beneath his hooves.
The young captain immediately snapped his head up to the window, readying himself for any manner of threat as his spiritual pressure flared in preparation for a fight...
"Well, well... I certainly didn't expect to discover a host of Jenova here."
... only to stop in his tracks as a rich, cultured voice reached his ears. His mouth slightly agape, the stallion stared in wide-eyed surprise at the bizarre creature that crouched upon the wooden beams of the cottage's balcony rail.
With the horns jutting out of its forehead and its heavily built musculature, it appeared eerily similar to a Minotaur in silhouette, but only in passing; an observant onlooker could easily spot a few differences. For one, its visage was devoid of the bovine snout that most minos possessed, instead featuring a flatter countenance with a smaller, sharper nose. Below its nose, two very long, uncomfortably noticeable canines jutted out of a pair of thin, blood-red lips.
Further reinforcing the vampiric image was the pair of large, bat-like wings that jutted out from its back, and the pallor of its skin, as pale and sickly white as a dead corpse's. But the color of its flesh paled in comparison - the guard captain’s mind cringed a little at the pun - to the twin points of emerald flame that blazed where its eyes should have been. An ornate, ebony cuirass with garish golden trimmings adorned its massive chest, and wicked talons the same color as its armor decorated its fingers, looking for all the world as long and deadly sharp as a dragon's claws.
Shining Armor's mind took in all of these details within a single split second, and then he instantly shifted onto his guard, raising his broadsword and shield in a defensive stance, his mind whirling.
Jenova host!? The young captain thought to himself frantically. What in Tartarus is he talking about?
He sincerely doubted that his opponent would be very much inclined to explain to him exactly what he had meant. Opting instead to stall for time so he could figure out what he was being faced with here, Shining Armor shifted his stance slightly, and fixed the strange being with a steady look.
"So, I suppose you're the one who sent those things here?" The guard captain's voice was hard and level, not unlike the blade he grasped in his magic. “Too cowardly to face me head on, so you rely on aberrations and sorcery to take me by surprise?”
The monstrosity let out a cold chuckle, its emerald pits burning with something that may have been derision. “My dear boy,” it began, its tone smooth as silk, “I fear that you are under the wrong impression. Only those too brash to hear sense would mistake caution for cowardice.”
Shining bristled at the insult, his eyes glaring daggers at the bizarre newcomer. “So you did send them?”
“Yes, yes, these... aberrations, as you call them, are indeed of my making.” As it spoke, the creature dismissively waved its claw at the now lifeless hunks of cloth and wood. “To be honest, I can’t say I’m particularly surprised. I was certainly hoping that their speed and ferocity would be enough to overcome whatever guard had been placed on the Bearer, but it was always a slim chance. The Order may be hopeless, but at least they’re not foolish enough to leave one of their initiates without a somewhat capable defender.”
At the mention of the Bearer, Shining Armor spared a glance towards the cottage’s interior, trying to ascertain Fluttershy’s situation, before snapping his eyes back to his foe.
“But,” the monster continued, eyeing the stallion with an air of... curiosity? “I must say that you’re quite the irregularity. To my knowledge, the Order’s never associated with Jenova hosts before, dormant as the cells in you are; in fact, I hardly think they would much less resort to such desperate measures, even after we forced them off their world. Tell me, are you the first of your kind they’ve recruited, or are there others?”
The young captain’s mind was positively whirling with questions - for just a split second, Celestia's words to him earlier yesterday flashed through his mind, and a cold chill ran down his spine.
But it wasn’t your power itself that frightened them, now was it? It was where it came from...
This couldn’t have been what the Princess had been hinting at, could it!? How could she possibly have had knowledge of this sort of thing? He couldn't possibly have some sort of connection to this... this thing that he faced!
Doubt gnawed away at Shining Armor like a physical ache, but he simply pushed it aside and mustered up his will and focused on the situation, spitting his defiant reply back through gritted teeth. “Jenova? Order? I’ve got no idea what in Tartarus you’re talking about, and I don’t care. But if you think you’re going to attack one of the Elements while she’s under my watch, then you’ve got another thing coming!”
Now it was the creature’s turn to be confused. “Element?” It cocked its head to one side, as though trying to look for some hidden meaning. “You misunderstand; I’m merely here to secure the East Abyss.”
“Then... Then you aren’t here to hurt Fluttershy?” Shining asked, a thin ray of hope filling his voice.
“Hmmm? Oh, you must mean that poor creature,” the monster replied, gesturing back towards the still unconscious mare. “Regrettable as it is, it appears that she is the East Abyss’ newest vessel, and is therefore my current target. I apologize, my dear boy, but I can’t leave here without her.” Its mouth curled into something that might’ve been a genial smile, if not for the pair of fangs that marred it.
“Then I think we’ve got a problem,” the stallion stated, bracing himself against the ground. “I am duty bound to protect her from any and all threats, and I do believe that you qualify as one.”
“Mmmm. And I suppose that there’s no way I could convince you to simply walk away?”
“No. Is there any chance I could convince you?”
Sighing, the creature “closed” its eyes, taking in a slow, steady breath. “None, I’m afraid.” Then, as it suddenly exhaled, its emerald flames sprang back to life, blazing with otherworldly malice.
“A pity,” it said, its once silky voice stained by the hint of a growl. “I always do try to avoid fighting hosts like yourself.”
Spreading its talons wide, the demon roared at the stallion, its lips twisted into a feral grin. “You always die so messily!”
The demonic vampire’s form suddenly blurred, and Shining Armor barely got his shield up in time. He reflexively called upon the still, solemn strength that dwelt within his weapon, and it answered him, standing strong against a vicious swipe that would have gouged his eyes out.
The blow kicked up a shower of sparks as it raked viciously against the hardened steel of the kite shield, and the stallion immediately and instinctively slipped his mind into the flow of combat. Letting out a massive roar of effort, Shining Armor threw himself into the fray with all his strength, barreling straight forward and slamming his entire bulk into his opponent in a powerful shield charge.
The monster gave a solid grunt of surprise as Shining smashed right into its armored chest. Not wasting an instant, the captain let loose a burst of power from his horn and wrenched his shield aside while it was still pressed up against his opponent, throwing the demon off balance. Another spark of telekinetic force brought his blade down in a vicious overhand chop aimed at the wide opening his shield bash had created, and it would have nearly hacked the fiend in half had its blackened cuirass not stopped the blow short.
Snorting in derision, Shining Armor’s opponent abruptly surged forward in a sudden counterattack. The demon's claws slashed at him again, moving in nearly indecipherable blurs. The guard captain managed to dodge backwards in time and parry aside the blow with his broadsword, barely keeping himself from being crudely vivisected. However, the subsequent assault left him on the ropes - with the demon’s incredible speed, all he could do was dodge.
When one of the vampire's swipes came dangerously close to rearranging his face, instead only slicing off an ultramarine lock from his mane, Shining Armor decided that he had had enough.
It was time to change the game.
It came just about when he expected it - one of his dodges forced the demon to overextend itself for just a moment. It may not have been much, but it was all the opening that Shining Armor needed, and he immediately began focusing power into his horn.
"Destruction Art Number One - Thrust!"
Shining Armor's horn abruptly flared with power, sending a lance of pure force right into the demon’s temporarily unguarded chest. Flying straight and true, the powerful bolt slammed right into its target’s gut, sending the cursed creature spiraling into the air. The young stallion heard a brief grunt of surprise from his opponent as it was sent flying away, and he permitted himself a small grin of satisfaction as it crashed into the wooden wall of Fluttershy's cottage, sending out a spiderweb of cracks. The grin only grew as he watched the demon fall back to the ground, its stance unsteady and its breathing labored.
"Had enough?" Shining Armor smirked despite his panting. Carefully, he shifted his stance into a low guard, his sword raised and prepared to meet any attack that might come his way. "I don't know about you, but I could do this all day."
