Collision Code

by SSJRandomMaster

Act 3 Chapter 42

Act III: Collision of Wills
Chapter 42: Return from the Brink
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They had thought they had taken care of it when it fell in response to one of Applejack’s kicks. A good amount of dust had come up from its head, and it did look like pieces of it came off. It wasn’t enough, unfortunately, to take it down for good. Instead of resuming, however, it slipped past them, shambling into the library, and up the stairs.

Norma’s creature soon reached its target, and it was a target that would hurt more than all the others: Twilight’s room, where three of Celestia’s pieces were incapacitated due to their respective encounters with Kurama. Rather than bust it down, the creature simply turned the knob slowly and opened it, finding that it wasn’t locked.

There they were, still out cold. It’d probably take them a few hours to wake up after the curse was lifted—if they were even alive at this point. It scanned the room, wondering which one to finish off first. Its vision soon locked on to Corey. Of all of the pieces, this was one that had surely drawn Norma’s interest, if only because of his magic use. He had come much too far since he’d entered the game. And if ever there was a time to strike, it was now. Kurama had known this, and so did Norma.

The creature shambled over to Corey’s bedside slowly, like a predator stalking its prey. The whole time the creature moved over to him, Corey did not. He lay perfectly inert on the bed, face towards the ceiling, his arms firmly at his sides. Was he already dead?

The command came through its magical connection nice and clear. It was going to strike anyway, just to ensure he wasn’t going to get up again. Its body angle changed, arcing its arm up, preparing its fatal blow. Corey’s body seemed to twitch violently, but the manikin didn’t seem to notice. However, his master did, and as such, the manikin hesitated at first.

Corey blinked, but his eyes went wide at what he saw right above him. Norma recovered from her mental lag, and sent her command.

Kill him!!!

The manikin moved, and so did Corey.
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All Norma could see from her lair was a splash of blood, hearing a scream before the screen filled with static. Aside from the sounds of static around them, as well as the sounds from the remaining battles, all was silent in the chamber of the cave. Norma smirked, waving the static screens away with a wave of her hand.

“Take note, Slayer,” Norma said, “That is how the job is done.”

Slayer’s silence broke. He let out several feral screams, about how he was supposed to be the one to kill him, to make him suffer, once he was healed, and yet he didn’t get to do either one. The whole time, Norma placidly stood ahead, giving Slayer the cold shoulder as he continued to shout.

Be patient. You still have your original targets to play with… Norma thought.
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He didn’t know how long he fell in darkness, but after a while, he felt something: his entire body tremored against a soft surface, violently twitching. After a few moments, Corey realized his eyes were closed now. Was that why it was so dark? No, wait, something nearby was glowing? Battle cries? His ears twitched at the sound, and at this, Corey’s eyes snapped open.

He was definitely back in the library, in the middle of the night. And the first thing he saw was a red glow, and a half-damaged manikin standing over him, its arm raised. Instantly, Corey felt his eyes widen, and his mind went on automatic. He clenched his left fist, not even caring if his magic worked, and let out a battle cry as he moved, rolling out of bed as he swung. He felt something on his shoulder tear, but that was in the back of his mind as he sent his fist crashing into the manikin…

And its body practically exploded under the weight of the impact spell as Corey’s fist went into it. However, Corey’s maneuver didn’t stop there; he kept rolling, all the way out of bed, crashing to the floor face-first with a sharp grunt. It was funny. As he recalled, he’d fallen asleep some time ago. But now, he felt unbelievably tired. At least, until his common sense caught up with him. Adrenaline pumped through his veins as he understood just what had happened.

“That was one of those…!?” Corey’s voice came out in a very hoarse whisper; he reflexively grabbed at his throat, which cried against the act of speaking. He moved to get to his feet. His arms and legs—in fact, all of his muscles, immediately flared up, but he wasn’t going to let it stop him. As he fought himself to get to his feet, he looked over, and his gaze locked on to two bodies to his right.

