It's a brutal world mate...

by shattered_sky

Spirit of Earth: Gone

Derpy was bundled up in Knives hood. She had just woken up. She suddenly felt very scared, the creature that invaded her mind had horrifying concepts. She decided to close herself up and relinquish control. She wasn’t a strong flyer, her mind was her greatest strength so she protected it. What she knew was dangerous.

She glided down the tree and she winced. She put a hoof to her side. “Broken ribs…” She muttered. She tied the garment around her barrel and hissed. Her broken would puncture her organs if she didn’t tie her barrel tight. Potions were not even in the question, her ribs would not heal properly unless it was a rejuvenation potion.

And she had none of her tools, chemicals and herbs. Hydra blood was one crucial ingredient and they were at Foggy Bottom bog. She looked around, wracking her mind for a substitute. She couldn’t think of any. She had none of her flares. She had to find a way out of the forest or wait for her Guildmates to find her. In her current state she was easy pickings.

She decided to find a hiding spot and wait everything out, she was patient after all.

But then the earth rumbled and quaked. She rushed to a tree and ducked, holding her hooves above her head. It stopped after a while and she remained in her position, aftershocks were a thing. None came and she relaxed slightly.

But then something horrible started. The grass around her withered and died. Various plants and herbs followed. Animals were rushing out of the forest. The trees turned black and their leaves fell and quickly rotted, the branches of the trees twisted like claws.

A pack of wolves were rushing out but the one in the lead saw her. She lay completely still and slowed her breathing until it was no longer noticeable. The wolf grabbed her by her and ran towards the exit of the forest. She lay limp even if she was in agony, she had no remaining strength to fight them off. She noted that this was very odd however.

The wolves stopped for a moment at the rumble of the earth, but then they pressed on. She felt something was going on. Something very wrong.

******

Octavia volunteered to sprint ahead and update the guild. Leaving the twins and the now conscious Isaac to guard the ponies. The workers have all taken a beating from various ponies and allowed themselves to be led back to their boss. All of them were complaining about the crazy ponies of the guild.

Thunderlane refused to be helped and he stubbornly limped with the group, much to Isaac’s dismay. “Come on Thunderlane, I can lift you. Or at the very least support you.” He pleaded.

“Look Isaac, I’m fine. We’re all just a little beaten up.” He grumbled, he was clearly still in pain.

“We’re not!” Pound proclaimed as he held his twin. Pumpkin stared at him in disappointment. Thunderlane grumbled about the energetic ponies.

“I wonder… What if the spirits Octavia keep talking about are real?” Pumpkin spoke up.

“They are!” Isaac enthusiastically replied. “Sis always told me they were fairies. They guide me when I’m lost in the forest and they show me all sorts of cool things! I also feel energized when they’re around.”

Thunderlane and Pumpkin exchanged a troubled look. “So these… spirits helped you teleport?”

“Yeah! Sis disappeared so she couldn’t help me. Then they circled around me and gave me magic.” He beamed. “Well… it was a bit scary though.” Isaac nervously admitted.

Thunderlane looked again at Pumpkin and she interpreted his question. “Between Octavia and Isaac there’s no way he could teleport that many ponies. With Knives however the magical loop could handle the jump, but the amount of strain…” She explained.

Pound was asking questions non-stop about the forest. Thunderlane looked scared. “How powerful he is?”

“Almost as powerful as Rarity or Lyra.” She walked up the limping Pegasus and whispered. “His primary magic is healing however and he doesn’t have any offensive spells.” Thunderlane shook his head.

“And you?”

“I’m not that powerful… It’s just me and Pound can perform magical empowerment loop, ours is more powerful because we’re twins. My primary magic is fire based so together my spells can be devastating.” This sank in and Thunderlane was sweating nervously.

A horrifying idea occurred to him. “What if Twilight and Dusk teamed up for spells?” He then thought about it. “Dusk is capable of extremely long ranged teleports. Twilight soaks spells up like a sponge and is probably the most powerful unicorn in our guild.”

