105 - He Who Laughs Last
Sonata didn’t wait to watch Cloudbank rush towards the big squid-thingy at the end of the pier. Instead, she turned towards Cozy. “You, like, look after Drafty!” she yelled, straining to make herself heard over the roar of the wind. “I’ll take care of Lex!” Cozy nodded, gathering Drafty’s limp form in her hooves as Sonata turned back to her boyfriend.
She had just started to pick him up, intending to drag him back to the wharf, when his whisper reached her ears, guided by magic. “Don’t!”
Blinking, it took Sonata a moment to realize that he was telling her not to move him. “Lex, we’ve totes gotta get outta here! Cloudbank’s already gone to kill that thing, so we should go before the storm makes the pier collapse!” As if hearing her words, the wood beneath their hooves gave a low groan, and dipped even further to the right, its side now dangerously close to the water.
The vanguard ponies fighting at the edge gave a collective cry of fright as they struggled to maintain their balance. Looking over at them, Sonata saw one flail his hooves, dropping his short sword as he desperately tried not to fall into the monster-filled water below. But it was futile, and a moment later he pitched forward…and then was knocked back onto the pier, courtesy of Aria having whacked him to safety with her thick tail. Doing so left her open, however, and instantly a sahuagin lunged out of the water, stabbing forward with a spear that pierced her lower body and caused her to emit a silent scream of pain. An instant later, a manta ray-looking thing crested the water and waved its tail, causing a gout of acid to appear from nowhere and land across Aria’s chest, causing her to thrash in agony.
“Aria!” Sonata felt her heart lurch, her animosity towards her sister momentarily drowned beneath a flood of worry. That worry increased a moment later as another monster – this one looking like a large bipedal lobster with tentacles coming out of its mouth – lunged up towards the injured Siren, as though sensing weakened prey. Aria wasn’t able to retreat in time, a terrified expression on her face as a thick claw closed around her neck. Her hooves scrambled uselessly on the wood under her as she struggled to escape, writhing in panic but unable to free herself as the massive appendage began to close, cutting off her air. In another moment, Sonata knew, her sister’s head would follow.
But that moment was all Sonata needed to chant a spell. A moment later, the lobster-man paused, struggling to process the waves of magically-induced grief that Sonata had filled its mind with. In its sadness, its grip relaxed enough for Aria to wrench her neck free, gasping for air as she hurriedly slipped away from the thing.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Sonata turned back to Lex. “We have to get back on land!”
“No!” he insisted. “If we…retreat now…we all…die.”
“Why?!”
“Have to…be this close…to keep that…thing still.”
Sonata had no response to that, biting her lip for a moment before nodding, a look of determination crossing her features. “Okay!”
“You should g-”
“Don’t you even think about telling me to-, oh! That reminds me!” Sonata paused, then looked over at Cozy. “You should take Drafty and totes get back to solid ground!”
“But what about you?!” Even as the words left her mouth, Cozy was sure she already knew the answer.
Her suspicion was proven right a moment later as Sonata shook her head. “I’m staying with Lex!”
Cozy couldn’t help the expression that crossed her face. Normally seeing such a show of devotion would have warmed her heart, but with how sure she was that Lex didn’t feel the same way for her, the idea of her risking her life for a one-sided love was too tragic for words. “Sonata…”
Mistaking her expression for concern, Sonata gave her a grin. “Don’t worry! We’ll be fine! You just make sure that Drafty pulls through!” For a moment, it looked like Cozy was going to argue, before she gave a reluctant nod, picking up Drafty and making her way back to the wharf. For her part, Sonata held Lex close and looked in the other direction.
It was all up to Cloudbank now.
Tlerekithres strained and struggled as the scythe-wielding pony ran towards him. He could feel the bonds holding him – still as insubstantial as they were unbreakable – wavering, only to restore themselves a moment later. It was a process that had repeated itself more than once over the last few seconds, and that was enough to inform him as to what had happened.