Rarity? Rainbow? Corey thought, immediately feeling numb. His mind, which had rusted due to the nightmares he’d suffered through, finally started fully working. He suddenly remembered what had happened to him. He was already having a sort-of bad dream, but then someone came along…

They were attacked too? Corey realized, now fully on his feet. He stood, frozen, wondering what had happened to that guy who’d attacked him since he was out. However, the noises of battle outside got his attention once again. Corey turned, his body still staggering about as he tried desperately to move. He made it a few steps before falling down again. Lifting himself up, he began to crawl over towards the balcony on his hands and knees, trying to get over to the door.

“Just how long was I out…?” Corey coughed a bit, his throat still not liking the idea of attempting to talk.

He managed to get over to the door and lifted himself up enough to reach the handle and tossed open the door, crawling through it. The night air felt refreshing, but he wasn’t going to stop now, not until he knew exactly what was going on. Corey crawled over to the railing and reached up, pulling himself up until he was standing again. Leaning on the railing for support, he surveyed what he could see below.

Those manikins and the guards were going at it. The guards seemed to be more effective now than ever; they were defeating them despite the numbers. Among the crowd, he could see Applejack, Pinkie, and a rather angry-looking Fluttershy (her alter-ego, maybe?) assisting them. No one seemed to notice he was looking over them now. As he continued to look around, his gaze moved up. Although someone had removed his glasses after he first fell asleep, making him have to squint, he could see a few magenta flashes in the distance. His vision focused just enough between the light of the magic and the natural light, and he could see it.

Twilight was fighting what looked like a griffin wearing armor. Corey immediately stopped squinting, and pure instinct took over.

“T-Twilight…!” He rasped. Runes began to swirl around his feet as he felt the need to move over there as fast as possible…
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The battle to keep those in the sickbay safe raged on. For every manikin the guards destroyed, a few more seemed to pop up to take their place. The group did know from past encounters there could only be so many manikins, but how many more were there? They did not know, but they weren’t going to give up so easily.

“Heads up!” Applejack called out, snaring one of the manikins in her lasso. She scoffed a little afterward; this was so much easier to do with two hands. However, that wasn’t going to stop her. Yanking the lasso hard, she pulled the manikin off its feet. Immediately after it hit the ground backfirst, one of the guards marched right over, slamming his hammer down hard on the manikin’s head, smashing it instantly.

Elsewhere in the battle, two guards stood back to back. One of them gave off an irritated grunt, taking a few quick breaths.

“How many more are there?” he asked, getting his sword ready.

“Don’t get discouraged,” said the other, wielding a lance, “This is what we’ve been preparing for.”

Both launched off, giving off a war cry as they went through. The sword-wielder swung his sword. As he was a unicorn, his horn lit up as did his blade. As a result, his sword was able to easily slice through the hard clay surface of the manikin’s skin, going through its arm and torso. A quick headstomp ensured it was finished off. He turned, grinning slightly as a manikin whiffed on a punch, hitting hard armor instead of soft flesh, and it too, fell to his blade.

The lance-wielding one had no easily accessible spells, being an earth pony, but his weapon made up for it with piercing power. Though he could do little more than thrust and parry with the weapon, it was all he’d needed. One manikin was easily bumped away, its frontal charge failing. Turning to his right, he thrust the lance out, it going through the clay creature. With it lodged firmly on the end of it, the guard turned and slammed it into its friend, turning both into dust.

The guard’s attention was momentarily distracted, however, by a pink flash. Next thing he knew, about twelve feet from him, was what looked like a dome made of aluminum or something.

“What the--?” asked the guard.

“Ssh!” said Pinkie, popping up next to him with one finger to her mouth, “Don’t ruin the surprise~!”

She quickly zipped away, leaving the guard open to a manikin fist to the face. However, this did little more than turn his head and make him take one step back, for it was bunted by the lance shortly afterward.