She thought about it for a bit. “Dusk has some really powerful spells, but from what you tell me they’re on the same level. But it wouldn’t work.”

“Good.” He replied in relief. “But why?”

“They’re not synced. They’re two very different ponies. MEL can only work if the ponies are united. In Vinyl’s and Dusk’s case it caused her harm and she lost control of her magic.”

Then Isaac began to scream. He was covering his ears and thrashing on the ground, tears streamed down his face. Everyone else felt that something terrible had just happened. Pound and Pumpkin rushed to his side. Thunderlane looked at the forest and saw the vibrant blue was slowly turning dark. Isaac was incoherent, foreign sounds came from his mouth. He eventually collapsed and fell unconscious.

The workers watched the trashing young pony, only to be horrified by the sudden change in the forest.

******

Aga was up and about finally. He scampered around looking for Rusty and the Princess. She was nowhere to be found but he eventually came across the brown stallion. His metal jaw was shattered and he was leaning against a tree. Inches away from him was a bloody sack.

He glanced at Aga then cast his gaze upwards. Aga slowly walked to him. “Rusty… Have you seen Our Lady?” He hesitantly asked. Rusty slowly looked at him and shook his head. Aga closed his fist and opened it. He then pointed to the sack. “And that?”

“Ahiha hea.” He spoke, then made an angry gurgling sound.

Aga turned this in his head for a bit before deducing that he meant ‘Alistar’s Head’. Aga paled and took a few steps back. They both knew about the protocol from The Testament of Eternity. Stronger warriors made stronger undead, as long most of the body was intact he could be brought back.

Despite the sickening feeling both were loyal to a fault. If it was possible they would retrieve his body too. But Mist came first. They only hoped that Ghost was successful. They needed him to teleport them all out.

The majority of Aga’s people worshipped nature and other concepts. The civilized cities were the colonized ones. Long ago forsake those beliefs. But now he felt dread in what they came here to do.

Then they watched the forest become twisted and dark. They felt no triumph or joy at the sign of their completed task. Rusty cradled his head and despaired. Aga lifted his hat and held it to his chest. They both had the same thought.

‘What did I do?’

******

At the forest’s Heart everything began and died with it. The yellow cat lay in the once beautiful spring. The cat got up working out the kinks in her body. Cracked her neck, stretched the arms and opened and closed its eyes. “This feels weird.” Ghost commented in a whiny voice. ”Is that my voice? Is that my voice!?” Ghost coughed and went through vocal exercises. His host had quite a nice voice he thought.

He opened her eyes, once like emeralds was now dulled rubies. He looked over his current body. The hind paws up to the knees were a light brown, the chest was floofy and of the same color. Around the eyes looked like the body have natural half mask. The tail idly swished, brown tipped.

He tried not to think about his ‘family gems’, that’s how he always handled it when he had a female host. But this body was closer to his human body from before.

His second thought was not about the grave crime he committed. Not of his fears. Not of his comrades. Nor of the power at his claws. He slowly raised claws and held the chest. Giving an experimental squeeze he had a question. “Boobies or floofly? I can’t tell... oh wait lot of boobies still.”

He had no idea everyone else was panicking right now.

Stepping outside he saw how much the forest had changed. He rubbed his paws trying to get a feel for this body’s magic. He had to familiarize himself with it, for his own abilities could not be used while in a host. “Earth…” He muttered.

He threw his paws out and released the raw magic. The ground beneath him quaked and cracked and the tremors could be felt from White Tail Village all the way to Canterlot. “Opps. Kekekeke! All this power… it would be a shame to give it up.” He crossed his arms and sighed. “Can’t do anything about it though, I need to get them out of here.”

******

Fluttershy flew Dusk over the forest. They both stared in shock as the soothing colors of the forest turned black. In fact, Dusk lost his grip and Fluttershy had to dive down and catch him. His eyes were fixated on the forest and his head and ears were ringing. He trembled while hysterically shouting. “GET OUT OF MY HEAD! GET OUT OF MY HEAD” Fluttershy lowered and dropped Dusk.