His wish-magic had failed, but only partially. Whatever power that pony was using was still capable of binding him, but now it was struggling to do so. He could almost see the wizard having to concentrate to maintain his hold on him. All that needed to happen was for something to break his concentration, and he’d be free! But although his slaves were fighting to board the pier, and some were even trying to further destabilize its foundations, none of them had reached the wizard yet.
Which meant that Tlerekithres was on his own, even as the scythe-wielding pony flung herself at him.
Tlerekithres had moved closer to the water’s edge when the ponies had launched their attack, the better to observe what he’d thought of as an amusing show. Even when he’d realized that they possessed enough power to constitute a threat, he had eschewed retreating in favor of activating his defenses; the latter was simply prudent, whereas the former would not only have been an affront to his pride, but could have undercut the atmosphere of overwhelming power that he used to keep his slaves in line. The result of that decision was that he was adjacent to the pier jutting out into the harber…and so within range of the scythe-wielding pony charging towards him.
But Tlerekithres wasn’t helpless.
Even before she’d started her mad rush towards him, he had been concentrating on his weather-manipulation magic. He’d left the storm he’d conjured at only moderate power, since he didn’t want the artifact-weapon that pony was wielding to be flung away by the wind. But now that was a far more preferable outcome than being sliced to shreds, and so he focused fiercely on increasing the movement of the air. Whether it kept her from him or blew that wizard away, either result would put an end to the immediate threat! Hopefully the defenses he’d raised should be enough to hold-
But an instant later his focus was disrupted as he felt the blade of the scythe cut into him, and the pain was sharp enough that he momentarily lost his focus. That shouldn’t have happened! Between his stone-skin and visual-displacement spells, she shouldn’t have been able to strike him so easily! But another bolt of agony made it clear just how meaningless those defenses were.
With renewed urgency, Tlerekithres concentrated with all of his might on the weather…
Cloudbank was only barely aware of what was going on around her.
She hadn’t noticed the pier tilting underneath her hooves, correcting her balance unconsciously. Nor did she notice the wind, previously so strong, suddenly die down as she tore into the thing right in front of her. She didn’t even register Severance’s voice in her mind, trying to tell her to place her strikes with precision rather than lashing out blindly, nor her own voice raised in a scream that was as agonized as it was enraged.
Instead, all she could think about was what had happened less than a minute ago, when she had almost killed the mare she loved. Everything about that moment, the feel of Severance sinking smoothly through Drafty’s body, the muted sound of her hitting the ground, the sight of her pinned pinned to the pier by the blade…all of it replayed itself in Cloudbank’s mind over and over, unrelenting. Again and again she struck out, trying to physically attack the memory of what she’d just done, even as she sliced into the kraken’s body with every blow.
She knew what Sonata had said, knew that the thing in front of her was the architect of what had happened, but at that moment Cloudbank was completely at the mercy of the pain in her heart.
Her lack of awareness was such that, when the wind suddenly picked back up – stronger than before – she instinctively opened her wings to catch it, a reflex action born from years of flying, where one of the first rules of staying aloft was to ride the wind rather than try to fight against it. Instantly, she was flung up and away, soaring over the bay and away from her target. Only then did she realize what she’d done…but even as that thought crossed her mind, a second realization made itself known: The breeze she was caught in had begun to rotate.
An instant later, a tornado touched down in the bay, dragging her into it.
As the pony that had attacked him was swept away, along with the ponies’ last hopes for defeating him, Tlerekithres laughed.
Behind him, he could feel the incredible wind, and knew that it had reached its maximum destructive potential. Mentally, he directed the tornado towards himself, knowing that he was large enough that it wouldn’t be able to displace him. The ponies, and their city, would not be so fortunate once it continued past him. It was a shame that he’d probably lose most of his slaves as well, but that was an acceptable loss. He’d find new ones to replace them, ones that would locate wherever that artifact-weapon ended up.