Unexpectedly, the demon suddenly bared its fangs, letting out an enraged snarl as it shot him a glare of pure loathing.
"Impudent whelp!" The growled threat in its voice was unmistakable, and as confident as Shining Armor was of his chances of winning, he still felt a sudden chill make its way down his spine. "Were it not for the potential boon you might present to our cause, I would strike you down myself here and now! Sadly, my lord would be most displeased with me if I returned to him with the corpse of a Jenova host without having at least attempted to convert it."
The vampiric demon rose to its feet, hardly looking any worse for the wear. Although his only outward reaction was a surprised blink, Shining Armor’s mind was reeling.
That lance of force had packed enough of a punch to knock the wind out of a manticore and likely crack a rib or two from several yards away - how the hay had this thing just shrugged it off like it was nothing at point blank range? Not even its cuirass showed the slightest hint of being dented!
"It seems, boy," the monstrosity remarked off-handedly as it dusted itself off. "That you and I have a trip to make."
It fixed him with a look that held entirely too much meaning, and Shining Armor suddenly found himself growing sick with apprehension.
"And I'm afraid that you have no choice in the matter."
"Like hay I don't," the guard captain snarled as he brutally beat the fear rising within him into bloody submission. Like hay he was going to let this thing win without a fight. Before his demonic adversary had a chance to respond, Shining Armor reached deep inside of himself...
“Huuuuaaaaaaaahhhh!!!”
... and in a burst of effort, wrenched open the seal that had been placed upon him by his division.
Energy came pouring out. Power exploded outwards from within him as a shining blue-white aura flared to life around his body, and the guard captain let out a massive shout as his full strength came roaring to the forefront. The grass beneath his hooves was literally flattened from the sheer amount of might radiating from his body, and a full-blown gust emanated from where he stood,so strong were the waves of power rolling off of his body.
The demon’s only response to the display of strength was a single raised eyebrow. "Really? Is that all that you have? I expected more out of a Jenova host."
"We'll see who's talking after I've pounded your bloody flank into the dirt." Shining Armor smirked through the glow of his azure aura, and with a burst of power he snapped his broadsword in front of him, pointing the tip of the blade at the vampire's heart while he aligned his shield perpendicularly at his side. "Shout, Zan-!"
"Awaken, child of Jenova, and receive the Reunion!"
Reunion? What the- Shining Armor's thoughts came to an abrupt halt as the demon pointed at him with a single, clawed finger, one that glowed a sickly purple and was encircled by miniature motes of light.
It took the captain a few milliseconds to notice that his body had stopped responding to his thoughts. It took a few more before his brain registered the pain.
No. Not pain.
It felt like his veins had been torn from his body, drained of blood, filled with some dark, caustic fluid, and set aflame by the hottest breed of dragonfire. It felt like they had been stuffed back inside his torn and ruined muscles, only to be nailed back into place by a hundred thousand needles dipped in the cruelest of poisons. It felt like his body had been dumped into a pit of water that oscillated between boiling and freezing with every passing instant. His very cells rebelled against him in sheer, blinding pain, and his entire world went white.
Return...
Some small part of Shining’s mind dimly realized that he had fallen to the ground, and that his blade and shield had slipped from his telekinetic grasp. The sheet of pain washed over him, forcing his vision to slowly fade to black, and his heart pounded painfully in his chest like a jackhammer. Only with a titanic effort did he manage to creak his eyelids open through the haze of agony, and even then only a hairsbreadth. He thought he heard somepony screaming somewhere far, far away... and then, a moment later, he realized it was him.
Return to us...
His throat raw and his body on fire, the young captain struggled to pull himself together, attempting to rise back onto his hooves... only to collapse back to his knees as a fresh wave of blinding agony forced him down again. The stallion doubled over, hellish nausea washing over him.
Return to Mother...
Bile rose in his throat - Shining Armor coughed violently as his body was wracked with spasms... and when the shakes finally subsided several agonizing seconds later, he found himself staring blankly at the splatter of blood that stained the grass in front of him.
What... what in Tartarus was this!?
"What..." Even speaking hurt. His voice was nothing more than a hoarse rasp, and no sooner had he uttered a single word when a second wave of nausea overcame him. The stallion doubled over coughing again, his vision fading in and out. Stars, his head was swimming so badly he couldn't even think. "What did you do to me!?"
"I merely awakened your genetic legacy." Shining Armor barely heard the demon speak through the pounding roar of blood in his ears. "With the cells already present in your body, it was child's play to simply activate them with a burst of warp energy. You should be losing consciousness any moment now..."
The young captain, already in the throes of agony, felt his heartbeat spike in sudden terror. No... I can't lose, not here! If I get beaten by this guy, then Fluttershy... and Twilight...!
In a desperate surge of movement, Shining Armor attempted to throw himself back onto his hooves, but it was no use. The pain was just too excruciating. Robbed of strength by the debilitating haze of agony, the young stallion's hooves slipped out from underneath him the moment he put his weight on them, sending him doubling over in another fit of wracking coughs that splattered more blood over the grass.
"You really should give up now," his demonic adversary remarked in an infuriatingly conversational tone. "There is no fighting the mutation once it's begun - you are merely prolonging your suffering."
More pain assaulted him. Shining Armor could barely hold on to consciousness now. The edges of his vision were going dark, and his breath constricted painfully in his chest. He tried to fight against it, but it was too much - another bout of spasms sent him twisting onto his side, and he could only watch in horror as the skin and flesh of his forelegs began to ripple and shudder before his very eyes.
What... is happening to me!?
"W-Who... What are you?" the captain croaked out weakly, hanging on to wakefulness only by a slowly fraying thread. He barely heard his opponent's chuckled reply.
"Perhaps it might be of use for you to know the name of your new masters. I am a Nathrezim, a Dreadlord of the Burning Legion, and my name... is Mal'Ganis."
There was the thud of plated feet against the ground approaching him. Barely even able to suck in a breath, Shining Armor could only curl up helplessly on the ground, caught in the grasp of unspeakable agony, and await his doom. Fear and despair threatened to overwhelm him - no matter where he looked, he saw no avenues of escape, but he couldn't let himself fail his sister now! There had to be something he could do!
Suddenly, the captain felt a clawed hand wrap itself around his throat, hoisting him up into the air as though he weighed nothing more than a rag doll, and he found himself faced with the vampiric visage of his demonic opponent, its pale and cracked lips twisted in a macabre sneer. "Now, boy, it is time for you to come with me. There is a certain lord of mine that I would wish for you to meet."
Shining Armor tensed, bracing himself and gritting his teeth in frustration. Damn it all, so was this how it was going to end?
Faintly, he felt another dim presence reaching out from behind him, its strength still a mere shadow of its full potential. However, by sheer virtue of presence, it gave the young captain a single ray of hope, and a half-formed, desperate idea began to take root in his mind.
The guard captain came to a decision instantly. He would rather die first before being used as a tool in this 'Legion' against Equestria... against his wife and sister!
Reaching out to the presence with what little energy he had left, he connected again with the spirit of his weapon, drawing strength from it to fuel what was to be his final effort.
Behind him, the blade of his broadsword began to glow with his signature aura, and Shining poured every iota of energy he could still muster into it, aligning the tip of its blade with his back... and by extension, the Nathrezim in front of him.
He might not have been able to defeat his opponent now... but moon take him if he didn't drag the buzzard into Tartarus along with him, kicking and screaming all the way.
The demon, in the midst of weaving the energies for what Shining Armor barely recognized as a teleportation spell, suddenly halted as the captain’s horn began to spark weakly. Its burning eyes widened in surprise, and it glared suspiciously at the captive stallion. "What do you think you're-"
There was the sudden sound of rushing wind, as though a bullet had suddenly zipped by, and Shining Armor watched in shock as the top half of the demon’s forearm exploded in a shower of gore. A distant part of his mind noted dimly that its blood was a curious shade of deep purple, but the rest of him recoiled violently in surprise as Mal’Ganis abruptly dropped him unceremoniously to the ground. The Dreadlord was roaring in pain and outrage as he stumbled backwards, clutching at his ruined limb.
