34- Raging Tempest
Bound by Scales- Raging Tempest
Unknown
In the late hours of the night, where many ponies would be asleep, some creatures still lurked about while the moon was still shining down. Providing the only light that some creatures would need in order for them to see. But for two different figures, what they needed to discuss was about one crucial factor that they had to do. Which… was to survive. For these two figures were not what you normally would see or listen too in the late hours of the night… they were aspects. And they were concerned about what to do as their next move.
“Krosis, you can’t be seriously considering to do that kind of stunt.” One of the two spoke up in disapproval. “We may be Aspects, but there are things beyond our control that we aren’t suppose to do and this is one of them!”
“And you have any better ideas, Viin Riik?” The other voice shot back at the first one in frustration and anger, sounding more serious and sinister with each word it spoke. “Krent Ziin and Gol Motaad are dead and if you don’t decide what to do with your next move, we will fail Nightmare Moon and die by that Scalebound bastard’s hands.”
“But you are planning on something that goes beyond this physical realm… and if you dare try to drag me into your crazy plan, then you can forget it.” The first voice snapped. “Besides, I already have my sights on something that’s already put into motion.” When hearing that, the second voice sighed to themselves, asking something in response to the statement of his companion.
“You’re referring to the Queen, aren’t you?” Krosis asked.
“Think of it… She has deep hatred for the equines and their friends and right now, is pulling this stunt underneath their noses. However, I will still keep on watching… because I do believe that her plans would not go unnoticed for long… and once they begin to unravel in front of her very eyes… that’s when I come in.” Viin Riik retorted as the figure looked back at the fellow Aspect. “Krosis Tantabus… I believe this will be farewell… Goodbye.” With that, the first one disappeared, leaving the starry colored aspect to grin a little in response. Remembering an old saying from that of the time of Starswirl.
Fools go where Alicorns dare to tread.
Point of View: Ken
The moment I got up this morning, something didn’t feel… right. It had been a couple of days since Pinkis had given birth to Candy Apple and Applejack had been helping out here as much as she could with any of the spare time she gets from not working on the farm. Last night though, she told us that she was going to be with her family at Sweet Apple Acres for the evening and come back tomorrow morning… yet, it had already been an hour past daybreak and no signs of Applejack. And normally, she’s committed to being on time when helping out around the place.
Then there was Spike. When I asked Revaan where he was, he told me that he had also not been seen around the Hollow this morning. And normally, he always comes by whenever Twilight’s not doing anything in order to learn more about his ancestry from his father. Which, in turn was definitely strange to say the least.
For a moment, I was considering to go to Ponyville and check on everypony that was there, but when I did go into the temple to find the doorway we used to travel there, it looked like it had been shut off. Now, I’m not familiar with pony based magic, but if the door was shut off… then Twilight back in Ponyville must have turned it off for a good reason. Either for us to not get to Ponyville… or for what was happening in Ponyville to not get to us. Either way, it did seem weird at first.
But not as weird as what I soon stepped out to find crash land in the middle of the courtyard. I first originally saw it as a cloud of smoke that was coughed up from what landed… but then I heard something along with it. “Starlight, get your hoof out of Trixie’s face!”
Starlight… That was a name I remember. Trixie, not so much. I remembered Starlight from when I originally found her with Crystal inside the temple and from what Applejack told me, she was adjusting in Ponyville quite well. Not to mention that she became the student of Twilight Sparkle, the pony she once thought was the source of all her problems back when she ran some kind of ‘sameness’ cult. Only question now… is what the hell are they doing here of all places.
“It’s not my fault! When Discord had us dropped off here, I did not know he would literally drop us here.” The mare replied… and now I can finally see the mess that just dropped on our front door. It was two mares and a changeling in an entangled mess… all while a familiar draconequus decided to float down to the ground while holding a stick and quoting something to the extend of ‘I’m Mary Poppins Ya’ll!’.
“Starlight? Discord?” I ask, causing both of them to look towards me as I fold my arms. “Not to ruin the moment right now… but what exactly are you guys doing here… and who are the ponies next to you?” Yet, just as soon as I asked that, the unicorn that referred to herself in third person as Trixie soon got up to look back at me.
“How have you not heard of the great and powerful Trixie-?” She said, only pausing once she had actually looked in my direction. Gasping a bit as her eyes drifted towards the one thing that catches everypony’s attention rather quickly. “What in the world happened to your foreleg?”
“You mean my arm?” I asked her, trying to correct the term she used. “Comes with being a Scalebound and having a dragon’s soul being bound to yours… Speaking of which…” The moment I said that was around the same time that Revaan himself had emerged from his chambers as it left the azure unicorn looking at him in shock.
“What is the meaning of such commotion?” I heard him ask… which in itself, caused the mare’s hat and cape to fly off and into Discord’s face on accident.
“I was just about to ask about that, Revaan…” I said, before looking back at the mare. “After introductions… My name is Ken Ahkrin and this is my partner and friend, Revaan. We help run the Obsidian Hollow here…” Now I decided to turn to Starlight and then ask her something in response. “Starlight, would you like to introduce your companions here?”
