Training Day 33: Pt.2 Nightmare Night Nightmare
The City of Ponyville was quiet as the sun began to sink behind the horizon. It was a somewhat worrying fact, given it was meant to be the most lively and rowdy night of the year. Darkness was about to set in, and the Nightmare Night capital of Equestria was disturbingly void of activity.
Then, just when spirits were starting to fall the rumbling began.
All around the town, jet black vines erupted forth from the ground and coiled themselves around anything within their reach. Dark thorns covered them, and blooms just waiting to burst were everywhere. Many ponies ran screaming for any cover they could, thinking it another invasion of plunder vines.
It wasn't until the moon rose into the sky, larger than anyone had ever seen it that the vines went from terrifying to beautiful.
In the light of the super-moon, the blossoms of the vines exploded like radiant fireworks into blue roses the size of carts. The largest of which was atop the highest spire of Castle Twilight. Unlike the others, it unraveled itself slowly with grace and poise.
There, standing in the center of the grandest flower to ever bloom was none other than Nightmare Moon in full armor.
At the moment she unfurled her dark wings, thousands of thestrals poured out of every window in Castle Twilight, flying every which way in a veritable typhoon. Their dark mistress laughed maniacally as they fell over the city like a blanket.
Nightmare Moon effectively had everyone in the city by the ear, hanging on everything she did.
After her obligatory laugh of triumph it was time to address the people.
People of Ponyville! Hear your Queen! Tonight is going to be our grandest celebration ever! I've prepared a very special evening, just for my loyal subjects! Nightmare Moon bellowed in a magically enhanced voice.
Despite being terrified of the literal army of armor-clad bat ponies and killer plants abounding, the crowd began to cheer.
They had waited patiently an entire year for this, and their dark goddess was more than willing to dish out the fear and fun in equal measure.
Tonight, in addition to all the parties and games all about town there will be a special event starting from midnight and ending at sunrise.
The crowd practically exploded with excitement until The Nightmare put her hoof out to silence them.
Castle Twilight has been taken over by my loyal legion of monsters and ghouls. You are all welcome to try and ascend the castles levels, but on each of the five floors above the commons there are boss monsters. The levels themselves are transformed into illusionary dungeons, ranging from graveyards to haunted houses, and dragon's lairs.
If you can make it past each floors twists and turns without fainting, screaming, or wetting yourself, you will be presented with a silver key. You will need a key to make it to the next floor, and five keys to get to the highest tower where I will be. The first one to make it through the dungeons wins a prize of one hundred thousand gold bits! But we've got plenty of consolation prizes for those of you that drop out, be it willingly or involuntarily.
The roar of those below was nearly overpowering, but it only added fuel to the fire of Nightmare Moon's ego.
Oh, and another thing. Nobody gets in without a costume! Show me your love! Challenge yourselves!
As much as The Nightmare wanted to keep basking in the glory and attention of her screaming fans she lit her horn and the rose closed up around her. Once it was shut and she was out of sight she teleported away to the inside of the castle.
She had troops to rally.
~Castle Twilight, Interior, Commons~
Nightmare Moon reappeared in the ground floor, referred to as the Commons where normally anyone was allowed to visit. It was here that the usually heavily guarded staircase to the upper floors was. In the room waiting for further instruction was Twilight, Lyra, Spike, Sombra, and Gilda.
All of whom were currently in costume.
Twilight was in a high-tech looking outfit with many tubes, chords, and lights all over it's metal exterior. She seemed almost entirely mechanical, and it made her rather believable as a cyborg. She even had electricity crackling between her wings harmlessly. She had built the suit herself, and she seemed rightfully proud.
Lyra was a more classic witch, but she had belts packed with smoke bombs and potions of dubious nature hidden underneath. For good measure Nightmare moon had enchanted a hoof-made broom that allowed her to float about. She had a wicked smile on her face and a worrying look in her eyes.