Shining Armor did not recognize the pumped up, upbeat voice at all, but damn if he wasn't glad for the distraction. Rolling himself around weakly onto his back, he cast a glance in the direction from which the shot had come from, and his eyes widened in shock.
For a second he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It took a moment for him to take in its appearance, and then a moment more before his mind made the connection. Shock overwhelmed what little of his mind that remained conscious, and his jaw dropped open despite the overwhelming pain that accompanied the action.
In front of him, the pained Dreadlord shot the newcomer a look that spoke of the utmost hatred, and pure venom dripped from its voice as it let out a growl that chilled Shining Armor to his very soul.
“You!”
“Yeah, that’s right - me! You can run, but you can’t hide from this guy! I still remember that time you nearly did Balthazar in, and I haven’t paid you back for that!”
Shining found himself gaping at the bizarre being, this interloper that threw out taunts so casually. Its build and silhouette was quite reminiscent of the demon’s, so long as you left off the wings and lengthy talons; even their heights were similar.
However, it was quite clear to the captain that this new creature was as related to the Nathrezim as he was. A face with flatter features, lightly tanned skin that didn’t look like it belonged on a corpse, a mess of untamed, bristly brown hair that hung down to his shoulders, hazel eyes that glimmered with manic glee, and a set of (thankfully normal) teeth spread wide in a wild grin made it fairly apparent that the newcomer was of an entirely different species. Whatever species that might be, exactly, Shining didn’t know, but at least it wasn’t trying to kill him at the moment.
“Hey. You there, passed out on the ground.”
…At least, he hoped it wasn’t going to try and kill him at the moment.
“Why don’t you just lay back and take it easy for a while?” Somehow, the interloper’s grin seemed to stretch even further as he continued. “Let the professionals handle this one.”
Though the effort took all of his strength, Shining Armor managed to cough out a few words in reply. “Who... Who are...”
“Who am I, you ask?” Flashing a quick wink in the stallion’s direction, the newcomer cleared his throat, like a professor about to begin his lecture, putting on an accent that sounded horribly similar to a Marexican’s. “I am known as Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz Gombigobilla Blue Stradivari Talentrent Pierre Andri Charton-Haymoss Ivanovici Baldeus George Doitzel Kaiser III.”
He paused for a moment, giving Shining a quick bow, tossing in another wink for good measure. “Don’t hesitate to call.”
A sudden growl from the demon, still clutching at the bloody mess of its forearm, cut off ‘Valentinez’. “Damn you, Caspar! Do you still think this is some kind of joke!?”
“Hey!” Caspar complained, shooting the monster a dirty look, “You know I hate it when you call me by my full name!
“But no, seriously,” he continued, turning his gaze back to Shining. “Do stay still, will ya? If you move around too much, you’re gonna die. In horrible, horrible agony, if I remember right.”
Shining Armor shook his head, trying to bring clarity to his half-formed thoughts through the haze of anguish. This must have been one of the six strange humans that had come to Equestria - the ones that were after Twilight and her friends. His quarry, the one he had been searching and preparing for the past entire night, was finally here.
Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, he didn’t know yet.
"I don't know where you came from or how you managed to track us down, Caspar," Mal'Ganis snarled, releasing its bloodied forearm and revealing that the limb was already beginning to mend itself, likely through some manner of infernal sorcery. “But your interference ends here!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that one from you about a dozen times now,” Caspar replied flippantly with a devil-may-care grin, raising one of his arms to level at the Dreadlord. And, as he was finally offered a clear look at the newcomer’s extended limb, Shining Armor registered that Caspar’s arm... wasn’t.
It wasn’t an arm at all. Instead, something that looked suspiciously like the barrel of a cannon extended forth from the man’s elbow, its entire exterior composed of an unidentifiable material that was black as tar. Veins of crimson snaked around the bizarre appendage, and - Shining had to blink a couple times to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating - the thing's veins looked like they were pulsing. As though it were... alive.
“Don’t make threats your balls can’t cash, Mally,” Caspar spoke, an audible whine seeming to emanate from his ‘arm’. As the noise rose in pitch and volume, Shining Armor felt a sudden influx of power coming from the newcomer’s direction, one that sent a strange prickling sensation washing over his fur. “You were never able to beat me before, and you certainly aren’t going to now.”
The Nathrezim’s answer was only to let out an enraged roar, and it pointed at its new opponent with its uninjured arm. The demon snarled something incomprehensible that slammed against Shining Armor’s ears like a physical weight, and a thin lance of green energy speared forward from its extended finger, snaking its way towards the human.
It never even came close to hitting. Before the beam had cleared even half the distance between the monster and Caspar, the human took to the air in a sudden, impossibly high leap. A cocky grin splashed across his face, he sailed right over Mal’Ganis and landed behind the Dreadlord in a low crouch, the barrel of his cannon primed and aimed directly at his demonic opponent’s back.
The whining built up to a sudden crescendo, and a huge flare of power burst out from Caspar's direction. Before Shining Armor could even blink, a jet of green blasted out of the cannon-arm, flashing across the distance between Caspar and Mal'Ganis in an instant.
The Nathrezim raised an arm barely in time, snarling another painfully incomprehensible incantation. There was a brief shimmer in the air front of him, and the emerald blast splashed harmlessly against it. The apparently liquid ammunition splattered to the grass below, where it began sizzling ominously.
The defense had cost him, however - in the wake of the apparently acid blast, Caspar had suddenly darted forward, and Shining Armor found himself blinking in surprise as he spotted a sudden, stark difference in the warrior’s form. Hadn't his right arm been some sort of organic cannon mere seconds ago?
And for that matter, how in Tartarus had he suddenly changed both of his arms into massive, clawed monstrosities at the same time!?
The human closed the distance in the time Shining Armor took to blink, and before the stallion knew it his unexpected rescuer already had Mal'Ganis on the ropes. Swiping and slashing madly with ridiculously huge bone claws that looked sharp enough to eviscerate a manticore in a single swipe, Caspar had the Nathrezim on the defensive almost instantly.
"Enough of this!" Mal'Ganis roared as he parried aside another slash of Caspar’s claws, doing quite well considering that his own claws were barely half the length of those that adorned the human's transformed arms. The Dreadlord gave a massive beat of his bat-like wings, opening up the distance between them as he soared into the air, and he thrust a palm outward at the ground bound human. "I shall end this charade here and now!
A torrent of hot, twisted energy unlike anything Shining Armor had ever felt before washed over him, and the stricken captain found himself gasping desperately for air. The air around him thickened with the stench of brimstone and sulfur, and a large, thick ball of emerald-green flame began to build before Mal'Ganis' extended palm, before it blasted forward towards Caspar in a stream of flaring heat.
"Burn in the fires of the Abyss, accursed Koaxian, and experience true agony!"
“What, that again? Bleugh, I hate those - they always leaves a bitter aftertaste behind.”
Shining Armor balked; Caspar sounded bored? The Koaxian was facing down the oncoming fireball with a mild expression anyone else would have used to regard a nearby fly, as though it was no more than a passing annoyance! As the conflagration drew closer and closer to him, however, the man did deign to raise his left forearm in a half-hearted blocking gesture.
The stream of flame slammed against him and exploded in a massive detonation, and Shining Armor watched Caspar disappear behind a curtain of emerald fire. For a moment the captain despaired, his one hope of finding a way out of this mess extinguished... yet, when the flames died down a moment later, he spied a silhouette amongst the embers, still standing.
Caspar lowered his left arm, having transformed the limb into a massive shield of some kind, forged entirely of black chitin and covered in the same crimson veins that had adorned his earlier arm-cannon. Green flames licked at the new armament hungrily but seemed to have no effect upon it, despite those selfsame embers rapidly burning away the grass at his feet. The human flicked his shield-arm to the side, shaking the embers off, and suddenly it was back to normal.