“Well, you already met my friend Trixie and you are familiar with Discord,” With that, I turned to the Draconequus as he looked to dawn a cloak and Sony Walkman similar to that of Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy. But the one thing I noticed was… actually a changeling drone… A little different than that of Maple, Holly, or Zektor and they didn’t have any features that really stood out. “This is Thorax. He’s a changeling who was accepted in the Crystal Empire after he was given a chance to escape sometime back.”
“That’s the forth one we’ve met in sometime…” Revaan took note of that as he looked back at all of them. “The only question now that I believe needs to be answered is simply… why are you here?” That… was indeed something that I would like to know. With how everything has been so weird, I was beginning to think that there weren’t here just to say hello.
Starlight took a moment to compose herself, even going as far as taking a deep breath before the unicorn actually told us the reason for them dropping into the Hollow. “We need your help… It’s Queen Chrysalis…” Oh boy… that in itself made me a bit concerned. The last time I had to deal with her was with Crystal and the changeling queen then severely hurt her last time. But what does this have to do now. “She’s kidnapped everypony in Equestria and replaced them with her drones disguised as them… We were concerned that it hit the obsidian hollow as well at first.”
“Wait… so… you’re saying that Applejack and Spike… They were-” Before I could finish my sentence, Starlight was already nodding her head as I now pieced everything together. “That must explain why the door to Ponyville was closed off… Twilight must’ve thought that something was wrong and closed it as a precaution. We haven’t heard anything about you guys in the last day or so…” The more I thought on it, the more that I realized why they came here. They needed our help… and with the fact that Chrysalis crossed a MAJOR line with kidnapping our friends and family… that dragged us into it too.
“So… are you going to help us?” I heard Starlight ask, which brought my attention back to her as I looked back at her. I looked at Revaan for a moment… who was thinking the same thing I probably was right now as I turned to face the four of them.
Yet, it wasn’t me who said the response that first came to my mind. It was instead someone else. “Hell yeah we are!” I turned to my right for a moment as I looked to see Aaron with Fire and Thunder right next to him, Shayne & Aurox and also Athena coming out of the dining hall as they looked at us. “She took Rainbow and everypony else we know! If she’s trying to pick a fight with us, then she’s getting one!”
“I agree,” Athena then spoke up. “These actions are not going to go unnoticed. It falls on us to rescue them by any means necessary.”
“It won’t be easy though,” We heard Thorax speak up. “After what happened to the Queen’s original hive, she relocated to the center of the changeling kingdom that is farther than that of the badlands.” When I heard that though, that was what was confusing me the most now.
“Wait, what do you mean by original hive?” I asked him in response. “I thought that the hive was her home.”
“Hives to the changelings are similar to that of small towns or outposts for ponykind,” He told us, which caught my attention since this was the first time I have heard of it. “The Changeling Kingdom in itself is the central home for the swarm and where she is now after her central hive in Equestria was destroyed.” And now I feel Karma biting me in the ass for what Crystal and I had done some time ago.
“Well, I would say that we better get ourselves ready. We got a lot of work to do before we can break our friends out of there!” Shayne declared, which left our four newcomers rather surprised by her defiant decleration.
“You’re talking about trying to get everyone out of the most highly protected citadel in the Changeling Kingdom…” Thorax replied as he raised an eyebrow… or so I thought, I can’t tell his expressions at first glance. “They have an army.”
The next response though that I heard from Shayne… had all of us looking back at her in complete surprise. “We have a Tina.”
That… had me look back at her with a raised eyebrow. “You sure you can get Tina on board with this plan, Shayne? I mean she’s… well… Tina.”
“Forgive me for interrupting, but Trixie would like to know who is this ‘Tina’ you are referring to.” The Azure Unicorn then asked, prompting me to take a deep breath and respond to her now that Shayne had brought her into the conversation. Which prompted me to speak now.
“Tina’s my cousin… and she’s also a bombmaker. She can be a bit… odd, but she’s the most gifted demolitionist in the hollow… hell, probably all of Equestria. If you need explosives as part of the plan to get them out, then she’s the person to go too.” I told them in response… and adding something else to it in order for them to tread carefully. “Just… don’t do any sudden movements around her and you should be okay.”
“Why, what happens if you do-?” Trixie’s question was soon interrupted by the sounds of skipping and humming inside the training dome as we looked to see what was going on. Turns out… Tina had what looked like a changeling drone, who was struggling to free itself, strapped down by cables and also with explosive dynamite all over it as she skipped and began to sing in a rhyming fashion.
“All around the sta-actus plant, the stalker chased the bandit~. The stalker thought twas all in fun- POP!!” BOOM!!! The second she said that, she pushed on the fusebox to the dynamite and blew up the stand along with the drone as bits of aquamarine blood was splattered everywhere. “-goes the bandit!”
“......... What the Faust-?”