Letting out a grunt, Applejack ducked down under an attempted strike. Quickly, she launched her leg upward, caving it its face as her boot hit dead-center. Trying to right herself with one hand, however, left her open, and a second manikin came up. She didn’t have time to defend herself, and felt unfiltered agony as the thing’s fist crashed into her arm. While she clutched at her upper arm, letting out a cry of pain, it tried to move in to capitalize on the attack.

It didn’t get the chance. No sooner than did Applejack step back to try to collect herself, a guard stepped in, charging it from the side shoulder-first to knock it away.

“Thanks,” Applejack said, only to wince as her arm flared up again.

“You really must rest, miss,” said the guard, “You’re already hurt…”

Applejack scowled. “Appreciate the concern, but—“

“It’s not worth it!” Pinkie shouted, zipping by seemingly from nowhere. She bit at… something, she now held in one of her hands, thus making the next part of her statement through clenched teeth, “She’s one of the stubbornest mares I know!”

Spitting out the object in her mouth—the pin to one of her confetti grenades—Pinkie tossed it towards a small crowd that just so happened to be making its way towards them. When it went off, the confetti spread around them, pulling them together. Guards quickly swarmed the area, ensuring the manikins wouldn’t get a chance to break free from their bindings.

While the guard finished off the one that had attacked Applejack, Applejack herself moved over to cover Pinkie’s rear for a moment.

“So what’ve you been zippin’ around for?” Applejack asked. Pinkie would have answered with her usual “it’s a surprise”, but instead, what she’d set up spoke for her.

As the manikins shambled over them, one by one, her special landmines activated. They functioned similar to the grenade she just threw, but had a ludicrous amount of confetti packed within. All the manikins caught within the area of effect were promptly cocooned, rolling over helplessly towards guards who made sure to take care of their new gifts.

Applejack blinked. Pinkie’s tactic had provided the team with a small reprieve, some semblance of progress in the battle. “Just what are you workin’ on in your basement all day?”

“Surprises,” Pinkie smiled. Then, she frowned, realizing something important, “Hey, where’s Fluttershy?”

“Oh, dang,” Applejack grumbled, looking around trying to catch a glimpse of her, “Lost track of her in the fight!”

Both began to look around, standing back-to-back, frantically searching among the chaos and clearings for any sign of her. It wasn’t long, though, before their mutual worry was relieved… in a small way.

Fluttercruel stood, a mace in one hand, and a few broken manikins around her. She stood over another one, smashing its head in with a well-executed strike. If ever there was a sight they didn’t think they’d ever see, it was Fluttershy—or at least, her body—standing over such carnage that she herself had caused. Even if said creatures technically weren’t alive.

“Oh,” both Pinkie and Applejack said at once.

Suddenly, Pinkie halted, her arms going out to her sides and waving up and down exactly once, as though a wave of force had passed through them. Her eyes went wide, and she immediately pushed Applejack out of the way, sending her stumbling.

“H-hey!” Applejack shouted, “Watch it, Pinkie, ya might bust up my arm furth--!”

Her statement was cut just short of completion when she saw the reason for Pinkie’s behavior. A green blur shot through where they had been standing, and made a beeline through the clearing, past several confused guards. Both Pinkie and Applejack looked over to what they had seen, confused.

“Hey, wasn’t that…?” Pinkie asked, trailing off.
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Twilight wished she’d have done better in the battle here, but on top of the lack of sleep and the speed of her opponent, she supposed she could have been faring much worse. She’d sustained a few more cuts to her arms, and had another cut to the side as well. She’d knew from the start that ending the fight as soon as possible was the best course of action, but the griffin was making it hard for her.