Dusk was still shouting the same words and not the obscenities others would expect. The tree raked his body as he tumbled down. Fluttershy landed before Dusk hit the ground, he was covering his bleeding ears. She was going to leave him behind but he got up and shook his head.

Dusk dug through his packs frantically and pulled out a health potion. He fumbled with the bottle for a bit before pulling off the cork with his teeth. He gulped the contents and threw the bottle with a growl. He held his head until the ringing in his ears subsided. Fluttershy stared at the stallion in confusion and irritation.

“I’m fine now.” He growled out. “What was that?” He asked himself in a quieter voice. Then the ground shook hard enough to make the ground shake. Dusk and Fluttershy were tossed lightly at each thump. “Okay what the fuck was that?” He nervously asked. Fluttershy gripped the sword in anticipation, knowing that this was a much larger foe.

Fluttershy had her eyes peeled to the sky as Dusk looked around wildly. He managed to make out a familiar sound of a certain golem. Daisy was going full speed while carefully carrying three unconscious deer and Knives. Dusk’s eyes slowly followed them and Fluttershy mere gave them a glance.

Dusk stared at the huge figure being slowly built up of stone, mud and the black trees. The massive figure towered few times over the forest and was resembled a giant reptile of some sort. Dark purple crystal ran on its back and glowed with a sickly glow. It then let out a deafening roar. Dusk would usually make some sort of joke involving a Japanese monster but he was too busy gaping at the sight.

Fluttershy dropped the sword and gave an unsettling giggle. Which then devolved into a mad cackle. Dusk back away slowly, decidedly more scared of the mare beside him that the giant monster. “We need to kill whoever is controlling that thing.” Dusk spoke up.

“Hmph. Speak for yourself, this is a REAL challenge.” She sneered back.

“Just go for the head. You’d regret it otherwise.” Dusk scowled as he lit up his horn. “I’ll get us nearer.” When Fluttershy picked up the sword and nodded, they teleported closer to the construct. Dusk hissed as his horn sparked. He grumbled as he pulled out a pair of binoculars.

He could see the magic of the beast, mostly in its back but the tightest concentration was in its mouth. He could see something yellow was in the mouth and all energy flowed from that point. He blinked. “Actually the throat is the weak point. “ He deduced.

She nodded before taking off. Dusk thought for a while how he would distract it. Grinning he summoned twenty flare guns. He galloped towards a clearing and bombarded it with flares, screaming at the top of his lungs all the while. The construct looked at it curiously and Dusk shouted. “SHINZO SASAGIO!” He yelled and he thumped his chest in a salute.

Awkward silence reined for a while until Dusk decided to rain flares upon the thing again while screaming and running around in circles. The construct just stood still as the one in control wondering what the hell he was on about.

Ghost stood in the mouth of his construct wondering what he was shouting about. The flares didn’t do much than annoy him, so he wondered what was this stallion was on about. His eyes widened in realization, he was a distraction. Ghost sank into the construct just as Fluttershy slashed the entire head off.

With the butter Pegasus in view Ghost sent vines at her, trying to ensnare her. Fluttershy darted around narrowly avoiding the vines, she glanced around trying to find who was controlling the thing. Getting impatient she spun and danced around on of the construct’s arms, hacking it into dozens of pieces.

Ghost growled in pain at the feedback. He decided he needed backup. Sinking into his host’s mind to find any spells to help him. Eventually he managed to track down his comrades and used earth and vines to drag them to his location. He gritted his teeth as the remaining limbs of his construct was cut off. “C’mon… I need more time.”

He dug through the construct and into the ground, setting the stored magic in it to explode. The massive explosion rocked the whole forest. Fluttershy managed to back away and ride the shockwave to escape the blast. Dusk managed to shield himself from the worst of the blast, but the feedback proved too much for his cracked horn and he was swept away.