“Oh Haaaaiiiiii!” Tina now announced as Shayne and I now decided to come down and talk to her. Apparently, the drone that she had just blew up was one that followed her from Ponyville after her last trip there. She captured it, had it spill the beans on what their plans were and then proceeded to do… what she just did. Meaning that she was ALL up to speed on the current situation right now. “So you gotta crack open a cocoon and break out our friends? CHILDS PLAY!! Just let me prepare my ladies~ Hey Aaron, can ya help me get the badonkadonks for Mushy Snugglebutts?”
Now even Starlight herself was confused… and possibly disturbed a bit by Tina when she asked for Aaron to help get the explosives she was looking for. “Yeah… she has a bit of a twisted imagination… just roll with it and she’ll be able to help us with Chrysalis.” Shayne advised her.
“Why would you need explosives though in order to break out our friends?” Starlight then asked, looking back at Shayne now as we all listened in. “I mean, we originally thought that we could just sneak into the changeling kingdom and such…”
“Well, my idea was that we could use the explosions as a way to punch a hole in the kingdom’s defenses and also use it as a distraction. While the enemy would be more focused on trying to figure out what happened, a second team would sneak in and try to get everypony out.” To be fair, Shayne’s plan had similar elements to what Starlight had just said. But it was Discord, who just happened to interject, that had both of them in agreement.
“Well, why don’t you find a way to combine them together. Like Peanut Butter and Jelly!” He suggested, all while eating a sandwich as well. But… he did bring up a valid point. There were parts of both Shayne’s and Starlight’s plan that could be combined together and overall, have a more effective outcome as a result. It took some thinking, but after everyone decided to pitch in, we all agreed the same thing.
All we need to do now is put the plan into action.
Some time later…
After a few hours of planning, organizing, taking the time to travel to where the changeling kingdom was located… and then do some more planning on top of that, we were all ready for breaking into the kingdom and saving everypony. For the plan, we split ourselves up into three teams. One consisted of Starlight, Thorax, Discord and Trixie sneaking into the kingdom along with Shayne and Aurox to see if they could get everypony out of there without causing any attention. The other two teams we had consisted for if we needed to switch to plan B, which would only be used when the first team used the secret phrase we agreed on.
The second team was made up of Aaron, Athena and Tina; who were set up on a cliff range that was not far from the kingdom. Tina’s missiles had enough firepower in order to tear a massive hole in the citadel where Chrysalis was held up and both Aaron and Athena were strong enough on their own to fight on the ground. Leaving Revaan and I as the third team for aerial support.
“Is everything set and ready?” I asked through my ECHO as I looked down below to where Athena and company were at.
“The damsels are in position and we’re all ready to do this shiz!” I heard Tina on the other end of the line speak triumphantly. Which meant that they were in position and ready. “Just let me know when you need to set the ‘splosives off! I gotta do it remotely.”
“Will do.” I told them, looking back at Revaan for a moment as I began to think to myself inside my head. “I do hope that AJ’s okay… I’m really worried about if the changelings would try to do anything to her.”
Yet… what I did not expect was for someone… or somepony in this case… to actually respond to my thoughts. “S-sugarcube? I-is that you?” I was completely shocked by that. Did… Applejack just speak to me mentally? I know that I’ve done it before with Revaan and Coryena, but how could I be able to do it with AJ? Either this is spontaneously new… or Coryena is helping us somehow by allowing me to do this. “W-where are you?”
“AJ, we’re coming and planning to rescue you and everypony else. Starlight’s inside the kingdom right now and looking for you guys along with her team… Are you okay?”
“Y-yeah…” She replied back. “Chrysalis has been trying to use these cocoons she’s keeping us inside in order to drain out the love we have and also any form of magic… However, unlike Pinkie or any other Earth Ponies, nothings happening to me…”
I stopped for a moment upon hearing that. Could this be because of her dragon form? It’s possible, but I was not sure. “Okay, listen… Starlight’s going to try and find you guys and with it, if sh*t hits the fan, there’s a code word we’re using to resort to plan b. Can you turn into your dragon form right now?”
“Ah can… it’s the first thing I attempted to do and it seemed to work. No problems or anything.” Applejack told me.
“Okay… if you hear Starlight or them say the words ‘silly draconequus’, that’s your cue to transform, break out of that cocoon and help Starlight rescue the others. We’re planning on breaking open a hole in the citadel and having Athena and Aaron try to clear a path open for all of you to get out. Revaan and I are up here for Aerial Support right now… Discord came up with the idea for the code phrase.”
“Figured as much…” She chuckled for a bit before stopping. I heard her gasp for a moment as I tried to make sense of what was going on. Even to the point where Revaan seemed concerned as I looked back at the dragon to easy his worry. “Okay… this isn’t good… Chrysalis just caught Starlight.”
Now was when my heart began to race… and where I became a bit concerned. “What? How-?” Only moments after I hear that though was when a bright flash of light could be seen from the citadel as I looked back at Revaan. “What the hell was that?”
“I’m…… not sure. I felt magic… similar to that in which the changelings use… but it wasn’t exactly the same.” Revaan spoke up to me. “Instead of having the magic take away love… it was the opposite. It was someone giving love to the pony casting it… willingly.” Okay, for one thing, the whole concept of giving love just sounded like a cheap form of describing foreplay. Another thing was that I wasn’t getting any form of response from the rest of the first team, so we had no idea what the hell was going on in there.
