A Battleground of Kindness

by StormDancer

Enrage Timer

For the Fel, do I love popcorn. I mean, seriously, as much as I love killing things and lighting things on fire, there's just something special about a plant, something that burns SOOOOOOO well, actually becoming even BETTER when it gets lit up! I mean, it burns, then it EXPLODES, and THEN you get to eat it, where it makes a delightful crunchy sound as you effectively maul it's unborn children and then go for another HANDFUL. It's just about perfect.

And then, like I said, they stopped just joking around and I dropped my popcorn and the world became a very scary place, because then they began to fight.

The Master launched herself into the sky, the scorched ground she had been standing on cratering from the force of her leap, and left a trail of pinkish magic burning in her wake as she lit her horn for some kind of attack. Tea-wreck's face split into a grin as a ball of magic sprung into being between his horns and unleashed a searing beam at the Master.

The impact drug her flight to a halt, Tea-wreck's spell boiling over her fur as her momentum bled away. But before it could so much as touch her skin, there was a pair of purple flashes and the Master appeared at his hooves, only to unleash a stream of purple lighting bolts directly into his surprised face.

His roar of pain morphed into one of anger as he physically grabbed the spell with one hand and pulled it aside, only to glare down at the Master with his black eyes as a new spell blossomed between his horns.

With a shriek of surprise, the Master was engulfed in a golden aura before black arcs of magic sparked over her form. Startled, her spell faltered, only to find herself floating before Tea-wreck's malevolent grin. With a quick step, he spun himself around, massive arms bulging as he swung a fist the size of a house and the golden glow surrounding the Master followed his motions perfectly.

With a roar of triumph, he completed his spin and the Master's scream echoed into the distance as she was thrown like a huge, flaming, fastball directly at a mountain.

Almost three seconds passed before an eruption of smoke and debris exploded from the distant mountainside, the Master's body impacting like a meteor. I felt the tug of my tether and prepared to phase again.

Unfortunately, that meant I lost my popcorn. I hope he dies a slow and painful death.

Even as I felt the magic binding me to the Master draw tight, a streak of dark red and black blasted past me towards the mountain with a roar that caused pebbles to rocket away, but before I could figure out what was going on, I was standing on the broken side of a mountain face, the Master, in a glowing magenta bubble, glaring out of the smoke and dust, just as the first hints of that roar reached our ears.

I phased. Oh hells did I phase so damn quick.

And then I saw the Master's eyes do that thing where they shrink down to pinpricks? That thing where I'm pretty sure her unconscious biological response to stress is to threaten anything foolish enough to attack an apparent weak spot LIKE HER FEKKING EYES with a terrible crushing death. Yheah... they shrunk down to these little dots as her mouth fell open in a "seriously, what the fekking hell?" expression.

So, I glanced behind me.

And Tea-wreck was flying at the mountain while roaring, faster than any ballista or fel cannon had ever fired living ammunition.

Oh, and remember those giant horns of his? Well, apparently, to add insult to injury, he felt the need to lower his head like some demonic goat, and try to impale us while simultaneously crushing us WITH A FEKKING MOUNTAIN!

I felt the Master's magic sluice over us a split second before the impact, and then everything was a riot of rumbles, explosions, cracks and that unending roar of fury from the multistory centaur that was ramming us into thousands of tons of raw, unbroken, stone, before the blinding wash of light heralded our departure from the other side of the mountain.

He just headbutted us through a mountain. THROUGH A MOUNTAIN!

Apparently, she liked that mountain or something, because the Master was having none of it.

There was a flash of purple and then I was extremely glad I had phased because I'm certain, reasonably sure, almost positive that the Master knew direct magic attacks pass through phased creatures. Namely because, while still flying through the sky, after punching a hole through a mountain with the brute force of a multi-story, titan level centaur wielding the amassed magic of an entire nation, the Master's horn lit up with three colors of magic and she fekking planted that explosive doom grenade directly on top of Tea-wreck's head with enough force to rocket him straight down into the ground.

The resulting shock wave from her initial hit sent a flaming ring of pink fire rippling across the sky with a second, amber colored blast, ionizing the air in its wake. Tea-wreck's impact with the ground cratered an area the size of a football field, burying him up to his shoulders before the Master had even launched the last part of her attack.

Still flying, she jerked her wings into a earthward dive and left another trail of arcane fire in the air as she powered up and unleashed a column of magic into his prone form.

Landing on the pulverized ground, she flicked her wings as she cleared the air, only to watch in shock as a blazing red and yellow beam cut a circular path the size of a small city block clear of the surroundings, from below, before rising into the air and being physically hurled at another mountain.

Narrowly avoiding the collision, the Master was streaking back as Tea-wreck's rage got the better of him. Roaring in fury, he slammed both of his fists into the tortured earth and sent a ripple of destruction out into the area. Boulders shattered while jagged spikes and ragged pillars of stone erupted from the earth to block her path, only for the seemingly endless magic of the Master to reduce them to shrapnel as she drew ever nearer to returning.

Both seemed to realize that a kill shot was appropriate at the same time. Neither had been really moving, standing their ground or closing as the case may be, and the twin beams of their magics lit at almost the exact same time.

Tea-wreck unleashed an infernal blast of stolen magic, burning with the heat of the core of the world, a terrifying ray of molten fire that cast the world around it into hellish tones and reduced stone to rivers of lava.

The Master, not to be outdone, summoned up a beam of white hot plasma, its searing volume rippling with eruptions of purple and blue as matter warped and vaporized by its mere proximity.

And as the two collided, an explosion of smoke and heat was instantly blown away by the secondary shock wave of magic, which itself, was destroyed by the result of the two spells fusing; creating a roiling sphere of weakly formed destruction that continued to grow and burn, consuming the remnants of spell and matter alike while blowing out a flare of golden light where it ate the surrounding landscape.

In less than three seconds, the magic had been consumed, and the wasteland outside the Master's little village looked more like the shattered remains of an asteroid impact than what had been pastoral lands less than a minute ago.

And no, I'm not exaggerating. The clock tower was still visible.

And from the clouds of drifting ash to the slumped forms that had once been bedrock, a great grunt of effort heralded the return of Tea-wreck. Slabs of stone, several tons each, shifted as he rose once more to his hooves, a frustrated snarl upon his lips. And the Master stepped forward, determination clearly etched on her face.

And I? I didn't have anything left to burn. So I kind of just scuttled behind the nearest rock and peeked out to watch.

And as they stood there, glaring daggers at each other, Tea-wreck gestured slowly with an unclenched hand. "It appears we are at an impasse," before blooming into a grin.

"How about a trade, Princess Twilight?"

And with a snap of his fingers, seven glass-like bubbles appeared around him, the forms of the Master's minions, and that elder god, clearly visible — trapped within.

And, I'm pretty sure that's when the Master realized that things could always get worse.

On the other hand, from the decided lack of barren wastes around the little villa, I'm guessing the Master secretly liked the workout.

"Their release, for all the magic in Equestria," he crowed, a triumphant grin nearly splitting his face. "What's it going to be, Princess?"

Oh hells, he must know Etiquette as well.

... and I'm out of popcorn.

Comments

[anotherOne456]

Unfortunately, that meant I lost my popcorn. I hope he dies a slow and painful death.

And now it's Popcorn-wreck. What a monster!

[nightmaster0]

Brilliant chapter as our little Imps get's a front row seat, to one of the most epic moments of the show.

[StormDancer]

Glad you folks re enjoying.