"Drafty," he commented off-handedly, dusting himself off. "I'll give it to ya, Mally - you've gotten better! Last time you hit me with that, I only felt a little whiff of hot air."
And then Caspar suddenly whipped his left arm forth. With a sound like stretching rubber, the limb extended forward, moving an impossibly long distance before latching onto the Nathrezim’s cuirass. The barbed stinger that had suddenly replaced the human’s hand, Shining Armor realized with a start, had punched cleanly through the breastplate, the same one that had effortlessly deflected his own blade mere minutes ago, as though it were made of butter.
"But I don't get hot under the collar so easily!"
He yanked downwards, and Mal'Ganis was brutally jerked out of the air and brought down, flailing and screaming, to Caspar's level. The Koaxian reared his right arm backwards briefly, and when he thrust it forward to meet the falling demon, it was suddenly replaced by a ridiculously huge, double-ended blade nearly as long as Caspar's own body, its smaller secondary end protruding from where his elbow would have been.
Shining Armor watched in shocked awe as the blade impaled the Dreadlord cleanly through the sternum, unleashing a shower of indigo gore. Blood exploded out from Mal'Ganis' mouth as its expression contorted in surprise, as though it could not comprehend what had just happened.
"I-Impossible..."
"Told you." Caspar's voice had lowered itself to a deadly murmur, made all the more chilling with how grave his tone was. "You're not going to beat me, Mal'Ganis. Not in this life, and not ever."
“And... what exactly do you think you can do... that can possibly kill me?” Mal’Ganis let out a throaty, bubbling chuckle despite the massive blade thrust through his torso, purple blood oozing from his lips. “Dozens of... your predecessors have tried, and none of them succeeded. You can never... truly destroy a Nathrezim, Koaxian - you can only merely banish us back to the Warp. I will be back again someday, and I will find the means to defeat you.”
“Maybe.” Caspar conceded with a tilt of his head, and the tinny whining that Shining Armor had come to associate with the charging of the human’s strange arm cannon suddenly sounded again, rapidly building up to a fever high pitch. “But that day ain’t this one. And it sure as hell won’t be the next time you come back... ‘cause I won’t be around any longer by then.”
Mal’Ganis’ flaming eyes narrowed. “Wait... Just what do you-”
“I’ll see you in the Warp, Mally.” It was only then that Shining Armor noticed the tiny, secondary barrel that had grown on the inner side of Caspar’s blade, levelled right underneath the Dreadlord’s chin. “Say hello to Tichondrius for me.”
There was a sudden muffled thump!, and Mal’Ganis’ head vanished in a spray of steaming, bile-green acid. Caspar shook Mal’Ganis’ body from his blade in a shower of blood, and when Shining Armor blinked, the human’s arm was suddenly back to normal again, showing no trace of having been a massive blade nearly as long as his own body mere seconds ago.
As the captain watched, the Dreadlord’s corpse slowly dissolved away into a fine gray mist. Its arms, its legs, its bloody stump of a neck, and its ruined torso, in a matter of seconds they were all reduced to a thin spray of ash. Instead of coating the ground or Caspar, the ash took to the air, as though carried along by an ethereal gust of wind. Though bleary, half-closed eyes, Shining watched as the last remnants of his foe blew upwards and away; before long, all trace of the demon’s remains had been lost to the great blue expanse overhead.
“Well. That was fun!”
Leaving him, for better or for worse, alone with the human.
A quick glance in Caspar’s direction revealed that the man was currently lost in his own little world; he stared up the sky, in the approximate direction the ashes had been traveling, with a... wistful, if that was the word for it, smile sprawled across his face, seemingly unaware of his surroundings.
With his rescuer apparently lost in thought, Shining turned his head back to Fluttershy’s cottage with a titanic burst of effort. The simple motion shot lances of pain down his spine, but he didn’t care. He’d promised both his Princess and his sister that he would defend the Bearer of Kindness, and he intended to keep that promise until his dying breath.
However, it seemed that Mal’Ganis’ curse did not fade alongside its caster. The stallion’s thoughts were lost in an agonizing haze the instant he tried to rise to his hooves, and he collapsed back to the ground, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
This new position afford Shining Armor a new viewpoint. One of his forelegs was stretched out in front of his muzzle; even his blurry, faded vision could make out every detail from this short distance. And what he saw set his stomach churning in disgust and horror.
His flesh was crawling, both figuratively and literally. Malformed lumps seemed to slowly traveling from his hoof up to his knee, as though tiny moles were burrowing through the limb. They pulsated like they were stuffed with some kind of oozing, not quite liquid substance, and he could almost swear that they smelled like rot and decay. What’s more, it looked like his entire leg was slowly but surely turning a dark, horrid color of black. It didn’t look like it was just his fur that was shifting from snow white; his skin and muscles seemed to be changing color as well.
“Hey!”
The shout managed to bring Shining back to reality, or at least a bit closer to it. Slowly, the stallion managed to wrench his eyes away from his limb and over to Caspar. Apparently the human had emerged from his own reverie, as he was currently stalking over to the immobilized captain with a disappointed grimace.
“I thought I told you to stay still,” Caspar chided as he cleared the distance between them in a few long strides. “I wasn’t joking around, ya know. Moving around in your condition is only going to make the corruption spread faster.”
With an overly theatrical sigh, he crouched down next to Shining Armor. Hazel eyes, full of boredom lightly tempered by curiosity, lazily stared at the stallion, as though he were a museum exhibit stuffed behind a layer of glass.
Shining wasn’t sure how long he endured Caspar’s gaze; it’s difficult to keep track of time when you’re fading in and out of consciousness. He was fairly certain, however, that it was only after an uncomfortably long silence that the human stood back up.
“Jenova cells, mmm? And they’ve only just been called on?” Caspar muttered as he stretched, his arms and back bending slightly more than his joints should have rightfully allowed. “Hmm, and where exactly have you been to have contracted this kinda stuff? Well, it’s your own fault for going up against a Nathrezim when your body’s messing around with those bad boys. Sorry buddy, looks like it’s the end of the road for you.”
His prognosis announced, the human turned to leave, idly waving a farewell to the stallion as he began to walk away. “I’d advise just keeping still until you pass out. S’not like it’ll slow the spread down much, but at least it won’t agitate your body as much as it could. Happy thoughts!”
As he watched the newcomer casually stroll away, Shining felt a cold panic seize what was left of his mind. This couldn’t be... He didn’t want to... Dammit! Was this really how he went out?! Sprawled out on the ground like a sick foal, leaving his charge and his country undefended?! ...No. He wasn’t going to let it end like this. Even if he was going to die, at least he could try to make sure Fluttershy made it through.
Though it felt like his leg was going to shatter and fall off at any moment, the captain managed to stretch it towards Caspar’s retreating back. “Wait,” he managed to croak out. “Please... You need to... to help...”
“Sorry buddy,” came the disturbingly chipper reply. “But I’ve got places to go and things to do. Don’t really have time to take care of someone stupid enough to throw their life away like that.”
“Not me!”
That managed to slow the human down a bit. Slowly turning around, Caspar stared back at Shining with that same analytical gaze. “...Okay, okay, fine. What’s your last request? Got family you want to track down or something?”
If his face wasn’t contorted into a permanent agonized grimace, Shining would’ve cracked a small smile. It was certainly a shot in the dark, but this human had fought off that demon after all. Maybe, just maybe, he’d care enough to help Fluttershy.
Though the act nearly sent him spiraling into unconsciousness, the stallion managed to twist his leg again, this time pointing at the large hole he and Mal’Ganis had made as they had torn through the cottage’s wall. “... Her,” he croaked feebly, hoping against hope that his hunch was right. Because, if he was wrong... He didn’t want to think about it.
The vague gesture and request seemed to have sparked Caspar’s curiosity, if nothing else. With a noncommittal grunt, he turned towards the cottage and began to stalk towards it. It didn’t take him long to reach the homestead, and it took even less time for him to vault inside.