Getting on my ECHO, I tried to see if I could reach Shayne and Aurox down on the ground. Only to hear Shayne laughing the moment I tried to reach her. “Hahaha, Oh god, her face! That was so PRICELESS!!”
“Shayne, what the hell is going on down there?” I asked, causing her to realize that I was trying to contact her.
“That dumbass queen fell for the oldest trick in the book!! We had Thorax disguise himself as Starlight to trick the queen and now that he was on the receiving end of giving his love and magic to Chrysalis willingly, he’s turned into a bonafide badass!!” Again, sounds like the cheap form of describing foreplay. “Not to mention that he has the horns of a stag beetle now!”
…… Okay, that was new. “Wait… are you telling me Thorax transformed?”
“Duh, what else?” Shayne said, which caused me to facepalm right now. “Also, Aurox and I are all set up for a surprise attack. We’re just… Wait a second… BOOYAH! They called it out! Operation: Silly Draconequus is a go!!”
Despite the sudden abrupt announcement, Revaan grinned back to me as I looked back at the ground team below. “Ground team, plan B is in motion!”
“Oh snap, son!! It’s showtime!!!” I heard Tina shout through my ECHO. “Counting down… Ten, Nine…” Two seconds later, the first one of her rockets came whizzing past us before colliding into the side of the citadel. “I got bored.”
“Figures…” I thought mentally, now remembering that I still had the mental link with AJ right now and then proceeded to speak to her while having Revaan move out of Tina’s line of fire. “Applejack, it’s go time!”
Point of View: Applejack
Ah was already ready to break out of this darn cocoon by the time Ken told me that their plan was in motion… but ah decided to wait a few seconds as Chrysalis slowly backtracked to where mah cocoon was over her. Still in disbelief about what just happened a few moments ago.
“W-what? How!? Everything was perfect!! I had planned this out ever since the disaster at the royal wedding!!” She shouted, not paying attention to where ah was as ah felt the walls shake for a moment. I wasn’t entirely paying attention to what Starlight and that other changeling had to say… but soon, she was right where ah wanted to be.
Using my claws to tear through the walls of the cocoon, I pounced onto Chrysalis. Throwing her to the ground before slamming her into a wall. “That was for mah friends!!”
“A-applejack?!” Oh… right… Ah almost forgot that Starlight had not seen this form yet. And the same went with a few other ponies ah know. Twilight was an exception, but not many others.
“Starlight, are ya alright?”
“Y-yeah, but how-?”
“Ah’ll explain later,” I told her in response, using my stone magic to cut the other cocoons of everypony else off of the ceiling. “Right now, let’s focus on getting everypony out of here!”
“Amen to that!!” When I heard that, ah saw that Shayne girl soon appear from the darkness of a cave as she and her djinn… whatever his name is, Aurox I think; we're looking back at us. “Tina busted open a way out. Let’s get everypony out and go!” Not only did we all grab everypony we could, but also some of the… oddly colored changelings, also pitched in with grabbing some more as we scrambled to race out of the throne room and to the exit.
However, ah was beginning to think that our exit strategy was not going to go unnoticed for long. “Get BACK HERE!!!”
“Showtime Aurox!” With that, the djinn behind Shayne soon went out after Chrysalis while the rest of us took off running. All we could hear was Chrysalis screaming some more in agony as we began to run down the corridors and meet up with some of the other, including Discord and Trixie.
“Woah… Applejack? What kind of personal transformation did you undergo?” I heard Discord ask me.
“This… has actually been something ah’ve had for a while… Ah’ll tell ya the story once we are out of this mess.”
Point of View: Ken
A few minutes before knocking down the gates in front of the damn citadel, we soon saw Applejack, Starlight and the others race out of the crumbling castle along with many of the cocoons that they were bringing with them. I was glad to see that they were okay… and judging from what Applejack said originally about being stuck in a cocoon before getting out, I would say that her friends, family and everypony else that was taken by Chrysalis were stuck inside there. “Revaan, I think we’re good with the plan right now. Can you land so we could help-?”
Right before I could even finish my sentence, Revaan began to dive straight down to the ground. Which, almost caused me to lose my balance and fall off while in flight… and instead fall off of him once we landed as my face hit the ground a few seconds later. “Revaan… next time… Please warn me before you do that.”
“My focus is trying to make sure my son and the others are okay.” He told me, just before we looked up to see Thorax (In his new look from head to hoof no less) helped open up the cocoon that had Spike inside of it. “Well… this is different…”
“You tell me…” I said in response. Unlike before, Thorax… or any of the other changelings that looked like him for that matter, did not have any holes on their legs, hooves or body. Which… was quite different compared to all of the times that I have seen other changelings around the hollow, including Zektor, Maple and her sister Holly. Not to mention that all of the bright colors had my eyes at a point where I needed to adjust my sight a bit so they didn’t blind me.
