The Storm Of Tartarus

by AleneShazam

8: A Plume of Flame

“Typhon is coming!” Twilight blinked away from the ledge she was perched on straight into the meeting room, where Celestia, Luna and Cadance stood, as the entire city shook. With every step Typhon took towards the city, his titanic steps reducing the long mountain hike to a few mere bounds, the quaking grew stronger. Plaster rained from the ceiling, and for a moment Twilight seemed unsure as to how to proceed: she took a step towards the group, and paused, sensing the tension thick in the air.

“We know, Twilight.” Celestia said, her muscles visibly tensed and her wings spread. Her voice wavered, for a moment, but it hardened as she continued, “Typhon is nearing the city, and I… we, think we know what Typhon is after.”

“What?” Twilight trotted up to the central table, where maps of the city and the surrounding area was lain out. “There’s something in the city that he wants?”

“Someone, Twilight. Specifically, his mate.” Celestia said, quietly. She placed a hoof on the table, near a red gridded area labeled Restricted.

“Echidna?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “But you said she-”

“-was sundered by the might of the living lightning, and had her essence scattered to the winds, yes.” Luna, who was for some reason dressed in ancient, but intimidating silver and blue armor, cut in. Twilight raised an eyebrow at her attire, but when she noticed the numerous bleeding cuts on Luna body, her eyes widened in alarm. “Do not worry, Twilight. I had an unfortunate encounter with an… old friend, let us say.”

“Luna met Seth, the Jackal, in the catacombs under the city.” Celestia said, giving her sister a weary glance. “She… was not able to subdue him, but from the way he was searching Luna thinks that he was trying to find Echidna.”

“A being like him would have little use for the artifacts we keep in the catacombs. There is only one thing that could be of interest to him… and Typhon. The heart of Echidna, the only portion of Echidna that has survived her sundering. That, and perhaps another being we have imprisoned deep under the mountain… although surely not even Typhon would be insane enough to try and bring her under his command.”

The entire castle shook, more violently than ever before, and the glass windows shattered, sending shards of glass across the room. A gargantuan shadow, enough to block out the sun, filled the room, casting darkness on the ponies. “We’ve talked for too long,” Celestia muttered, her horn glowing. “Cadance, with me! We will delay Typhon while Luna and Twilight find and destroy Echidna’s heart in the catacombs! It’s the only way!”

“Understood, sister. Come, Twilight! We must make haste!” Luna said, charging a teleportation spell. “I will bring us as far into the catacombs as I can, and then we can continue on hoof.”

Twilight glanced at Luna, then back at Celestia. “But… Celestia, I want to stay and help! I know spells, I can… I know I can help!”

Celestia laid a hoof onto Twilight’s shoulder. “I know, Twilight, but this is not your fight. Luna needs your help more than I. Please, Twilight, do this for Equestria… for me.”

Twilight bit her lip, but bowed her head in defeat. “I… I guess you’re right. Just… please stay safe?”

“I will, Twilight. Now, go! Luna is waiting.” Celestia said gently, pushing Twilight towards Luna. Turning to her sister, Celestia whispered, “Keep her safe, sister.”

Luna nodded, and her horn flashed blue. With a shower of moonlight, she and Twilight disappeared. Celestia sighed, turning to the windows, where the shadow had since passed. Instead, the crash of falling debris and shattering glass could be heard throughout the city. “He’s in here, right now.”

Cadance narrowed her eyes. “Well then. Let’s not keep him waiting.”

A brilliant golden light flashed briefly from Celestia’s horn, and the room was empty.

---

I fought my way through the unending sea of tiles roofs and brick walls, tracing Seth’s footsteps. It was almost too easy, if it weren’t for the fact that I knew the ponies couldn’t put up a fight if they tried. “Seth. Are we close?” I growled, idly putting a fist through a tower that came up to only my chest. It would be tall for a pony, I suppose, but just the right height for me to demolish. It crumbled in a shower of brick, mortar, and glass.

“My lord, we are almost there. It will, however, require you to take a form smaller than your current one. Perhaps one closer to my size.” Seth suggested, surfing on a swarm of sand as he wound his way between the city’s buildings. “This way, towards the palace.”

“You want me to reduce my size, and my power?” I rumbled. “If I didn’t know better, I would suggest that you were planning a coup.”

Seth bowed. “I am ever your servant, lord. I merely state the best course of action.”

“May I suggest a course of action?” A voice, confident and powerful, sounded above. I looked to the source, and outlined against the sun was a being with both wings and a horn. “Flee.”

“Ah, Apollo!” I growled, filling myself with crackling power. I felt tired limbs surge with strength, and for a moment, I felt absolutely invincible. Though I has barely enough power to sustain even my most spartan functions, I could not resist forming a storm shell around me, the electrified winds ripping into buildings and the paved ground below, tearing up stone and adding them into the deadly whirlwind of magic and debris around me. “Or do you go by another name now? One fitting of your pittance of a form?”

“It’s Celestia, Typhon.” The alicorn approached, though well out of range for any sort of accurate strike. “And you aren’t very convincing when I can actually see your head and toes in one go. You’ve lost some weight, old friend.”

“Very funny, Apollo.” I said, smiling drily. “Now, alicorn. Stand aside, or you will be destroyed like the rest of them. I do not want the last of the great spirits to be slain like so. You deserve an epic battle, prefaced by clashing armies and the smell of death in the air.”

Don’t forget the dark and stormy skies.

I sighed internally. “And the dark and stormy skies.”

“As much as I would like to humour your sense of dramatics, Typhon, I must cut our conversation short. It seems we have a little… vermin issue in my city, and we can’t have that now, can we? Cadance, you can take Seth, right?”