Gilda was some sort of undead knight, in full armor. Or formerly full armor as the case may be. It had once been an actual set, but it had been magically rusted and damaged and arrow shafts without their points were now jutting out. The lost armored bits had been replaced with fake injuries and rotted flesh. Gilda carried a large mace as well, even though the armor came with claws.
Spike wasn't in costume, but he had stretched out into his true form. Having not revealed his true form to the public yet it would be more frightening than any costume he could wear. While he normally hated being feared, he loved the holiday enough to make an exception.
Sombra had the most convincing costume of all, even though it was usually the most generic of costumes.
Sombra had spent hours in the bathroom with Spike's assistance to bleach and dye his fur. In complete contrast to his usual color scheme, Sombra was now an unearthly pale blue and purest white. With the help of some contact lenses his eyes had also been given a makeover of black sclera and rings of electric blue and pink for irises.
Sombra could have easily just used his altered eyes, but he didn't want anyone to make a connection to the trails of magical miasma with his curved horn and sharp teeth. He was all for a bit of fun, but he didn't want to see a newspaper headline about the ghost of King Sombra haunting
Castle Twilight.
With a little fake blood and the simple act of letting his hair flow more wildly than normal Sombra had become a most convincing specter.
"Alright everyone. The crowd is in an uproar, and we're bound to have plenty of visitors as soon as we open those doors. Each of you will have your own floor full of illusions and non-harmful traps and jump-scares. Everything is set up not to go off until the doors open, so if you head up now you should be fine." Nightmare Moon instructed.
With a flash of magic, The Nightmare summoned up several bags of silver keys with names on them. Each set of keys was slightly different from the others, making certain that there would be no cheating. You would need one key from every boss, otherwise there could be no progression.
"Twilight, yours is the first floor full of sci-fi movie monsters and evil technology." The Nightmare started, handing her the proper bag of silver keys.
Twilight accepted the keys, but seemed to have reservations.
"Technology can't actually be evil. It's intrinsically neutral. It can only be wielded by good people or bad people. I could say the same for magic, but Dootha is an exception. He gives out evil magic to anyone who would take it. Which I suppose still counts as him using it for evil, meaning the neutrality remains?" Twilight pointed out to Nightmare Moon.
Nightmare Moon gave Twilight a look that silenced any further educational info for the time being. Although she could feel the lecture building itself up in Twilight's mind. It would likely escape in the form of an informative essay that would find it's way to Canterlot Castle in the mail a few days from now.
Regardless of future research papers, Nightmare Moon continued.
"Lyra, yours is second, and it's an enchanted forest full of timber-wolves and birds that have creepy small children voices. There are also trees that come to life while you aren't looking at them, but become normal when you do." The Nightmare continued, giving Lyra her own keys.
"Awesome sauce. Is there a big cauldron of glowing green stuff in a spooky clearing I can stir to look more ominous?"
"You know there is. As well as a barrel of fake bones to add at to the cauldron at random intervals. It should scare the weaker ones fairly well." Nightmare Moon scoffed at the obvious question.
"Nice."
Nightmare Moon moved on to Gilda, tossing her another pouch of keys.
"Gilda, yours is the third floor. It's a desolate battlefield of fallen skeleton warriors. It's also got zombie carrion birds. It's a very bleak and horrid place, and I suspect you won't have a hard time scaring off anyone who might make it up to your floor." Nightmare Moon explained.
"Got it. I'm not usually one for dress-up, but this is a pretty gnarly getup. I'll order around the skeletons and have everyone crying home to mommy." Gilda sneered through a cracked helm.
"Yes, just remember everything is an illusion. Don't get too rough with the props or it will dissolve into smoke and the castle will return to normal on that floor." Nightmare Moon cautioned everyone.
Everyone nodded their acknowledgement, and Nightmare Moon moved on to Spike and Sombra who were waiting patiently for their assignments.