Personally though, my focus was not on that of Thorax, but Applejack. It had been a while since I had last seen her and I was beyond relieved that she was okay, going as far as hugging her for a short moment before we got to work on freeing everypony from the cocoons. Turns out, AJ decided to stay in her dragon pony form because the claws she had made it easier to crack open the cocoons. Almost like if you were cracking open a pistachio. Splitting the shell in half in order to get what’s inside.
We got Big Mac out of his cocoon first since his was the hardest to open up, requiring both Applejack and I to work together to get him out of there. But it was after we got him out… that Big Mac began to wake up like he had been in a coma. “W-wha-? W-where…” Before he could even form a question though, that’s when he noticed Applejack. “S-sis?”
“That’s right, big guy… it’s me.” Applejack told him, smiling a bit as the stallion was trying to get a sense of where he was and also what exactly happened… after realizing that AJ wasn’t in her Earth Pony form.
“Y-you… changed?”
“Mac, this is a secret ah’ve kept for a while and… well… Ah didn’t tell ya, Granny or Applebloom because I was worried of how ya’ll react… This was something ah gained from being with Ken and… with it, ah’m now the pony that ah am…” She said, looking back at her. “Now, why don’t ya get up and help us out. We’ll bring ya up to speed on what happened.” Mac… didn’t say no to that. In fact, he actually agreed with that once he saw some of the people and ponies that were here with us, especially when Aaron opened up Rainbow Dash’s cocoon and she pounced on him the moment she was awake.
Some time later though… once we got everypony out, we heard a small explosion go off from the ruins of the citadel as we turned to see that… low and behold… Chrysalis was still alive. “H-how dare you, Starlight Glimmer!! W-when I get my hooves on you, I’ll-”
Of course, that moment was when she actually saw everypony. Including some of us that had our weapons just in case she tried to pull anything. “Oh buck me…… That’s just not fair at all…”
“You mess with the bull, you get the HORNS!!” I heard Tina shout… while on the back of Thorax of all ponies and causing me to internally want to facepalm myself. But… something with Chrysalis seemed off… She was angry, that was certain. But she almost looked like a mother who failed at her job to provide for her kids while also still being pissed at the reason behind it.
“Why do you DO this to me?!! I just wanted to help my kind and to finally feel like I’m a part of something and you RUINED EVERYTHING!!!” She screamed. Though, it was during this that I noticed Starlight step away from everypony else in order to try and approach her.
“You can be a part of something… Chrysalis… accept my hoof in friendship.” She said, extending her hoof forward towards the queen as she struggled to stand up… However, instead of doing what somepony would normally do and accept the offer… Chrysalis smacked Starlights hoof in defiance and got up with whatever strength she had.
“Forget it!! I’m not letting myself give up this easily. I still have my pride for who I am and I’m not going to-” Just as she said that though, I felt something… bad take form. And now I was getting really bad memories course through my head. Back to the dragon lands when Torch was killed.
I only began to realize why once a vortex of raging wind and lightning began to form directly behind her as it caught the queen off guard and grabbed hold of her. “What the-!? Glimmer, is if this is your doing, let me go NOW!!” But I knew for a fact that what was going on was not Starlight’s doing at all. In fact… what it was had me race out there in order to try and get Starlight AWAY from Chrysalis as quickly as possible.
It was an aspect. The Aspect of Storms. “Starlight, RUN!!”
“W-what’s happening to her!?” Starlight asked, panicking a bit.
“Something’s trying to take control of her. Get out of here and get everypony far away from here as quickly as you can!” I told her, arming myself with my two swords to defend myself. The unicorn herself though, seemed hesitant as she looked back at Chrysalis. The maelstrom itself trying to take hold of Chrysalis as it she was screaming for her life. But as Starlight left, I heard one final thing from the former changeling queen before whatever this thing is took control of her.
“I-i’m Sorry… Zekky…”
Just as I heard that, a ring of raging winds trapped me inside where this aspect was as it now assumed Chrysalis’ old form and stared me down. “Uuuuuaaaaaaggh! FINALLY!! I’ve been waiting to have a body for weeks and now it’s all paid off!” For one thing, the voice was definitely different. Almost more demonic in a sense. Yet, when it looked at me, what it did at first was… well, not what I expected. “Ugh, really? Could you at least let me enjoy this moment for like, two minutes or something?”
“Uh… what?” This… was definitely not like that of the last two adepts I faced. Instead, they seemed more focused on enjoying the moment rather than trying to kill me. “Are you suppose to be an Aspect?”
“Wow… what gave me away, Captain Obvious?” He asked. “Besides… now that I have a body, I am free to do what I please. Free to fight, free to talk, free… anything!”
“If you are trying to psyche me out, then that’s not going to work.” I boldly claimed… yet, when I said that, what this… aspect said was definitely different.
“Twenty seven.” That… just left me to raise an eyebrow as he looked back at me. “Oh, I’m sorry. Was I interrupting your monologuing?”
“What… the hell are you doing?” I asked him, now sounding more confused rather than intimidated by anyone at this rate.