A pink alicorn, presumably a manifestation of Eros, if not Aphrodite, joined her in the skies. “I can most certainly try. Gladly, in fact.”

“Seth…” I growled. An alicorn, even a lesser one, was no simple opponent. I raised a claw at the pink alicorn, lightning crackling at my finger tips, but Celestia was one faster, a beam of sunlight lancing through the air between us at the speed of light, scattering the gathering magic and scorching my palm. “Cursed… whelp! Seth, tear the Breeder apart! I will extinguish the sun’s flames!”

Celestia’s eye flashed with golden light, and I shivered instinctively; Apollo’s might was no match for mine, but the old gods were beings to be respected in terms of pure destructive force. Each could level a continent if they put their minds to it.

Then again, so could I. Lightning leapt between my fingers, and I hurled a bolt of lightning at the alicorn, the beam of purple and blue crashing into a hastily erected shield with enough force to shatter it and throw Celestia back into a tower, plowing through the brickwork, and toppling into the streets below. “Too easy.” I grinned savagely, turning my attention to Seth.

He seemed to be less successful, dodging bolts of clear blue and sending spears of sand at his foe. The Breeder, surprisingly, was holding her own, raising shields that gleamed like crystal and held like one too, the sand clattering off the alicorn’s defences ineffectually. “Come on, Seth! Be done with the wretch and continue with our mission- GAH!”

I roared in anger as a searing flair struck me straight in the back, sending me crashing to my knees in agony. Celestia rose up from where she was sent flying, her body physically glowing with rage. “Do not test me, storm giant. You are not a god, and you are not a threat to me.”

With an earsplitting howl, I charged, directing the storm around to into a constant stream of crackling energy and debris streaking towards the alicorn. Her horn flashed, even as tonnes of stone and rubble flew towards her, and a wave of intense heat erupted from her, liquifying rock and pushing back my lightning. The streets cracked from the blazing heat, the cobble turning orange and then into runny magma, streaks of orange tainting the white paving.

“Your tricks may work against the likes of Tirek, but- Oh!” She swerved, just in time to avoid another bolt of lightning. Instead the blast vaporised a house, turning the stone to ash. “A nice trick, Typhon, but it’ll take more than that to take down an alicorn.” A volley of fireballs detached from her fiery aura, streaking towards me at blinding speeds. I growled, swatting the first few aside with my claws, before one glanced off my bracers and exploded against my shoulder. Pain erupted from where the fireball hit, as tissue blackened and curled up in the heat.

“Grah! You… wretched…” I balled up my fists, and Celestia had but a moment’s notice before the air around her smashed together, crushing her with enough force to generate a deafening boom like a thunderclap. She gave a single cry before her lungs gave out, and she sagged, falling to the ground. For safe measure, I raised a palm, where a glob of hellfire formed, quivering with barely contained power.

“My lord!” I looked up sharply, where Seth had pinned the alicorn he was facing under a relentless barrage of sand. The alicorn’s crystal shield was too strong, however, and Seth’s brute force assault barely made a dent in her shield.

If violence isn’t working… Trickster mused in my head, and my grin probably matched the wicked one he had on his face… if he had one.

“Violence harder.” I finished, levelling the fireball at the pink alicorn. “Breeder! This is what you get for getting between a battle of gods!”

I hurled the orb, and the alicorn’s shield crumbled within a moment of contact, the magic simply failing under the strain of containing the essence of Tartarus itself. The alicorn gave a scream of agony and anguish as she disappeared in a ball of hellish flames, tumbling out of the skies.

Now, just make sure they’re out of commission for a while. Trickster suggested. Drop a building on them or something.

I would agree, but my shoulder was still burnt to the bone. Lifting a building was beyond my capabilities, without causing further harm. “Perhaps just drain her of her magic.”

Not efficient. Yours isn’t like Tirek, she’ll get it back soon enough. Maybe just stomp on her?

“I can agree with that.” I walked over to where Celestia lay, battered and bruised.

Lights out, Celestia.

“Indeed.” I put a palm against the ground, covering the alicorn, and fired. Pouring my power into a torrent of electricity that slammed into Celestia, frying her completely. A mere setback for a being of her level; but neither Celestia nor I possessed the power to fully destroy each other. Although, I was clearly still the superior fighter. When I lifted my palm, all that remained was a charred, alicorn shaped husk, proof of my dominance. “You will reform, in time. Your core has yet to deteriorate. Let this be a lesson to you, to not cross my path again.”

“Seth!” I roared, looking to the jackal who was burying the Breeder in hardened sandstone. “We move, now!”

“Yes, my lord. This way.” Seth straightened up. “The entrance is in the palace, and… it’s rather small.”

“No. If Celestia is here, then Luna must already be in the catacombs. We have no time to lose.” I growled, raising a fist.

“But… I defeated Luna, when I was scouting!”

“Did you tear her form apart? Scatter her essence across the planes? Cast her spirit into the heart of chaos eternal?” I shook my head. “No, if I know Artemis, she will be in the depths below.”

I slammed my fist into the ground, as hard as I could. The earth shook, and fractures appeared in the streets, until the pavement fell away revealing a gaping hole in the ground.

“It’s… it’s the catacombs.” Seth said, landing next to the hole and peering into it. “That’s incredibly precise, my lord!”

“Save your compliments. Time is the essence here.” I growled, contemplating my actions. How would I fit into this hole?

Heh.

“That was… not intended in that way.”

Spoilsport. If you need to get smaller, I can help with that.

“I can see the devious smile on your face.”

Damn straight.

Author's Note:

Typhon 1, Celestia 0.

Comments

[SeventhBrony]

Author's Note:
Typhon 1, Celestia 0.

like it's a surprise