For a short while, silence filled the air, leaving Shining Armor to stew in his half-conscious thoughts and worries. Then, just barely, his ears managed to pick up a handful of words from within the house.
“Well, what do we have here?”
Though there was a perfectly serviceable hole in the wall, Caspar chose to exit through the cottage’s front door. Slowly, he marched back over to the immobilized stallion, a mischievous grin dancing across his features. “That was Descartes’ broad, wasn’t it?” Though he had phrased as a question, it was obvious to both of them that Caspar was stating a fact. It wasn’t as though Shining could have answered anyway, even if he knew who Descartes was.
“So, let me get this straight,” Caspar muttered as he crouched next to the captain again, his eyes glimmering with excitement. “We’ve got a Dreadlord, an Initiate, and your Jenova-infested self, and you decided to help us out?” If the human’s chuckling was anything to go by, the situation was apparently quite amusing, though the humor in it managed to escape Shining.
“Well, you know what they say!” the man spouted brightly, his arms beginning to shift into some other bizarre shape. “The enemy of my friend is my... Wait, no. Friend of my friend... Oh, who gives a damn. You helped us out; I suppose the least I can do is return the favor.”
Caspar reached out, sinking his grip into Shining Armor's transformed foreleg with a hand that looked as though its fingers had been replaced with hypodermic needles. And somehow, though it didn't seem physically possible, the pain got worse.
The captain would have screamed out, had he any breath to spare. A sheet of pure, white agony blanked out all of his senses, and through the overwhelming anguish he only barely noticed another presence slithering its way into his body’s ley lines. Its buzzing, chaotic energies merged and intertwined with his own... and began to battle against the malignant, sinister shadow that he was only just starting to sense hidden inside his very own body.
“Well, well, aren’t you a slippery bastard?” Shining Armor barely heard Caspar mutter. “Come on now... back you go!”
The new slithering presence inside him suddenly jabbed forward like snake lunging at its prey, striking at the shadow. A fresh wave of pain washed over the soldier, so intense he nearly blacked out. More energy was pouring into him from outside, scorchingly purifying as it pushed back the shadow, isolating it and blocking it off from the rest of his body.
“Easy does it..." The human's voice was now nothing more than a faint ringing in his ears. "I don’t know where you came from or how you got into this guy’s body, but you sure as hell ain’t going to take control of him here to use against us, you bloody Nightmare!”
His entire body aflame with agony, Shining Armor’s iron hard discipline finally buckled underneath the strain. His mind utterly collapsed, unable to endure the overwhelming anguish any longer... and just before the blackness finally claimed him, a final voice rang in his ears, its words echoing throughout his very being...
Power...
GIVE ME MORE POWER!!!
Power unlike anything Twilight had ever sensed before was rolling off of Rarity in waves.
It felt as though she stood in the midst of a freezing blizzard, and that Rarity was the very heart of the storm. Icy cold pressed in all around the scholar, the sensation of sleet biting painfully into her flesh like thousands of tiny needles. Twilight blinked, trying to clear her head as she struggled against the pressure building in her temples, and she stared uncomprehendingly at her transformed friend.
The unicorn-turned-human continued staring at Celestia’s prized student with curiosity, one of her eyebrows raised. “... Twilight? What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me as though you’ve seen a ghost?”
The fuchsia mare struggled to get her mouth working, her jaw moving up and down and her lips just barely managing to form words.
“R-R-Rarity, y-you’re...”
"I'm what, Twilight?" Rarity frowned, evidently confused.
"Hey Twilight!" Pinkie Pie's head suddenly popped from behind Twilight. "Didja find anythi- HOLY HORSEAPPLES RARITY, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!?"
“Honestly, what is wrong with the two of you?” Rarity chided, rising to her feet, and Twilight realized with a start that the upright fashionista now towered over her - she had to be at least twice her original height now! As she walked slowly towards her guests, the white glow of Rarity’s eyes subsided, revealing the aquamarine irises that Twilight recognized all too well. “Pinkie, is this another one of your pranks? Twilight, did she actually convince you to join her on this?”
“What do you mean, is this one of my pranks!?” the party pony shouted back. “You’re one of those hu-mmpggh!”
Pinkie found it difficult to finish the rest of her statement, most likely due to the hoof Twilight had just shoved down her throat. “Er, what Pinkie’s trying to say,” the librarian began with a hesitant, nervous grin, “is that you, umm... Rarity, you’re... Rarity, have you taken a look at yourself lately?”
“Excuse me?” Rarity couldn’t possibly have sounded more offended than she did at that moment, her words full of shocked disbelief and a hand flying self-consciously to her chest. “Why, I never - Twilight, are you trying to insinuate something!?”
“Oh, for the love of-” The librarian nearly facehooved. Her fear and trepidation was slowly starting to melt away, being replaced with annoyed familiarity - as different as her friend looked, it was becoming more and more apparent that this was still the exact same Rarity that she had known throughout all her years of living in Ponyville. “For Celestia’s sake, Rarity, look at yourself!”
“And what, exactly, are you trying to-” The former unicorn huffed in annoyance, deigning to take a second to follow Twilight’s instructions. The rest of her unfinished sentence died in her throat, however, as she finally noticed her transformed body. Eyes wide as dinner plates, Rarity blinked as she raised a pale, slender hand up to her face, and stared at it uncomprehendingly for a few seconds.
“Oh,” the fashionista simply said, and then abruptly collapsed onto her behind. “Oh my.”
The power emanating from her abruptly vanished. One moment Twilight felt like she was standing in the middle of a snowstorm, and the next she was suddenly surrounded by blessed warmth as the boutique returned to normal temperatures. There was a brief flash of light, and the human Rarity suddenly vanished, replaced by a familiar alabaster white unicorn that Twilight relievedly recognized.
The room rapidly returned to normal, its icy coating dissolving away into so many motes of tiny light that soon winked out of existence. As the last of the glimmers faded away, Twilight galloped into the room and right up to Rarity, who was still staring, shell-shocked, at her hoof.
“Rarity?!” she began, urgently waving a hoof in front of the seamstress’ face. “Are you okay?! Can you hear me?!”
“I... Yes, Twilight,” came the dazed reply. “I’m just a little... Oh, my.”
Twilight let out a relieved sigh, before wrapping her friend up in a tight embrace. For several moments she had feared the worst for her friend, afraid that somehow, their mysterious interlopers had gotten their metaphorical claws into Rarity’s head and twisted her thoughts and personality into something completely unrecognizable. Now, she could see that her fears had been baseless, and at the very least, it didn’t look like their Rarity was going to be going anywhere anytime soon.
“Wowie! How’d ya do that, Rarity!?”
Apparently, Pinkie wasn’t quite satisfied with being left out of the hug. Bounding forward and scooping both her friends up in a bear-like embrace, she brought her face right up next to Rarity’s and affixed her with a curious, questioning stare, which the unicorn answered with an equally confused expression.
“I... I don’t know, Pinkie Pie,” Rarity confessed shakily, holding a hoof to her forehead as she tried to steady herself. “It was just... It felt completely natural to me, manipulating the power this way. Like I've been doing it my whole life. I felt something calling to me when I woke up, and when I answered it, I... found myself here.”
“Calling to you?” Twilight gave her friend an intrigued look, a familiar look of a hunger for knowledge beginning to twinkle in her eyes. “What do you mean by that?”
"I don't know how to describe it." Rarity shook her head breathlessly as her fuchsia friend helped her back onto her hooves. "Something... spoke to me while I was sleeping. Guided me. I couldn’t make out any of its words, but I understood its intent perfectly. It helped me find something inside of me, and when I tapped into it...”
The unicorn let out a shuddering breath, but not in any manner of fear or disgust, and she gave the young scholar a meaningful look. “Well, let’s just say that I now have an inkling of how you might feel having all that power at the tips of your hooves, Twilight.”