The dust eventually settled and revealed a massive crater and the vanished swath of trees. Ghost crawled his way out of the ground and gaped at the destruction he caused. Standing up he flexed his paws and whistled appreciatively. “Wow. Someone had to notice that.”

“Indeed.” Mist growled out as she stepped into the crater. Ghost slowly turned around and was sweating bullets. Mist’s attire was torn and she had a furious expression on her face. The fact that steam literally emanated from her body only scared Ghost any more.

“They’ll be here shortly My Lady.” Ghost kneeled. He once more reached out using the vines and retired their comrades. First came Flash Sentry’s corpse followed by the screaming pair of Rusty and Aga. Aga was blubbering in his native language and Rusty was unintelligible. Both stopped screaming as they were lightly placed on the ground. Aga collapsed and Rusty was breathing heavily.

Ghost curiously peeked inside the sack. “Oh, it’s big purple!” He smiled and dopped it with a wet plop. “Where’s the rest of him?” He asked.

“I’ll have you retrieve him later. For now we need to get out of here.” She commanded. “Before-“ She was cut off by Fluttershy’s war cry and Rusty leapt into the slash meant for her. Ghost summoned dozens of vine that pulled her into the earth.

“That happened.” He smugly spoke.

Dusk lay on the ground, in pain and probably with more internal injuries than he preferred. He blinked away the tears and summoned a sniper rifle and took aim at Mist. His magical grip wavered so instead he braced the gun on his shoulder. Lying prone he took a few calming breaths, pushing the pain aside. “I’m taking you all with me.” He whispered.

As he took the shot he coughed up blood, the shot meant for her head hit her in the shoulder. He let out obscenities as he fumbled with the gun, the next shot went wide. Ghost grinned, looking right at him. His blood turned to his ice and he rested his head on the ground.

Ghost exited the body he was inhabiting as the Minotaur’s body was deposited near the group. Dusk couldn’t hear it but Ghost was laughing, they then disappeared in a beam of purple light. Dusk was going to reach into his bag s for another potion but he released he was out. Summoning his strength and will he dragged himself over to where Fluttershy was buried. He pushed aside his raging thoughts and tried to dig out the Pegasus.

“I can do this at least…” He croaked, only now he realized he was insanely lucky. And with that he knew his luck had run out.

******

Isaac groaned as he came to his senses. It took him a few minutes to realize that he was in the infirmary. He got up to quickly and he felt his head pounding and his stomach churned. He let out the contents of his stomach into a bucket someone strategically placed there. He groaned and clutched his head.

He saw a glass of water floating in front of him, he murmured his thanks and gulped the water. He groaned again and buried his face into a pillow. “Five more minutes…” He murmured. Twilight shook her head and couldn’t help but smile. Her smile soured as she gazed upon the rest of the reckless idiots.

Dusk resembled a mummy and was miraculously still alive despite all of the internal bleeding, potion fatigue, broken bones and everything else she didn’t care to list. Miracles were the only fitting description, this stallion should have been dead ten times over. Oddly enough Trixie insisted on caring for him personally.

Thunderlane was snoring loudly as he rested on his stomach. His wings and barrel were in a cast. Twilight noted he wouldn’t be flying for a good while even with all of the treatment. She knew that Thunderlane was capable – more than she would care to admit – but it was surprising that he defeated an Ideal.

Diane was gone, Pinkie was in. Twilight with her casual disregard for certain forces managed to bring her back. She too was snoring and her poofy pink mane was flapping as she snored. Twilight wasn’t sure what Diane retreating implied.

The deer were severely weakened, being cut off from the Earth Spirits power. Fern was quietly watching everyone else, standing guard over Flora. She didn’t trust ponies after all, but she was desperate for help. Hazelnut was faring much better, having been in civilization for a good while.

“Ugh my head! Where’s the damn coffee!? Hey sparklebutt... SPARKLEBUTT!” Knives hollered. Apparently the mare was even more annoying under the effects of caffeine withdrawal than being drunk. Without liquor she was quite depressing. And she too resembled a mummy. “Raid Dusk’s bags! I need coffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..” She moaned.