"Now, Sombra you're on floor four, the graveyard. There are some minor apparitions and some crying mourners who will melt into the ground when people go near them. If you remember Selene's floating lessons you should fit right in. Just do some chanting or something, or scream at them. Use your imagination." Nightmare Moon instructed as she passed Sombra his keys.
Sombra nodded, concentrating for a moment and forcing himself to slip the bonds gravity a bit.
Floating about, Sombra's mane and tail looked even more ghostly as they trailed behind. It was no comparison to flight, but it was a rather useful skill. It was faster than walking, and it's upper height limitation was around ten feet or so off the ground or some other solid foothold.
Sombra cleared his throat, and then in his most dark and commanding tone belted out a sentence in draconian.
The dead language resonated well with Sombra's overall look, creating a near perfect performance.
"How was that? Was I scary enough?" Sombra asked his fellow frightening friends.
"I know I got shivers." Spike practically purred.
Everyone else chose to ignore the comment of a certain dragon, but nodded their approval.
"That will do quite nicely.
"Spike, you're on the fifth and final dungeon floor. It's a lava cavern filled with winding caves and a few monsters here and there. It's more the maze than anything. You're the last stop before they get up to me. I don't really expect anyone to get past Gilda really, but you never know. We might end up with a few brave souls." Nightmare Moon reasoned.
Sombra felt a little less excited after realizing he was assigned to the fourth floor, meaning there was a possibility no one would even reach him. Spike turned away from Nightmare Moon as soon as he had his keys, feeling the same way. Fortunately, he had planned ahead.
With a flick of his wrist and a short-lived whirl of emerald fire, Spike produced two familiar objects.
Spike tossed one of the clip-like objects to Sombra and put the other on his ear fin.
"Ah. Excellent idea. Although I don't want it to mess with my costume's aesthetic, so I'll just do this." Sombra said before phasing the walkie-talkie into his head.
He blinked a number of times, getting used to the sensation.
"Uh... Can you just do that? Is it safe?" Spike asked out of concern.
Sombra nodded, reaching a hoof up into his mane and retrieving his new book Twilight had given him.
"I can carry a great number of things with me by keeping them in the dark dimension I travel through when shadow jumping. Since they're out of sync with the material world they don't actually take up space in my body. I just act as a portal, or something close to it. It's all very theoretical, and not even Luna or myself understand all of it. But it's not like I just shoved it in my brain. I'd prefer not to be paralyzed again. The humor wears of dreadfully fast." Sombra explained, putting the book back.
"You know, I never really thought about it but I haven't seen you even bother taking your saddlebags anywhere in awhile." Spike realized.
"I don't own that many things as of yet, so I just take what I might need with me. Now, let's get moving. I'm quite eager to see the illusions we're to watch over." Sombra finished, floating off towards the stairs.
Spike was admittedly interested as well, and followed closely behind.
~A short time later~
After seeing the marvels of Nightmare Moons' first three illusionary floors and wishing the others good luck Spike and Sombra stopped on Sombra's designated haunt.
It looked just as real as the others, and as promised it was even scarier than the last.
There were tombstones everywhere, some of which were still legible. Many had been weathered away by time, and others were cracked or crumbling. There was even an empty grave laying open, almost assuredly loaded with some kind of trap. There was even a discarded shovel nearby, which when Sombra picked it up proved to be the same weight and texture as a real one.
The only foliage to be seen was the realistic grass, the occasional dead tree, and withered flowers resting upon some of the graves.
The weather was also extremely convincing.
Up above was what looked like an actual blood-moon, center-stage of the brilliant recreation of the night sky. There was a cold breeze blowing through, moving about shifty and mysterious fog. The grass even felt wet, as if it had rained very recently. A crack of thunder and a flash of lightning went by every so often, as it seemed entirely necessary.
Everything even smelled like autumn air and the musty stink of dying leaves.
"Damn. The night shift has really outdone themselves. I feel like we're really outside." Spike exclaimed with foal-like wonder.