“Oh, don’t mind me. I personally keep track of the amount of times I hear individuals boast heroic speeches. Geez, I haven’t been able to do that in a thousand years since the last time I did that. I’m just glad that Nightmare’s given me this chance now.” Woah, back up a minute… I have a few questions on what I just heard.
“And you are sure that you are an aspect?” I asked immediately off the bat, looking back at the aspect before adding onto it. “If I recall, aren’t you suppose to be the souls of dragons raised from the dead and corrupted?”
The Aspect tapped their chin for a moment, pondering what I just said. “That is true… but… there are two sides to every bit… Nightmare only corrupts the souls of good dragons that had died. As for me… well…” That was when I felt something whisk past my face… and for slash marks to soon appear across my body. “I’m far from that… I was once a dragon who was feared across Equestria and the world and freely killed anyone or anything that stood in my way or was too weak to call themselves a warrior! Now, she has given me a second chance… and I, Viin Riik, am going to enjoy tearing you apart limb from BLOODY LIMB!!”
That was when he bolted at me… and I barely had any time in order to react and defend myself. From the wind that was swirling around him, I can see a couple of weapons that were humming with magic and looked like they were going to tear me to pieces if I wasn’t careful. When I clashed with him though… even though I was able to block one… two more would strike me. Just how many weapons did this guy have?!
“Is this all you have to show me?! PATHETIC!!” The aspect shouted, lunging at me. The longer the fight was dragged out though, the more I was beginning to realize something about my opponent and how she was harming me.
She wasn’t fighting with weapons that were controlled by her wind and lightning based powers. The weapons she had were conjured by her powers. The blades themselves were made from pure lightning and Viin Riik was using her wind as a way to easily be able to get me from any angle that I wasn’t paying attention with. And if this keeps up…
… Well, I don’t want to know what will happen if this keeps up.
Meanwhile
From the moment that Ken himself was surrounded by the raging storm winds that cut him off from everypony else, people were beginning to worry about what was happening. Especially Athena, Tina and a few of Twilight’s friends who had the priviledge of meeting up with Ken personally… yet, for some… they just saw this as just a reoccurance. “Ah damn it… Not again.”
Almost everypony at this point, turned to see Shayne sitting on a nearby boulder with Aurox along with Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Rarity, Aaron and Revaan as Princess Celestia was soon the first to speak. “Wait… again? You’re saying this happened before?”
“Three times now, actually,” Revaan grumbled, looking back at the alicorn of the sun. “Explaining everything though is going to be REALLY hard though… and a bit personal-”
“Just give us the Bluff’s notes then!” Tina shouted, causing the dragon himself to raise an eyebrow in response.
“The… what?”
“I think Tina means the short really important parts of any long or obnoxious books that somepony’s would have you read for a class project.” Shayne then said. “Like the kind you would do for book reports like Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet… you know, those?”
“What is there to tell, really?” Revaan asked, before looking at everypony staring at him before giving in to social demeanor and sighing. “Fine… Long ago, there used to be more of my kind. One of them even being one who was really… important to Princess Luna. Nightmare, not to be mistaken with Nightmare Moon, was a inner darkness that was jealous of my kind and the way that they were able to wield multiple forms of magic, unlike other kinds that wield only one. She corrupted several, drove them mad and it got to the point that I was the only one left and still the only one left. However, Nightmare is unsatisfied and took it upon herself to make artificial souls that only feel certain emotions such as rage and hatred.”
“How does that relate to now though?” Somepony else asked. This pony being Shining Armor as he stood right next to his wife, Princess Cadence.
“These Aspects have been ordered by Nightmare in order to try and take it upon themselves to finish the job they started so long ago…” Revaan replied, taking a deep breath for a moment. “Of course… Ken already knows that and he’s defeated two.”
“Plus he gets some sick-ass weapons from each aspect he defeats!!” Shayne added on. “Though, I’m not sure if it’s going to be easy for him this time… Which aspect is he fighting again?”
“Well, according to what you told us before, there are four in total…” Twilight replied, calculating the math inside her head. “He’s already beaten the fire aspect… and the land aspect… which leaves him with Storm and Stars…” However, it was then that she also realized something rather… problematic.
“Hey, where’s Athena?”
Point of View: Ken
The longer that I continue to drag this fight out with Viin Riik, the more uneasy I felt about it. No matter what I tried with the skillset that I was using, she was outclassing me and leaving me more focused on trying to keep myself alive rather than trying to defeat her. Not to mention the fact that I was at a point where I was gasping for breath because of the amount of stamina I had already expended from the beginning of the fight.
Yet, At one point… when the Storm Aspect was close to going in for a killing blow… both of us got a rather… unexpected surprise. If you consider a surprise being a shield slamming into the side of Viin Riik’s face. But for me… I was surprised more by the fact that someone else besides me was inside this area that was normally sealed off from everypony else.
And that someone… was actually Athena. “You alright?” She asked, offering me a hand so I could get up on my feet. Which I nodded and grabbed hold of before she pulled me up. “And what the hell was that all about earlier.”