The griffin dove down at her, now wielding a knife in each hand. With each attack he’d landed, he grew more determined to land another, but Twilight wasn’t letting him score another hit now. She took in a short breath, managing to teleport as he passed by. She soon popped up just behind him, around where he had been originally, and let off a single bolt of magic. The griffin did not move out of the way; not that he had a chance. However, he also didn’t need to, as Twilight soon learned. When the bolt made contact, it hit the armor covering his body, but abruptly, red runes appeared at the site of the impact, nullifying the spell almost instantly.

Twilight descended a small amount as shock overcame her. “What?”

“Surprised?” The griffin turned, knowing he was hit, a grin splitting his beak, “The boss made sure the armor wasn’t going to be damaged by a spell like that! It’ll cancel out any spell that gets too close!”

“A nullifying charm?” Twilight asked, already feeling her mind go into overdrive.

If I remember right, those usually have some kind of limit… Twilight thought, To what they can take in general or all at once, but finding that—

She forced herself to quit thinking about it, when she noticed the griffin was already on the attack again. With a hard flap of her wings, followed by another, she ascended in the air, letting her opponent pass through the space where she once was. Turning around, however, she saw that the griffin was already on the move, changing direction to pursue her. However, that wasn’t all; the griffin moved his arm, giving one of his weapons a strong toss straight towards her.

Quickly, Twilight focused and let off another blast of magic from her horn. This time, her target was the knife flying straight for her. She managed to hit it, bouncing it away without any effort. However, the griffin still kept coming for her. Realizing things were going to go downhill if she didn’t try to do something about the armor now, Twilight began to focus again, charging the magic into her horn.

The griffin closed in, but Twilight wasn’t letting him get close. Though her horn was more or less occupied, she still had two perfectly good wings to use, and began to let herself fall, causing the griffin to whiff yet another slice.

“You’re pretty good at running away, aren’t you?” he asked, but Twilight wasn’t going to answer, continuing to descend until her feet hit solid ground. Moving on her feet, she soon cleared the area, just in time to watch the griffin land.

“This has been fun, Princess,” said the griffin as he did, reaching into various spots in his armor, “But let’s see if you can dodge this one…”

Twilight took the time to continue charging her spell, seeing her opponent was readying himself for his own vicious attack. She needed to charge it now, but her opponent had the advantage here. Her horn began to shine brightly like a beacon in the night. As she continued to stare her opponent down, readying herself to move if she needed to, she saw the gleam of the wire against the light of her magic. Her opponent now held a few knives in each hand, ready to throw.

Her horn pulsed, and he readied his throwing weapons.

“Time to--!” The griffin paused in action and words, noticing something out of his peripheral vision. Twilight saw it for a few moments: a green ball of magical energy, which struck the helm of his armor. Though it dissipated uselessly, something clearly caught his attention, and he stared in that direction with wide eyes.

“What?!”

Twilight seized her chance without a second thought and fired a large bolt—as large as half her body—in his direction, which hit with a massive magical explosion. Twilight heard something snap underneath the sound, and knew that her tactic had worked. It was only after she took a small amount of relief at the removal of her opponent’s armor that she realized something.

Wait… Twilight thought. The more she thought about what had happened, the more she wondered if it was really true.

“Ugh!!” the griffin shouted from inside the smoke, “How?! I thought you were dead already!?”

Unable to resist looking anymore, Twilight shot a glance over to her right. What she saw sent a wave of relief to her very core, almost enough to lull her into some kind of sleep. Or perhaps it was a trance; she couldn’t tell.

Not ten feet from where she was standing was both a relieving and annoying sight. Relieving in that he was definitely alive, annoying in that he’d immediately thrown himself into harm’s way first chance he got. He could barely stand and—was he bleeding from his wound again? He shook on his two feet, one hand raised, and a very slight smile on his face.

“Corey!?” Twilight asked.
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Norma had thought she did the job, but here he was now, having just interrupted Storm Claw’s battle. Slayer had gone silent as soon as he’d shown up, and stared again. Norma stared at the screen, her fists soon clenching tightly as she struggled to work out what had really happened.