As he felt the tornado approach and saw the water around him begin to surge in violent waves, Tlerekithres mentally grinned. Those little herd animals had proven to be a force to be reckoned with, but in the end they were no match for the power he was able to wield.
He had won.
As water surged up over the pier, Lex forced himself to keep concentrating. Even as the wave broke over them, and he felt Sonata throw himself on top of him to anchor them, he kept all of his thoughts on maintaining his hold on the kraken. Dimly he registered screams from around them, screams that were cut off as the wave passed over them, causing the vanguard ponies – and Aria – to be instantly washed away, but he refused to lessen his focus even for an instant.
“Lex!” Sonata’s beautiful voice was filled with terror. “We have to go!”
“No!”
“We have to! We-”
“NO!”
“But-”
Lex was too distracted to think about what he was saying, and his reply came without conscious thought. “I will never…give up…on my friends!”
Sonata stopped instantly, staring at him in open-mouthed shock. She had never, in all the time that she’d known him, heard him call someone else a friend. That he had spoke volumes about what this place, these ponies, and everything he was fighting for meant to him. In that moment Sonata realized that he’d rather die than lose that. Despite the tornado that was barreling towards them, she couldn’t help but smile, holding him close. “Okay,” she replied softly, her fear completely gone.
If he had that much faith in everyone here, then she would have faith in him.
Cloudbank didn’t panic as the tornado tossed her about. After all, being inside of one wasn’t anything she hadn’t experienced before; if anything, it felt nostalgic.
Before Vanhoover had gone to Tartarus, Cloudbank had been a cloud architect, which made studying wind forces and aerodynamics second nature to her. She had also been a member of the reserves for the town’s weather patrol ponies, and two years ago had been declared third-most valuable flyer when it had been Vanhoover’s turn to supply Cloudsdale with rainwater. Being inside a tornado was no problem.
What was a problem was what Severance was telling her: that Lex was about to lose his hold over that monster. If that happened, then it would be able to strike back the next time she attacked it, and she had no doubt that anything that could rip a ship in half could easily kill her in a single blow. Which meant that she had to finish it off before Lex’s perseverance ran out. The good news was that she’d apparently get her chance; the tornado was moving directly towards it! But as she started to plan for what she knew was going to be her last attack, Cloudbank realized that – on a creature that was larger than the warehouse they’d been staying in – she had no idea where to hit it to strike a fatal blow!
“Severance!” she yelled, not sure if she needed to speak up for the weapon to hear her. “Where’s that thing’s weak spot?” But the only response she got was silence. “Severance!” It was no good. For whatever reason it wasn’t going to help her with this, and Cloudbank could feel her blood boiling. This thing had been content to let her use it to hurt Drafty, but it wouldn’t help her now?! “Fine! I don’t need your help! I’ll do it myself!”
And then there was no more time, as the tornado passed over the kraken.
Taking advantage of the moment when the monster was in the eye of the storm, the one place where there was no wind to throw her off-course, Cloudbank folded her wings tight against her body and surged straight downward. This will work! she assured herself. Everypony’s counting on me! THIS HAS TO WORK! She was four seconds away from the top of the creature’s body…but where to aim?!
Three seconds…
Two…
One…
Directly above Cloudbank’s position, the thick clouds blotting out the sky shifted, and for just a moment the crescent moon was visible. Its light lanced downward, and for an instant the radiance shown on a particular spot on the kraken’s head, slightly above the thing’s eyes. To Cloudbank, it looked like nothing so much as a beacon shaped like a sickle.
…or a scythe.
Not having time to question what was going on, Cloudbank instead reacted on instinct, and swung Severance directly at that spot.