"I concur. Haunting such a place is barely necessary." Sombra agreed.
As they walked, trying to find the exit to the next floor Sombra began to try and memorize the layout. If he was going to chase after anyone he wanted to know where to corner them. It seemed like Nightmare Moon had created a number of dead ends for just such an occasion.
Eventually Sombra and Spike came to a grand mausoleum, with doors large enough for Spike to pass through. The keyhole on the front of the door seemed to confirm it. One would need to collect a key from Sombra to pass through to Spike's temporary lair.
As soon as Spike opened the grand doors there was a burst of steam, coming from the much higher temperatures on the next floor. It was enough to blind Spike and Sombra momentarily, but they recovered a moment later. Sombra had the worst of it, as he couldn't rub his eyes, lest he lose one of his contact lenses.
"Ugh. Damn these things. Next year I'm going as something I can actually wear. Luna and Selene are quite lucky to have the ability to shape shift." Sombra griped.
Spike chuckled a little, snatching up his ghostly lover.
"I think you look amazing, even with your costume. You've got a real classic kind of handsome going. Have I ever told you that?" Spike grinned, his eyes looking predatory in the most pleasing way possible.
Sombra's temporarily light coat allowed Spike to see him blush in full force, his whole face turning tomato red.
"You have mentioned it from time to time, yes. As appealing as it sounds, every time individuals in a graveyard who try and get intimate they usually end up mangled, based on every movie I've seen so far. While I would argue it's well worth it, we are also technically in your Mother's castle. I'm not sure I could bring myself to enjoy it to our usual standards with that in mind." Sombra reminded Spike.
Spike hated to admit it, but Sombra was right.
His mother's house was far from a perfect love nest.
Before Spike or Sombra could consider what they wanted to happen next, a crackling sound and a mild pulsation in the mana of the illusions happened.
Attention all monsters, minions, and etcetera, we are about to open the doors. Please get to your posts. There's already a line wrapping around the block, so we're going to open a little ahead of schedule to give everyone a chance. Keep your keys on you at all times, and happy hunting.
Spike couldn't help but groan out of annoyance, but he knew he had already promised to be a soldier of Nightmare Moon's army for the night.
"Ugh. Duty calls. I guess I should head up anyway. It's not like she told me how to get through the maze myself, and I don't wanna be lost if somebody actually makes it to the exit and needs a key."
"Keep to the left, dear. We'll have plenty of alone time to spend together tomorrow." Sombra said helpfully, floating up and giving Spike a quick kiss.
Spike straightened up and saluted, before turning to the stairwell behind the door.
He was gone from sight before Sombra could blink.
I haven't the heart to tell him running won't make the night go by faster. Sombra laughed to himself.
Sombra himself settled atop the mausoleum, ready for anyone that might come his way.
After five minutes of nothingness Sombra summoned up a ghostly limb and activated the walkie within the darkness that made up his body. Spike didn't pick up, meaning he probably hadn't been able to find the final exit just yet. Which left Sombra with very little to do until someone made it to his floor, if that were to happen.
Sombra thought about taking a smoke break, but stopped himself when he remembered Twilight's stance on smoking.
It was rather doubtful she would appreciate one of the castle's rooms smelling of smoke whenever the transformation magics expired.
Instead, he decided to open the book Twilight had given him and attempt to read. Unfortunately, that's when the screaming started. It appeared the first few batches of competitors were being eliminated. With astounding frequency more and more crying and screaming rang out from below. From the sound of it most made it past Twilight, but Lyra saw to them with frightening efficiency.
They few that seemed to make it through to Gilda were quickly gotten rid of with a battle cry that sounded more like a lion's roar than a call to arms.
It didn't let up for nearly an hour, when a loud explosion shook the castle.
It wasn't too surprising, as the smoke bombs Lyra used had been audible for some time, she most likely had gotten bored and thrown a number of them at once.