“How is he still alive!?” Norma shouted, “Even if he had somehow woken up this soon, how is it he was able to defeat anything in the state he was in??”

Slayer did not respond at first, still processing the fact that Corey was in fact still alive. Eventually, though, he found the words. “Of course he’s still alive. Someone who feels like he does, thinks and acts as he does, won’t be so easily taken down. I know that now, and that’s why I’m the one who will kill him.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions just yet,” Norma said, “Even if he is the one to rush headlong into situations because someone he cares about is in danger, look where it’s landed him now…”

Slayer growled behind her; she had a point. He was up against a seasoned killer while he was barely able to move. Fluke or not—

Red light surged behind the two. Norma turned, perplexed. She hadn’t said to retreat just yet. Then she saw him: Kronos, piecing together out of red runes. In one hand, Kronos held the retreat gem, which had lost its glow from its one-time use.

“Back already?” Norma asked, already lifting her hand, “I didn’t order a retreat, you know…”

“I told you before,” Kronos said, dropping the retreat gem lightly to the floor, “I was only there to get what you wanted me to get. And I did.”

Kronos moved his other hand into view. As she took in what Kronos had managed to retrieve, her disdain for Kronos’ unauthorized retreat soon turned into tacit approval, before erupting into full-blown internal applause.

With this, it no longer mattered if anyone died during this outing. Taking into account the increasing number of static screens, as well as the current tide of the battle, Norma quickly made her decision…
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It didn’t take Twilight long to realize she was still in the middle of a fight, and that Corey wasn’t in any condition to be anywhere near one, even if his magic had seemingly returned to him. As soon as the feeling passed, she put herself between Corey and the griffin, who stepped from the smoke. His armor was destroyed now, as Twilight thought. Underneath it was a black leotard. All that remained of his armor was his helm, and even then, most of it was blackened. Twilight quickly flared her horn, ready to fire at a moment’s notice.

“This is over,” Twilight said, “You’ve lost your enchanted armor!”

The griffin merely chuckled at this. “You think some half-dead unicorn’s going to scare me off? He can barely stand on his two feet as it is!”

Twilight glanced over to Corey. She hadn’t noticed it straight away, but the griffin was right; the mere act of standing seemed to be painful for Corey. Given he was in a bed and hadn’t done much moving for a while, it probably hurt to use his muscles. On top of that, he still looked like he needed sleep.

“More to the point, though,” the griffin continued, walking over to one of his knives from earlier and picking it up, admiring it. Somehow, being hit by a magical blast did not damage it. After stowing it away, “You’ve only made our confrontation more interesting. Now we both can attack from a range…

“And… that armor, although useful, only weighed me down,” The griffin grinned. Twilight stood her ground, but internally, she realized what the griffin might be getting at.

Is he saying he’s even faster now?? she thought, readying herself again. Even if Corey being close by would only increase her worry, she still had a job to do.

“Here…” The griffin toyed with two knives once again, twirling them in his feathered hands, “Why don’t I give you a demonstration?”

The griffin crouched down, ready to charge. This would be fun. Here, he would take out the two ponies that gave Slayer so much trouble, but only after he ensured he had fun with them first. Before he could make his move, however, he heard something in his ear: the harsh voice of Norma herself.

“We’re done here, Storm Claw,” she said, “Grab whatever and use the stone to return to the caves immediately!”

“What? Now?” asked Storm Claw. At this, both Corey and Twilight stared at him, unable to understand what was going on at first.

“The creatures have mostly been defeated. Celestia’s other pawns will be closing in on you soon…” Norma hissed straight into Storm Claw’s head.

“What about Kronos?”

“He already got what we launched this attack for in the first place and came back. You’re essentially alone out there right now. If you want to keep going, by all means, but I doubt it’d end well for you…”

With a scoff, Storm nodded. “Very well, then. I’ll come back... What? I see…”

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” yelled Twilight, launching an attack. However, Storm noticed this, quickly moving out of the way. He soon halted, picking up another knife that had missed.