Twilight stared at Rarity in shock, her heart nearly stopping. She knew that her friend tended towards theatrics and exaggerations, but she could tell that Rarity had been absolutely serious just now... and the implications of that chilled her to the bone.
Oh, she would certainly know the feeling - being the Bearer of the Element of Magic afforded Twilight an almost limitless font of energy from which to draw from. She could repeatedly cast day-to-day spells without feeling so much as a whiff of exhaustion, and only multiple consecutive castings of high level spells were capable of even winding her. If the changes wrought to Rarity’s body had brought her anywhere close to matching Twilight’s own level of power... the young student scarcely dared to even imagine what awaited them further down the road.
If she was reading this right, they were being slowly worked up the totem pole - the first to fall had been Rainbow Dash, one of the supporting elements of Harmony, but by no means a central piece. The next to be targeted had been Rarity, and following that, Fluttershy, each one a peripheral, rather than central target. Twilight was starting to get a feeling in her gut that she would be the last one to be confronted by... whatever it was out there that was stalking them.
And if one of their mysterious interlopers had enough power to bring Rarity, a unicorn who relied far more on skill and fine control with her comparatively limited amount of magic instead of sheer strength, up to a level that could match her own raw power... the librarian’s head spun as she contemplated just how terrifyingly powerful the rest of their enigmatic visitors could be.
“Well,” Twilight exhaled shakily as she shook her dark thoughts off and tried to ground herself back in the situation, “we’ll have to look into that later, won’t we? We have more important matters on hoof right now - I was just getting Pinkie from Sugarcube Corner when her Pinkie Sense picked up on you finally coming around.”
“Sure hit me by surprise!” The magenta earth pony standing behind her piped up, nodding her head vigorously. “I was hoping for something on Dashie, but then I got a floppy knee and twitchy ears, and I just knew you were awake, so I decided ‘eh, I’ll take what I can get’, and so I told Twilight and then we teleported to the hospital but then you weren’t there so we decided to look for you here!”
Twilight stared at Pinkie, but was hardly surprised at this point that the pink mare had managed all of that in a single breath. “Well... yes, that’s pretty much how it happened.”
“I... see,” Rarity murmured distractedly, her eyes downcast and unsure. A moment later however, her gaze rapidly refocused, and she suddenly locked her eyes on Twilight. “Wait... what were you going to get Pinkie for at Sugarcube Corner for?”
The image of a butter yellow pegasus mare lying comatose in her bed flashed across Twilight’s mind, and she choked back a distressed sob. “Oh... Oh, darn it all... Rarity... They got to Fluttershy!"
"They what?" Rarity's voice was a horrified whisper. “Oh... Oh stars, no... Is she all right!?"
“She’s unconscious right now, still inside her home. My brother arrived in Ponyville yesterday and he’s watching over her now. I teleported to Pinkie’s so I could let her know as soon as possible, and then...” Twilight’s words were coming out in a tumbled rush as the distressed mare tried in vain to keep herself composed. "Well, you woke up. Rarity, we have to get to Fluttershy's right away! Every second counts here!"
The seamstress stared at her panicking friend in confusion, desperately trying to take stock of the sudden rush of new events. Here she was having just woken up from a coma, and she was already being rushed along from one thing to another without even having a single chance to catch her breath!
Almost on instinct the unicorn immediately took in a deep breath, rapidly instilling a sense of zen that came to her almost naturally. Her thoughts abruptly cleared, bringing crystal clarity to the myriad of confusing circumstances she was being faced with. Details were noted, connections were made, and she fixed Twilight with a look of dawning comprehension.
"Wait, Twilight," Rarity began slowly. "The presence that took her... did it feel dark, and empty by any chance?"
The lavender unicorn, who had already been in the midst of casting a teleport spell, suddenly halted, staring at Rarity with wide, surprised eyes. "Why... Yes! But how did you know? You were still asleep when it happened!"
“No, I think it was the very thing that woke me!” The fashionista unicorn shook her head, speaking with a quiet urgency. “When I regained consciousness, I realized that I could sense two very distinct magical signatures that were directly connected to me. It was like, I just knew where they were. The first one I sensed was tiny, infantile - almost as if it was newborn. It felt dark, and cold, but there was the other one, and it was just bursting with power and movement, like... like lightning.”
Rarity fixed the purple mare before her with a look of frantic realization, and she grabbed her friend urgently by the shoulder. “Twilight, I think I know where Rainbow Dash is.”
The young librarian stared silently back for a few seconds. Her mouth worked, trying to give voice to her astonishment, but sheer relief simply blocked everything else out. She just couldn't believe it - after being hit by turn after turn of horrid luck, with her friends dropping like flies or disappearing, having one of them finally wake up and know how to find the other missing one was nothing short of a miraculous turn of fortune.
"This is... I just... Wow," the unicorn finally managed after several moments, her lips half-twitching into a smile through the haze of her relieved astonishment. “Oh, thank Celestia. I was hoping you’d be able to help us find her, but I didn’t expect this! This is going to make things much easier. Rarity, please, you have to-"
"- get out there and bring her back, I presume?" The seamstress shot Twilight a wry, reluctant smile. "Well, given the fact that she's in the Everfree forest, I would normally be very averse to this decision! But seeing that I’m the only one who knows where she is, I don’t suppose we have much of a choice. No sense in going unprepared, though..."
A flash of light blinded Twilight and Pinkie Pie for an instant. When they blinked the stars out of their eyes, Rarity stood before them in her human form again, rising to her feet as a long, curved body of crystallized ice began to form in her hand. A thin dress, sewn out of some gossamer, pure white cloth and seemingly infused with motes of light, hung wonderfully from her frame, sweeping down to just above her ankles. Glistening stiletto heels seemingly made of clear crystal materialized around her delicate feet, completing the ensemble.
“Ah, wonderful!” the former mare exclaimed, taking a moment to examine her new body in a nearby mirror. “You know, once you get over the initial shock, this new form really has some potential, don’t you think?” Unable to resist, the seamstress gave a quick twirl, giggling in excitement as her gown glided along with her.
“Rarity,” Twilight began, moving the mirror back with a burst of magic, “while I think it’s great that you’re able to control that body, we can’t just let you run off by yourself again! That’s exactly what happened to Rainbow Dash, and I’m not going to let it happen again.”
With an authoritative snort, the scholar slammed her hoof dramatically against the ground. “We’re going to go find Rainbow together, okay? That way you’ll be able to test out your new body, and Pinkie and I can... AAAAAAAAAAGH! ”
The unicorn’s words were suddenly cut off as a spike of red-hot pain drove itself through her temples, and Twilight’s eyes widened as she realized she recognized the sensation. Incredible, immense pressure bearing down upon her shoulders, her head clamped in a vice, the world itself pressing down around her... It was just like the time when Shining Armor had suddenly appeared at her doorstep, but this time Twilight was very sure that her brother hadn’t just arrived at Carousel Boutique.
For one thing, she could sense that the staggering wave of energy had originated from a point that was very far off - a good mile away, at least. But the moment she took in its sheer magnitude and realized just how far away it still was, a chill ran down her spine, and Twilight’s breath hitched in her throat.
It was the kind of distance they would have had to cover to get to Fluttershy’s cottage, right at the very borders of the town. Yet, despite that distance, the overwhelming sensation of power she was feeling now completely eclipsed the overpowering pressure she had experienced from Shining Armor when he had been at a mere twenty percent of his full strength, and had been right by her side to boot.
And even more terrifyingly, she realized that she recognized this energy.
Somewhere out there, her brother was cutting loose with an unimaginable amount of power, and he was in trouble.
“No...” Twilight let out a horrified whisper, shaking her head in denial. “No, no! It’s too soon!”
“What? What is it, Twilight?” Pinkie gave her a concerned look, to which Twilight responded with wide, terrified eyes.
“Something’s happened!” The librarian’s voice was soft, but high and thready with fear. “My brother, he... he’s in trouble, I can feel it! We have to get back to Fluttershy’s cottage right away!”