Sombra had long since given up on reading, so he was elated when he heard the doors open from below.
Rising from his seat on the mausoleum, Sombra stretched out like a cat. He had gotten stiff sitting on the solid illusions, as they felt like real stone. After making sure his mane and tail were flowing rapidly and fluidly, Sombra jumped down from his perch and stuck to the shadows as he glided about.
After a few moments of surveillance he caught sight of his prey.
Three ponies in cloaks.
Two burly earth pony stallions that seemed to be dyed white like himself, and an almost unnaturally thin pony in-between them. Whether it was a stallion or a mare was uncertain, as they had their hood up. Sombra could see reddish-pink fur through the shadows, but fabric obscured the face from view at the angle he had presently.
With a quick movement, Sombra grabbed hold of a nearby dead tree with a ghostly hand. He put extra oomph in the limb, flinging himself over the tree, throwing him over the trio as he floated. Sombra readied a phrase in his head and shouted it out in draconian.
Gofynnwch nid y mae'r tollau gloch!
Much to his surprise only the middle pony moved, and not out of fright.
The pony threw back their hood, revealing them as a scarred stallion with mismatched eyes.
Sombra floated above him slowly, and met eyes with him. There was fire there, insanity, and all manner of evils. It was almost as if he was looking into the eyes of Dootha himself. Sombra had never been so chilled by a mere glance.
"Mae'n tollau i ti." The stallion finished for Sombra.
Sombra landed a good ten feet in front of the trio, knowing full well no one should have been able to form an answer to his shout other than Spike or Zecora.
They stood there in silence for a moment, a perverse sort of grin on the mad stallion's face. Neither of his entourage moved or reacted, nor could Sombra see any sort of emotion in their posture or faces. Sombra meticulously absorbed every scrap of information he could gather before even thinking about speaking to the red pony.
"I'm going to go ahead and assume you know who I am, and I admit you have me at a disadvantage. Would you be kind enough to introduce yourself?" Sombra asked as calmly as he could.
To his surprise, the stallion burst out laughing. Even to the point of becoming winded. By the time he was finished he had to lean on one of the other cloaked ponies at his side, who to his credit stayed as statuesque as a park bench.
"Ahem. I'm sorry. That was incredibly rude of me. I've just been waiting to meet you for quite awhile now, and you're just so prim and proper! I half expected you to try and take my head off as soon as you saw me! You're so different! And that color!" He cackled.
Sombra looked himself over, having almost forgotten his unusual blank palette.
"It is a ghost costume. It's Nightmare Night. These eyes are contact lenses. You're most likely familiar with my normal appearance. As for taking your head off I'm starting to consider it. Now, what is your name?" Sombra barked back.
The red pony calmed himself down a bit, and then he bowed with a flourish.
"My name is Dirge. I am the forty-second son of the Obol family. I am the high priest of Dootha, although I am also currently the only living member of his court. I've come to fetch the master."
Sombra narrowed his eyes at the evil stallion, just waiting for him to try something.
Dirge reached into his cloak and pulled out a knife, and the ponies at his sides began to advance. Sombra quickly jumped backwards and formed a massive tendril of shadow to slap his attackers backward. Dirge jumped over it, but his minions were thrown into the back wall so hard the entire illusionary graveyard wavered for a split second.
Unable to defend against the secondary assault in time, Sombra was slashed across the face deeply. His right eye got the worst of the attack, but it wasn't anything serious. At least not for Sombra.
Much to Dirge's dismay, a great white hand scooped him up and left nothing but his head free to move.
The insane stallion's mood fell further when Sombra's face began to mend itself. Within the next ten seconds the blinding injury had gone, and Sombra's eye was no worse for the wear. The contact lens was ruined, but given the circumstances Sombra didn't much care.