“Let’s just say it’s a long story with a mix of emotions, reasons why Revaan is the last dragon of his kind and a few near death experiences put all together in one package,” I told her, pulling out a soul shard from my jacket pocket and cracking it open so the energy inside it can heal me. “If we can try to find out a way to stop her before she uses her abilities to kill us, I think that would be good for both of us-.”
“HEY!! That was UNCALLED for, you little-!!” Before Viin Riik could be able to actually say anything else, Athena fired something from an SMG weapon she had that slowly encased the Aspect in ice… and to that effect, it also caused the storm winds surging around her to die down.
“Oh shut up already……” The gladiator groaned, before turning back to me. “Real talk though, how much time do you need to think of how to be able to stop her?”
“Roughly, a few minutes or so. Why?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I looked back at her a bit puzzled.
“Simple… We’ll be fighting as a team… It’ll be safe to assume that only you can finish it off, so in the meantime, I’ll draw her attention until you can think of a gameplan.” She said, before tapping me on your shoulder. “When you got something, contact me using your ECHO.” I nodded my head, before going in the opposite direction around the backside of Viin Riik as she began to break herself out of the ice… and just like Athena predicted, the aspect was really pissed and coming for her now.
“I’m gonna tear apart… EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!!”
Now I really had to think of something before that aspect could make due on her threats. Though, out of the pulses that I had and also what I have tried already, not a lot has seem to work. Norok and Ruvaak Iiz were not very effective against her and the same went for my pulses of Fire, Aether and Ice… Yet, there was one possibility that I have not tried yet that I was personally unsure would work. Not to mention that I lacked a lot of experience with using the particular weapon and pulse I was referring to.
The pair of axes I got from after I defeated the Land Aspect, Denek Sil, along with the earth based pulse that was with it. “God, I hope this works…” Forming a bit of energy in my right hand, I soon got on my ECHO and spoke to Athena. “I got an idea, just get her to have her back towards me!” She didn’t even need to reply as I saw her nod and drawing Viin Riik’s attention and having the Aspect’s back be faced towards me. With my outstretched arm aimed at her, a series of three stone heads began to form around my arm as I launched them towards her.
Unlike other methods I have tried, since she blew out the flames from Norok and shrugged off the ice I conjured with Ruvaak Iiz… the rocks I launched at her went directly through her defenses and impaled themselves through her foreleg. “AAAAGGGHH!!! Y-you BASTARD!!!” She roared, furious that I was actually able to harm her this time. “That’s it!! No more screwing around! I’ll tear you apart like I did to that dragon, Vulon!!”
Woah woah woah… Hold the f*cking phone… Did she just say who I think she just said? “How…… do you know of that name?”
“Heh… What is there to know… He was the only true dragon that had the scales to challenge me and kill me in battle. Too bad for him that I was able to cut him apart so much that he died from his wounds before he could see his precious princess ever again!!” I did not say anything… instead, I used one of my axe’s to have a stone fist smack her backwards. But before she could be able to retaliate… something strange happened.
Something in which caused for her to place her forehooves on her head as she looked back at the ground. “N-no… How can you… How are you still-” I could only hear bits and pieces of her mumbling… but the next time I was able to actually hear something from her, it wasn’t Viin Riik that was speaking…
It was Chrysalis… “Get out of MY BODY, YOU PARASITE!!!”
That… caught me by surprise. According to what Coryena first told me about the Aspects and from when Krent Zin killed Garble, I was lead to believe that an Aspect would attempt to consume the soul of the host and take over the shell that remained of their body. But this… was something completely different. “Coryena, are you there?”
It took a few seconds for me to hear the female dragon’s voice as I was trying to make sense of what was going on. “I’ve been watching you for the last few hours, Ken. I think that question answers itself.”
“Not what I was trying to get at here…” I deadpanned before speaking once again. “Can you make heads or tails of this? This Aspect here took control of Chrysalis… but after a while, it looks like Chrysalis is fighting to try and regain control of her body.”
That… made the dragon rather surprised as I heard her muttering to herself for a few moments before actually telling me what was happening. “Hunh… Looks like the rumor on Changelings is actually true.”
“Rumor?” I thought, while trying to use more of my energy in order to keep Viin/Chrysalis held in place.
“You were told earlier how Thorax and the others you were with had changed right?” She asked, causing me to nod my head in response. “Well, the thing about Changelings is that unlike ponies or perhaps other species, Changelings typically are only considered half of a being because of the fact that they were only originally believed to have just one set of emotions. You know how changelings feed on love from other ponies? Those are considered as negative emotions. However, when you do it in reverse, where they express something positive like Thorax giving the amount of love he had willingly, they become completely full on the emotional spectrum of positive and negative.”
“ …… So in layman’s terms, that means…”
“This aspect only has control of half of a body, not the ENTIRE one. Chrysalis has the other half of her body and is fighting to regain control of it.” Well, that was definitely something. Now it just brought up a new question… How the hell could I be able to stop Viin Riik without harming Chrysalis? “Meaning that if you want to have Chrysalis stay alive and regain her body back, you need to destroy Viin Riik with a spirit weapon that isn’t a dragon arm.”
Okay, that sounded tricky… then again, I think there was one other thing that I was told by Coryena a while back regarding the same subject.