“But what about Rainbow Dash?!” Rarity interrupted, the worry in her words quite apparent. “She’s alone in the Everfree, Twilight; we can’t just leave her by herself!”
“I know, I know!”
Letting out a horrified moan, Twilight desperately tried to make sense of the situation. There was no way Shining Armor ever would have unleashed his full power like this, not unless the situation absolutely demanded it. He must have run into another one of those humans. They were the only things around Ponyville that could have pushed him to such extremes, after all; not even a hydra would have required his full strength. And if he’d really been pushed that far... Would even his unbridled strength be enough?
But Rarity was right, Rainbow Dash needed help too. That was what all of this had been for, trying to track down the pegasus and make sure she was alright. And they were so close too! Still, there was no way she could possibly send off Rarity on her own, not with so many unknowns still around!
“Come on, think, think!” she groaned, pleading with her scrambled thoughts to scrape together some semblance of a plan. Shining, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy... How was she supposed to help them all at once?!
And this starforsaken headache was not helping things!
Letting out an angry shriek, Twilight barely noticed as Rarity and Pinkie jumped back a couple paces. “I just... I don’t know what to do!”
“Ah, come on, sure you do!”
A pink-furred leg suddenly draped itself across the librarian’s shoulders. “Don’t worry Twilight, you can come up with something!”
Pinkie Pie’s ever present cheer only served to grate Twilight’s nerves even further. “Pinkie,” she sighed despondently as she tried to shake off her friend’s attempted embrace, “please just give me a minute to think, okay? I... I need to make a plan.”
Out of the corner of her eye, the unicorn noticed Pinkie tilting her head in confusion. “Why? What help is a plan going to be?”
Twilight barely managed to bite back an irritated snap. “Why?! Because if we don’t have a plan, then everything is just going to get worse! We need to plan so that we can keep everypony safe!”
“But Twilight, how is sitting around and doing nothing keeping anypony safe except for us?”
“I don’t... What?”
“Well, right now we’re just wasting time, right? You’re trying to think of a plan and not coming up with anything, and meanwhile Shiny and Dashie are all off by themselves. You said it yourself, they need help now; we can’t just wait!”
“But... But without a plan we... Fine, so what would you do then?!”
“Oh, that’s an easy one! You and me go help your brother out, while Rarity goes to bring Rainbow Dash back home!”
“But that’s exactly what I’ve been-” Twilight could practically feel the fuse blowing in her mind. An eyebrow violently twitched - Pinkie’s suggestion was exactly the kind of course of action she had been trying to avoid this whole time! What conversation had she been listening to for the past few minutes!?
“Come on Twilight, think about it! If Dashie’s powered up like Rarity, then they’re probably pretty good matches for each other! Plus, I can probably help you with whatever you might run into! It’s a win win, right?”
The lavender unicorn forced herself to bite back a frustrated scream. Much as she hated to admit it, her flighty, scatter-brained friend was actually right. The blow to her pride as the one unicorn who always had all the plans and answers stung viciously, but right now there were more important things to worry about than her ego. Letting out an aggrieved groan, Twilight finally relented. “All right, fine. We’ll do it your way. I can’t think of anything else right now, and I guess doing something is better than the alternative..."
Turning back to the unicorn-turned human next to her, Twilight fixed Rarity with a sombre stare. "I guess I can’t really ask you to run away at the first sign of danger, since you're intending to bring Rainbow Dash back and we know how she is now, but please... Just be careful. Please come back to us in one piece, Rarity."
The violet-haired woman simply gave her a reassuring smile, bending down to set a slim, comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Twilight - everything's going to be all right. I'll be back with Rainbow Dash before you know it. Oh, and do send your brother my regards, will you?"
Before Twilight could respond, there was a sudden, subtle weaving of power from Rarity, and the former unicorn vanished in a swirl of white vapor. The lavender unicorn gave the spot where Rarity had just stood a worried look, then bit her lip nervously and turned away, her eyes averted.
“What’s wrong, Twilight?” Pinkie glanced at her friend with a concerned look. "You look like you just sent Rarity off to her own funeral!"
"Pinkie!" Twilight let out a horrified gasp. "Don't say things like that!"
The young librarian gave another furtive look at the spot where Rarity had teleported away, and let out a frustrated moan. The vice around her temples had still not abated, and her brother's power continued to shine painfully through her metaphysical eyes like a supernova in the Weave. Neither of these were helping to alleviate her worries.
"It's just driving me insane!" she finally moaned, grabbing her head with her hooves. "Not having all the answers, not knowing what to do - there's no telling what she'll run into out there in the Everfree, and what if she's unable to handle Rainbow Dash on her own? What are we going to do then!?"
Twilight was so sunken in her frustrations that she barely registered the magenta foreleg wrapping itself around her shoulders. When she finally opened her eyes, Pinkie's face filled her vision, a wide and encouraging smile on her face.
"Come on, Twilight! Have a little faith in Rarity!" Pinkie's grin was way too confident for Twilight's comfort, but at least the sight of it managed to lift her spirits somewhat. "Remember that time when she got kidnapped by those Diamond Dogs? We thought we needed to save her - in the end, the dogs were the ones who needed saving from her! She can handle herself no problemo!"
The young scholar wanted desperately to explain to the scatterbrained baker exactly what the difference was between a lowly pack of mangy diamond dogs and a group of extraterrestrial interlopers that were capable of challenging the full power of a Royal Guard captain. Everything that Twilight knew screamed at her that Rarity was going in over her head, that she was going to get herself horribly hurt in the Everfree, that she wasn't going to be able to bring Rainbow Dash back...
But everything she knew was from before Rarity had received a power boost. A boost that brought the fashionista damn close to a level of raw power that was almost on par with her own. All of her old knowledge and expectations were useless - there was no telling just what Rarity was capable of now. For all Twilight knew, it might have been the exact same case as before - that Rarity was more than capable of handling herself, and Twilight was simply fretting over nothing.
Maybe Pinkie was right. Maybe she didn't need to worry so much about the seamstress. Right now, there was a much more immediate and concrete situation that needed their attention - her brother needed help!
"Yeah... You're right, Pinkie. Rarity can take care of herself." Twilight breathed out, nodding in an attempt to convince herself of it. "We have to get to my brother, as soon as we can!"
There wasn’t a single moment to waste - the lavender unicorn immediately began charging up a new teleport spell... or she would have, if not for another sudden interruption. Out of nowhere, another sudden wave of energy slammed against her senses, this time so garbled and twisted that she could barely even make any sense out of it, and a wave of vertigo turned her world upside down just as Pinkie suddenly yelped out, jumping a full foot into the air.
“Oh no, hold on, Twilight! Wait a sec!”
Twilight nearly swore an oath as she recovered herself. Stars, what was it going to take for her to just get through the day without any more unpleasant surprises!?
“What is it, Pinkie!?”
“I’m just getting something new... and ohhh boy, is this one a doozy! It’s... Oh horseapples, it’s headed right for us! Looks like we’re about to have some company!”
Twilight’s eyes bugged out. “Wait, what!?” Hold on, more arrivals!? Oh no, please not now not now- !
Fear gripped her chest. It might be more of them! She had to remain on guard; she couldn’t afford to be blindsided like this!
The young mare’s brain quickly tried to put a stop to her panicked train of thought, attempting to remind her of a few crucial facts to stave off the impending freak out. Okay, Shiny mentioned earlier that some of his guard officers would be arriving in Ponyville to keep an eye on the place - maybe they’re the new arrivals that Pinkie’s referring to!
The pink pony suddenly gave an abrupt, full-body shudder for just an instant. Immediately afterwards, her body ground to a stop, her eyes going as wide as dinner plates as a simple phrase escaped her lips.
“Uh oh, spaghettio.”
“What, Pinkie? What is it?”Twilight’s nerves were frazzled beyond the point of being frazzled already. If anything else was headed their way... things couldn’t possibly get any worse! Oh, Celestia, please let it be the guard officers, please let it be help that’s on the way!