Dusk got up. “Buy. Your. Own.”

“Thank goodness he’s awake.” Trixie whispered. Dusk fell down and snored.

“Thank goodness he’s asleep.” Twilight muttered, Trixie glared at her. Twilight floated over some pills and a glass of water. “Take it.” She commanded. Isaac did so and visibly relaxed after a few minutes.

Isaac took a better look at the ponies in the room. “Where’s Angel and Octavia? Or the twins? Are they-“ Twilight interrupted him by shoving a hoof into his mouth. Despite this he still tried to voice his inquiries.

“They’re all fine.” She assured him. “In fact in better shape than all of you.” Her brows furrowed as she felt her migraine coming up. Shadows danced in the corner of her eyes, for a moment she thought she saw a white archer followed by a dark cloud. As she took more painkillers then necessary she spied a crow on a window. She quickly and discreetly twisted the bird and tossed it outside. "We're all doomed however." She whispered to herself/

*******

Outside of the Guild Fluttershy was perched on the roof, she trembled as she recalled her time underground. Oddly enough she was the only one without any lasting injuries, physical that is. Hazelnut was sitting beside her in silence, she gazed sadly in the direction of the forest.

“Hey Tavi is it straight?” Pound asked, holding up Flash Sentry’s helmet above the doorway. The earth pony glared at him and turned back to anxiously wait for the Master’s return. Pound rolled his eyes and glued the helmet, he pulled out Alistar’s horns and did the same. Nopony was sure when Knives had the opportunity to grab it. She also endorsed the idea Dusk and Thunderlane killed the Ideals.

Pumpkin stepped out of the guild and was rattled by recent events. “Hey sis! They’re all pretty cool right!” Pound exclaimed.

“Huh?”

“All our other guildmates of course. So cool!” He gushed. “I mean we ARE all pretty awesome.” His laugh had a tinge of hysteria to it though, his eyes showed his worry. He was merely trying to keep his mind of recent events. Pumpkin frowned, worried about everything and most of all about her brother.

“I guess so Pound.” She halfheartedly replied. She smiled as she thought of something. “You want open the ice cream later?” Pound perked up and flew over to her. “I think we earned ourselves a break.”

“You bought some!? Nice.”

Pumpkin nodded. “And we can check if Isaac has some flour. We can make some ice cream sandwiches.” She suggested.

“Wow you’re the best sis!” Octavia couldn’t help but smile, which she wiped off her face when pound turned to her. “You can join us Tavi!” Pound offered.

Octavia looked over the twins and saw the Master approaching. “Sure, I’ll catch up. Somepony has to make the report.” Pound cheered and grabbed his twin, taking off. She shook her head in amusement at the twins. The master looked pale as he slowly walked up to Octavia. “Welcome back Master.”

He inhaled and exhaled. “…the forest. What happened to the forest?” His voice was laced with hysteria. “I’m coming back from the monthly meeting, and I feel a giant magical explosion in the distance. And the forest is a giant black splotch in the distance.” He groaned downed the contents of a flask he pulled out. “What did you idiots do?” He tiredly asked.

Hazelnut jumped down. “H-hey Master Rock, nice seeing you.” She swallowed and looked away. “I guess.” She added in a more quiet voice.

“I would say likewise. However the last time we met Twilight almost caused a disaster of dimension shattering proportions. Before that you delivered a message about the Caribou. And before THAT, it was just before The Night of Red Moon.” Hazelnut was drawing a face in the dirt. “I’m almost afraid to ask what brought you here.”

“Well you see sir…”

Hazelnut and Octavia then filled him out on the events from their perspective. From the Apple family and Celestia’s involvement. To the Earth Spirit stolen away. The forest becoming twisted and even more inhospitable. The master paled even more as they went on. He was simply nodding through all of it. By the end of it, he looked thinner. He excused himself and went to drink this all away, but he collapsed and crashed through the wall.

“Why me…” He whimpered.