H-his speed really did increase… Twilight noted, numbly.

“Looks like you two lucked out,” said Storm Claw, removing the remains of his helm and reaching into it, “Boss wants me to head back…”

“You think we’re just going to let you go?!” Twilight shouted again, launching another blast, only to have it deflected by the appearance of several runes. Storm Claw held one hand up high now, casting the helm to the side. In his lifted hand, Twilight could make out the shape of a stone which glowed with a brilliant red light.

“You won’t be getting a choice on that, but mark my words, you will see me again,” said Storm Claw, “It seems that our fight has merely been…rescheduled…”

With that, Storm Claw vanished, taking the runes and the glow with him. Twilight took a few steps forward, her teeth clenched.

“So that’s it, then…?” Twilight said, sighing as she turned. Corey tried to take one step forward, but his knee gave out, and he fell forward with a raspy-sounding grunt. Twilight quickly responded, her arms soon wrapping around him. The sudden weight didn’t catch Twilight off guard, though. Instead, she helped him to stand up for the moment, looking around to see if there was something she could prop Corey up against for a little bit.

Thankfully, there was a building not too far from where he’d rushed in. As she helped him over there, a million thoughts began to swim through her head, and for the life of her, she couldn’t decide which one to voice first. It was a hard walk this time since Corey—not for lack of trying—was dragging his feet. She got him over there eventually.

“Nice and easy…” she said, slowly letting him down until he was back-first against the wall. Only when he was in the resting position did he finally let out a sigh of relief. Twilight did as well.

“What am I going to do with you…” Twilight finally said, crouching down to eye-level with Corey. As soon as she was staring back into his eyes, her thoughts all came out at once.

“Do you know how long you were out??” Twilight asked. Corey raised a hand, but she didn’t even let him start talking, “Three whole days! Three days! Do you have any idea how close you were to…to…!”

Twilight let out a frustrated squeal. “I spent the better part of those three days worried you wouldn’t ever wake up! That you’d been killed without ever coming out of your guilt! I don’t know what you went through in there, but I know it wasn’t pleasant!”

Corey made some raspy noise that sounded like an attempt at communication, but she wasn’t done.

“I guess John finished things in time, but last I checked you were still in a coma! Then, when you wake up, what do you do first??” Twilight asked, “Do you stay put, stay out of the danger you heard?”

Corey raised a finger, and barely managed to get a word out, “Twilight, there was—“

“No, of course you don’t!” Twilight said, “First thing you do is wake up is reopen that wound of yours…look at you! You probably opened it back up because you decided to rush into a battle you were in no way ready for! Just what were you thinking??”

It sunk in to Corey there were some things he’d probably missed while in that neverending nightmare. He was no expert, but he’d guessed her anger had just built up too much while he was out. How could he fault her? She’d had to deal with a lot, more than likely.

“T-Twilight, I—“

Corey didn’t finish. Before he could react at all, Twilight’s hands came down on his shoulders, and her mouth met his. The moment was so quick he wasn’t even sure if it happened, at least until he heard the resounding smack of her lips disconnecting from his. Corey stared back at Twilight, who looked a bit less angry now. Her expression softened completely, and she pulled herself closer, not even caring how much of his blood got on her.

“I-I’m just happy that you’re alive…Happy you’re back…” Twilight said, resting her chin on his shoulder.

Corey finally relaxed himself. He’d been tense ever since she started chewing him out, but with that action, he finally relaxed.

“I am too, Twilight,” Corey said, leaning forward to put his chin to her shoulder, “I am too…”

Comments

[Seeking Dusk]

Woo! This arc is finally wrapping up! No offense, it was good, but it just kept going

Little worries about what Kronos stole. Might be the book...

[Luna is back]

The queen re-awakens...

[AstralFlare42]

Kronos stole the book. But what if he grabbed the Alicorn Amulet as well??