“Seems like things just got worse.” A lock of hair twanged out of place in Twilight’s mane, and she could literally feel a nerve snap in her mind when Pinkie continued. “Our new arrivals aren’t exactly friendly.”
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Damn Jenova, stupid alien gets it's cells everywhere.
2007839
Finally this story is gaining popularity!
I swear one day there only 20 like then the next there's 50... and then 6 weeks later there's still 50
Jenova gets around more than my ex...
Another great chapter!
Hey! Some pony didn't ascend this chapter, well that was a surprise. Glad to see you breaking that mold a bit.
The thing I like about this story so far, is it feels like a good anime. You've got the tone and interactions just right. Honestly, if it wasn't for the ponies, I could honestly be convinced that this was originally planned to be one of those fairly long running series like Soul Eater, or... actually, I don't watch that much anime, but I have seen enough to know that this is what that reminds me of. Except hopefully without the lame third season.
'
So, not all these order of Croaxia guys are equal in power I take it? Kinda weird that you've decided that Dash should be the weakest then, also slightly weird that AJ would be the second strongest, but Twilight on top does follow the standard conventions. Actually, that's a little disappointing. You've got AJ, typically one of the more powerless ponies from the show, near the top of the pack and RD, typically the second or third most 'fighty' ponies at the very bottom, but Twilight still at the top? An overpowered and borderline Mary Sue Twilight nearly ruined the Immortal Game for me, I hope she doesn't end up doing that here.
Man, you're just throwing everything in there, FF, WoW, Bleach, Gurren Lagann... and those are just the ones that didn't fly way over my head.
I don't know if it's awesome or just plain confusing.
Question. Was that a reverence to DMC4 in their with that little POWER! speech. Allow me to elaborate
you should compile a list of all the references in this story so we can look them up
2024592 No need to elaborate man, you've no idea how often I've watched that scene over and over in my earlier years. I know exactly what you're talking about xD. And yeah, that was definitely a reference there.
2024580 I think it's a bit of both, to be honest. Just the way it should be; crazy, over the top, and more than a little silly.
Oh, and don't forget Trigun! And Prototype. And DMC. And there was a bit of Baccano! in there. And...
2024159
Well, the only ones not equal in power to the rest would be the last two, who are still not exactly outright outclassing the first four, who are all more or less equals with only a few fluctuations in power level here and there. As for the feel of the fanfic being very similar to that of an anime, well, I've got your answer right here - much of my inspiration comes from animes themselves, and trust me, I've seen my fair share of animes. Not as many as you would expect from a diehard otaku, but I have a knowledge of a few series under my belt. Namely, Naruto, Bleach, Gurren Lagann, NGE, the Fate series, and a little bit of One Piece. As for the rest of it, I can thank my co-writer HeirApparent here for contributing his fair share of knowledge to the story
Twilight takes the top spot simply because it makes the most narrative sense for her to take on the role of the leader. Applejack, likewise, is her second in command, which makes sense for her to take on the second spot. Each member of the Order has different talents, so to speak, and the amount of raw power afforded to each of them only differs slightly. Besides, raw power doesn't equate to combat effectiveness - fine control, technique, skill, and most importantly, experience also play a part in winning a fight. Trust me when I say that if Dash and AJ were to ever face off in their empowered states, the fight is very likely to go both ways.
So... yeah, don't worry about Twilight being a Mary Sue, I intend to implement on her several balancing mechanics so she won't end up breaking the entire game, heheh
2024715
I remember seeing a Mass effect 2 quote in the East Abyss that practically made me squee. I'm going to have to go back and see if I can spot any more for the lulz.
HOORAY
new chapter and its still awesome keep up the good work
YES!
Oh, I'm so glad this updated.
2024721
Well, the only animes I've seen are Soul Eater, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Darker Than Black, and Clannad. I was more or less thinking of Soul Eater and shows like Bleach or One Piece when I was talking about how this feels like an anime. Obviously, the tone of this is rather different from Darker Than Black or Clannad.
Anyway, glad that you've thought this through. Probably the best scene in this so far was when Dash rainbow nuked that guy right after a sonic rainboom in the first chapter. It was a great scene and a really cool moment almost purely because of the 'Ho shit boy! we're dealing with some powerful bitches right here,' that it carried. It was great because it really just upped the scale of the entire story in that one scene.
Oh, another issue I feel I should bring up is power creep. Obviously the characters need to get more powerful and dangerous and stuff, but don't be stupid with it. It's the sort of thing that can be easily taken too far. Once again I cite the Immortal Games as an example of what I'm talking about when I say 'too far'. When the actual cool and interesting characters just got pushed aside and replaced by stupidly powerful
Twilight for no good reason, and then going an even dumber step further than that, where Twilight totally out classes Celestia and Luna combined and then it gets even dumber and goes further than that when Twilight takes all the power from the main villain and combines it with her own. The point is, you've already got things pretty huge on the power scale here, you don't need to be taking things too much further up it.
2027076 Very valid point you're raising there, I'll take care not to fall into that trap. I'll just quote the general rule of Naruto - "the bigger the jutsu, the bigger the drawback". And though Twilight might be inheriting powers from the strongest of the Koaxians, her powers, when going all-out, are also going to be the most draining of all. Definitely a limiter there.
Ohh bloody- Freaking Jenova! Contending with Sephiroth and his gang was bad enough already, how many more Cells are out there!?
Werg. . . more work for me. Yaaay. . .
Awesome chapter as usual Mr. HR, I love how many references there are in here. I have to wonder how the Shinigami Gotei Thirteen and the Pony Court Guards compare to each other however. . .
2027453 Suffice it to say, I've ponified the entire Gotei 13. Make of that what you will ^^
2027857
. . .
-Pictures Pony Kenpachi Zaraki-
Meep.
SO.
MUCH.
AWESOMENESS.
IT'S INDESCRIBABLE!
before i start reading the chapter i have to thank the autor for the intro text that takes me up to speed. Its been a month since last chapter so its nice to get something to make me remember where in the story we got.
-lands face-first, stands-
Where the?
...
as long as I'm here do you need an editor or adviser?
I've been working with names like DungeonMiner, Beyond the horizon, and Permanent Temporary in case you want a resume.
Behold the theme of the six when they understand their powers
2063104 Hmmm... Sounds interesting, and I am in need of a sounding board for ideas. I'll drop you a PM.
2067904 Certainly a nice selection; there's no doubt about that.
Still, I think I'm going to have to give my vote to another option.
(It should be noted that I have no control over musical selections. It's just that my pals finally got me to watch the first few episodes of Black Lagoon, and damn if that isn't one of the better openings I've heard in a while.)
2073494 It's all good bro i was just throwing this out there good choice though.
Still wished it was mine a little though
Heh, Rainbow should use March of Cambreadth, that is a AWESOME song. Or maybe Luna's, who else fits midnight mare? And from what I can see, they will be fighting to defend their home.
2121655 This is all that we need.
That it all.
2175706
Where have you been? MOAR UPDATES PLZ!
Pretty please?
MOAR!
2212534 Working on it man, been running rather dry on inspiration lately. Work and life in general isn't exactly being very cooperative with the refreshing of my mind either, heh. I'd say I'm about two-thirds done with the next chapter already.
2215648
Awesome!
Though I may not be in it already, I understand the world of work is taxing. But when you read something that gets you this hooked...
It's brilliant, that's all I can say.
2267345 You have no idea what I have in store for her later... xD
Okay first off the writing is pretty good and I am digging the overall story.
But come the fuck on you are losing me with all the damn crossovers. One or two is tolerable, but now I fell like you throw shit in just to prove you like anime and video games. Okay good for you I get it.
Your a good writer, for the love of god tone down the god damn references from everything.
my gawd, it's almost picture perfect as to how the characters would react. Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie hasn't changed even the slightest.