"That hurt. But if you're trying to incapacitate me I'm happy to say I've been injured far worse. Yesterday I was bisected, vertically. You're going to need a much bigger knife, or more competent minions if you wish to stand a chance." Sombra taunted.
Dirge seemed worried for only a few seconds until he remembered something.
"Now that you mention it. I happen to have both of those things." Dirge laughed.
Sombra's ghostly arm was quickly penetrated by a blade of red crystal. It hurt, but nothing Sombra couldn't handle. It did however cause him to involuntarily drop his captive. Unfortunately Sombra had no time to recover, as the minions had returned and used their impressive size to plow into Sombra. They were still semi-mangled, but racing red energy was repairing them even as they fought.
Sombra managed to recover the injured limb of shadow and replenish himself after a hasty retreat. As soon as he put himself on guard the minions backed off. They seemed much more concerned with Dirge's safety than Sombra's destruction.
Sombra had to stop and reconsider the facts, now that Dirge had showed his hoof.
That eye and those goons seem rather familiar... I hope I'm right about this. Sombra thought.
Sombra let his physical form melt away a bit, while keeping a portion of himself solid. The solid portion twisted up into a sharp lance of white shadow, and Sombra flew at Dirge with reckless abandon. The minion on Dirge's left immediately dove in front of his master and took the lance through the chest.
While it was still inside Sombra transformed his lance into an arm before pulling out. In his ghostly and gory hand was a bloody gemstone, pulsing with red energy. It was obviously a heart encased in crystal, proving Sombra's theory.
"I see. Your golden eye belongs to Gavin Eboncastle. That would explain the blood zombies. Yours are much messier than his. They seemed to have no blood at all." Sombra appraised Dirge, and his stolen power.
Dirge seemed surprised Sombra was so knowledgeable, but he was keeping his head about him. He knew Sombra was strong. Obviously much stronger than he had thought.
"So... You've met the traitor and his creations. You've even got powers of your own. I daresay I'm almost proud, but what I thought was going to be an easy job is becoming risky. I shouldn't have crystallized so many minions just to seal the exits so we could have some privacy. I could have used the extra ammo." Dirge admitted.
Sombra smirked and increased the power to his hand, crushing the bloody jewel. A burst of green and purple energy exploded as he did, signaling an end to a powerful mote of Dootha's corrupt essence. Dirge's eyes twitched, and then they turned an electric green. They exuded a purple miasma, and Sombra could sense the corruption was on a level even higher than Arimaspi's.
Reacting to the presence of the powerful evil, Sombra's own eyes changed and the miasma forced out the remaining contact lens.
Dirge roared indignantly, summoning the bloody mess that was formerly his other henchman to him.
Using the crimson lifeblood he fashioned a crystal arm much like Sombra's. The solid form looked wicked sharp, and Sombra had to admit the degree of control over a stolen power was incredible. Dootha's magic and his earth pony strength likely helped bolster his control. If Sombra underestimated him again he might very well be in trouble.
"It's been you! I thought it was the dragon whelp that had found a way to destroy the master's magic, but it's been you! You ingrate! You have the highest honor possible, and you spit into the face of perfection! You even pervert his majesty and twist it to your own purpose!" Dirge shouted accusingly.
Sombra used his eyes to look into Dirge's chest, seeing nothing but a swirling nexus of miasma and malignancy. His soul was entirely gone, consumed by Dootha's tainted magical power. That high of a concentration was only eclipsed by Dootha himself, and possibly Beznik.
It was sickening to look at, and Sombra felt an instinctual need to destroy it.
"Carrying Dootha is hardly an honor. Had I the strength to destroy him I would have already done so. I will settle for reaching into you and crushing the power within. You may die, but there is nothing left of you worth saving at this point. You've become barely more than the puppets you command." Sombra replied.
With astonishing speed, Sombra summoned up as much power as he could. Far more than he had ever used at one time. He fashioned the darkness into two arms the usual size, and a scythe from his tail. Their density was so great that if he lost any of them Sombra would be considerably less powerful and the mass would be difficult to replace.