“Since the Aspects are created by a spirit such as Nightmare Moon, they can only be harmed or killed by Spiritual Weapons. Ken’s sword is one of them along with the hand cannon he has...”
That… got me thinking… and with the fact that I had them pinned down right now, it left me with an opportunity to try and finish this. But I only had one chance in order to pull this off… and I can’t screw up now. I brought out Hawkmoon, aiming at the target as the winds around me began to pick up. I was trying to focus on pouring my energy into this shot… while also making sure that she didn’t interrupt his concentration. Which was hard because the moment I first began charging my attack, the Aspect was beginning to do everything she could do in her power to stop me.
That was… if she could only handle Athena first. “GRRRAH!!” The Gladiator herself caught Viin Riik by surprise, attacking from above and slamming on the ground, causing the Aspect to move. However, it was when she thought that she was moving backwards that she realized two things. First off, she was being pulled closer to Athena instead of Farther away like she wanted.
The second thing was that a series of electrical chains were now grasping hold of her forelegs. “You B*TCH!! What did you do!!?”
“Oh, you not familiar with these? I call these Hade’s Shackles… and with it, you’re not going anywhere!” She said, before retracting backwards and out of my line of fire. By then, my attack was almost ready… and my target had nowhere to run.
All that was left… was to take a breath… and pull the trigger. BANG!
The moment the shot went off and collided with that of Chrysalis, it looked like the shot itself went through her head and instead struck the Aspect that was trying to take control of her. Causing the physical form of Chrysalis to drop to the ground while Viin Riik’s form just exploded in midair. Having a balls of light teal energy that looked like a miniature storm float towards me, which I assumed was the soul of the dragon that was originally turned into this Aspect.
“The winds of the storm call your name and it thanks you for your actions, young Scalebound. May my power guide you on your journey, for I am Velstrun, the Dragon of Tempests.” Seconds after hearing that, the soul split into two as I felt a surge of air flow through my fingers and take form into something. Looking down at my hands, I found myself holding two sets of chakrams that had three points each and were curved like fangs while having a grip in the center to hold. Yet, when I twirled them a bit in my hands, I felt a small channel of air form around them too.
This were definitely something I needed to test out once I was back at the hollow… but not right now. “Ken, are you okay!?” I heard some of the others call out. Yet, just as I turned around, I did not find myself prepared for the moment that someone decided to launch herself like a missile into my chest and tackle me to the ground.
Turns out, that was from the combined efforts of Tiny Tina… and Applebloom. And while they were trying to see if I was okay and fire off questions faster than I can process, Athena was the one who had to try and get them off of me.
“Easy there you two… Ken’s just been through alot and you don’t wanna make him extra sore now…” She chuckled, just as Applejack and some of the other ponies came over before the gladiator asked a question. “Though, I have to ask… What the hell was up with that aspect or whatever you call it before you destroyed it?”
“Well… Originally I thought that it would kill off the soul of the host before controlling it, but it turned out that Chrysalis was actually fighting to try and reclaim her body back since Viin Riik only took half of it…” I said, coughing a bit before looking back at her. “Trust me, it’s a long story and I’m in n-no shape to be recalling it right now.”
“Fair point…” Athena chuckled.
“What has become of Chrysalis though?” Celestia asked as I looked towards her and placed a hand on the ground. Using what remained of the energy I did have to feel if she had a pulse.
“She’s alive… but right now in a coma… It may take some time for her before she wakes up,” I sighed, relieved that she wasn’t dead at all before looking back at everyone else. “So… what happens now?” Celestia herself looked back at her sister, before looking to everypony else that was present as she took a deep breath and smiled.
“I think a celebration is in order for all of you… once we tend to your injuries first.”
End Chapter 34
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Does Ken sound like the Ken from Street Fighter?
Holy throne...
Well, that was intense. How many Aspects are left now?
8263305
4-3+1-1=1
8263357
Right, thanks. Kind of forgotten how many there are. Do you think the last Aspect will have some twist to it?
8263403
Being the final and how they have been upping in difficulty probably plus the last one is star ( I call it a Bright light but whatever floats your vote) So we will probably see some bullshit Move's and other Junk like that from the enemy and I think Nightmare Moon might come back but then again its a theory
8263418
That's true.
8263418
8263470
Both of you are right in the sense that there is one last Aspect and it's on stars. But if you paid attention to the beginning of the chapter, Viin Riik was talking to that aspect in question and said it's name.
Krosis Tantabus. If you know what the first word means... and I think it's obvious what the second one stands for, then that's all the clues you'll be getting
8263784
Sorrow Tantabus?
8263954
Krosis means Sorrow, yes... and given how things were before Revaan meeting Ken, Revaan’s been through a LOT. Secondly, Tantabus is based on the creature of nightmares.
If you want to know the answer for it, you can PM me. I want to try and avoid future spoilers
8264121
Then what's a surprise for If I do?
8264183
Let’s just say that... It’s gonna get Really personal...
8264249
DUU DUU DUUUUUU
8264249
Personal... Oh fuck.