Fortunately it seemed Dirge was a tad distraught, and went for a direct attack with his newly formed weapon. His zombified subordinate made an attack from the left, but was instantly countered by Sombra's right. Sombra's left was smaller than Dirge's limb, but was much stronger. It was easily ripped from the stallion's back and flung into the distance, breaking down into crimson icor once again.
With a swipe of his tail, Sombra cleaved of Dirge's left leg cleanly.
Despite Sombra clearly having the upper hand, Dirge began to laugh harder than ever before.
"It's showtime!" Dirge shouted madly.
Before Sombra could realize what was going on the minion held down by his right hand began to glow a violent red. The explosion was deafening and shards of blood crystal tore through Sombra's side. Had Sombra been strictly flesh and blood he would have been reduced to mincemeat near instantly.
Sombra groaned in pain, falling to the ground. Black ooze littered the area and much of Sombra's whitened form, formerly Sombra's body. His right side was all but gone, missing his constructed arm and both legs. When he tried to regroup into a semi usable form there was only pain.
Sombra's vision was only good enough to see purple smoke radiating off his broken form.
"Miasma... hindering healing..." Sombra somehow managed to say.
Dirge was nearby, reattaching his leg. He encased it in crystal to keep it in place while it healed, then set about what he came to do.
From within his cloak, Dirge pulled a set of odd dark-grey stone bricks that looked too thin to be of any use. They were bound together with cords made of sinew, and between them were round talismans. They gave off an ominous sort of power, and Sombra knew they were meant for him in some fashion.
Dirge closed his eyes and the miasma trailing from his eyes began to crackle with black electricity.
The blood shed by him and his minions all began to flow toward the mysterious artifact in Dirge's good hoof. Sombra groaned as the crystalline shrapnel within his body forced itself out, causing him even more pain. The sanguine flood converged on Dirge and his artifact and began to coalesce.
Dirge dropped the artifact into the pool of flowing blood, and the artifact began to glow with Dootha's power from within.
As it set to work Dirge returned his attention to Sombra.
"You've seen the toys we give out to bad boys and girls, right? Well this is in a league above those, and it serves a special purpose. It's the first one the order made, long before I was even born. Of all the twisted weapons we've counterfeited from the divine relic, this one is the one I've wanted to use the most."
With the sound of hardening crystal, Sombra's eyes redoubled their attempts at focus.
What he saw scared him.
A sword twice as tall as a normal pony, made of blood crystal and brimstone. It radiated miasma from either side of the guard, and there was an eye embedded in the base of the blade. It was alight with strange symbols, and Sombra could feel it's power pulling at something within him.
The blade was thirsty, and it seemed to think it could get a drink out of Sombra.
Dirge stood beside the demonic sword and focused intensely. His control over the blood allowed him to lift the massive blade, but he didn't seem intent on using it to slash at Sombra. It floated slowly, and at a lazy pace, until it was directly over what was left of Sombra's torso.
Dirge grinned like mad, letting the oversized weapon drop into Sombra's dark torn-up gullet.
Much to Sombra's surprise, the longer he was impaled upon the blade the better he felt. Once he could see clearly, Sombra was all too aware that the miasma was flowing into the blade. Even the trails of corruption streaming from Dirge's eyes were drifting towards the sword.
Sombra took advantage of the situation as best he could, forming a new shadowy arm patterned in an odd mixture of black and white to grasp the blade.
Try as he might, the sword wouldn't budge until it had had it's fill.
Sombra drew in all the darkness in the room his weakened state would allow, restoring himself as much as possible. Yet still the blade remained immobile. Sombra couldn't even become shadow and slip away from it. It wouldn't let him escape.
"It's not going to stop. Not until it's finished. Just like always, although I'm not surprised you don't remember. I imagine it was traumatic for you." Dirge chuckled to himself.
The psychotic pony's laughter only died down when a roar tore through the graveyard.
The doors from the floor above flew off their hinges and sliced through the mausoleum illusion. Shards of blood crystal scattered everywhere, meaning Dirge's minions had infiltrated the other floors. Spike barreled through gravestones and crushed everything in his path. The illusions dispersed, and the three of them were left in an auditorium of sorts, filled with smoke and stardust.
Dirge was blinded momentarily, but Spike's superior senses didn't have that sort of problem.
Out of the cloud of dispersed illusion, Spike leapt at him, his arms cloaked in rings of golden light brought out by his anger. He snatched up Dirge with both hands, threatening to squish the deserving creep like a grape. As much as Spike tried to hold himself back, he had very little control of the newer magics.
The rings around his wrists and elbows slammed together at the wrist, sending a pulse of light magic through Dirge's body. He instantly began vomiting blood in what had to be near lethal amounts, causing Spike to realize what he had done. He dropped the seemingly dead stallion, his morality returning to him.
But to Spike's chagrin, Dirge hopped up and hobbled past Spike on his three working legs and recalled the blood he had forced out of himself. He fired it off as projectiles, bounding them off Spike's scaly face. While they did no damage Spike was forced to defend, lest they get his eyes and blind him.
Dirge got to Sombra and ripped the sword from him, causing Sombra a great deal of pain.
"As much as I would love to stay and try and kill the two of you, I'm very low on blood and I have places to be. But you'll be hearing from us soon!" Dirge shouted as happily as ever.
Spike and Sombra froze in fear as Dirge's shadow grew and pulsed. The entire room went black and it seemed to swallow up everything. Tremendous eyes opened, seeming like planets in the darkness of the new space that had swallowed the world. They were green, and full of anger, but also full of cold.
Cold like one would find in the center of a black hole.
They weren't like any eyes of any animal in existence, but they were masquerading as the eyes of a cat.
Beznik swallowed up Dirge and let him get away, and then he vanished without saying anything. It was as though it was saying it had no need to kill them, even if it wanted to. The scariest part of which was that it was almost certainly true.
For more than a minute Spike and Sombra just stood there, unable to say anything.
"Sombra... Are you alright? I wanted to get here sooner, but these white pony things were attacking Nightmare Moon. They even sealed all the exits. I heard you on the walkie and rushed down as soon as it was safe to leave Nightmare alone. Are you alright?" Spike apologized, still shaken.
"He's gone." Sombra began to cry, letting his knees buckle.
Spike lifted him up, holding him close. He hadn't seen Sombra look so defeated since the night he learned his life had been a fabrication. Something was definitely wrong, something beyond merely being wounded. Sombra could take a beating like a champ if history had taught them anything.
"Hey, it's okay. We can get them some other time. We still need to get stronger. Just talk to me." Spike implored him.
Sombra shook his head vehemently, knowing Spike didn't understand.
"They took him, Spike." Sombra sniffled.
Spike still didn't understand, but Sombra wasn't finished. He held a hoof to his midsection, looking ill. Spike thought he wanted to vomit, but he didn't dare let go of him. Not now.
"They took Dootha. They took him out of me and got away. And now we're doomed." Sombra cried.
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Woah this train just jumped of the tracks and into a frigin canyon, I haven't been present for such a stew nosedive since the red wedding it was just like wheeeeew pow bang holy shit. I hate to believe it, but the metaphorical shit just hit a string of fans and you know what I'm pretty damn frightened for this dynamic duo. This is like the last 30 chapters of Naruto... You know if sasuke and Naruto were gay and smashing, but that is neither here nor there. I am absolutely shaken up by this now all I hope for is some uber strong black and white forms for them to go into and become O.P. as shit so the can devastate the opposition. Keep up the good work
Every time I read a new chapter your story amazes me. Truly a gift.
I have no words. I keep loving it. More than bacon. That much I'm enjoying it.