The tornado passed over the kraken, its edge touching the pier, and the entire structure shook. Lex tried to keep his hold over the creature for just a moment longer, struggled to maintain his concentration. But as the entire pier began to break apart, he felt the Night Mare’s power unravel, and he had just enough time to realize what that meant as he and Sonata hit the water. Instantly, a horde of undersea monsters rushed to greet them. Sahuagin, aboleths, giant lobster-scorpions, and more surged towards the two of them, brandishing teeth and claws and tentacles and worse.
And then they were gone.
For a moment, Lex remained tense, floating on the surface of the water limply as he continued to half-expect to be torn to shreds at any moment. But then he heard the wind die down as the tornado dissipated, and he knew what it meant. Unable to suppress a laugh of relief, he sent a mental command to the black crystal weapons and armor that he’d forged, letting them dissipate into nothing so that the vanguard ponies that had fallen into the water a few seconds previous wouldn’t be weighed down by them. The ponies on land would be left defenseless, but that wouldn’t matter now.
The kraken was dead. More than that, with its death the legion of monsters that it commanded were gone as well. Without their anchor to this plane, they had all been sent back where they’d come from.
The elemental bleed had been closed.
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Now all they have to worry about is the legion of ghouls and the traitorous guard captain.
8170797
and wether or not Aria is gone with them (seeing she came with them in the first place).
So.... Cloudbank scored three critical hits then?
8170797 Yeah, but how much trouble could those be?
8170892 Actually, Aria didn't come with them. She was sent back to Equestria - which is her native plane anyway - back in chapter 66 of A Dangerous Sparkle. By contrast, the elemental bleeds didn't happen until Queen Iliana plane shifted Twilight and company back to Equestria in chapter 70.
8170904 No, her hits were the ordinary kind. Rather, that last blow was a coup de grace. Remember how she simply tucked her wings and let herself fall there at the end? That means that she didn't take a move action, and so could devote her full-round action to making a coup de grace attempt.
8171067 Princess Cadance refuses to Raise the savior of Vanhoover! "There's just no love in him. He's beyond Lashtada's domain."
8171078 The real question is whether or not Cadance can use magic of that level to begin with.
Now to hope Clouddancer was left behind and not dragged along. If Severance remained and kept her anchored or such. Thats a long way to go with such a drained crew, and there would be more dead and maybe even a few injured in the bulk remains of the ship?
8171202 There wasn't anypony left in the ship when Tlerekithres destroyed it. They'd all moved to the warehouse on Lex's orders.
So many things revealed this chapter:
Cloudbank being a weatherpony experienced with tornadoes. Tlerekithres shouldn't have underestimated Equestria and its ponies, though as you commented before, he's a bully. One that couldn't see those they bully to be weak and unable to fight back let alone win against him. That line of thinking cost him very dearly.
Severance able to project images of itself on targets, which isn't that surprising given that it could send ponies to the Everglow though this makes me wonder what the reaction will be when a party of adventurers finds the Kraken's remains. Well, provided that his former slaves didn't destroy or consume his body when they were sent back wherever they came from.
Lex's determination to protect those under his watch no matter the cost isn't something new to me but his declaration was quite an unexpected line from him, especially since it came from his heart instead. I bet he'll deny that he said it when Sonata mentions it later. Well, after he gets patched up that is, expending that much magic did a lot of damage to him. The doctors aren't going to be happy with him, that's for sure.
Though the immediate issue is to regroup and recover back at the safehouse, including how to reverse what the aboleth did.
8171322 I'd been dropping hints about Cloudbank's experience for a little while, such as how she was at the cloud depot when Vanhoover was flooded, or how her cutie mark hinted that her special talent was cloud architecture. The rest of it was new, but hopefully fit her character. As you said, Tlerekithres didn't understand the nature of ponies - particularly pegasi - with regards to the weather in Equestria, and his oversight cost him.
That targeting beacon that Cloudbank followed didn't come from Severance, though.
As for Lex, you're right to characterize what he said as coming from his heart rather than his head. The extreme pressure he was under caused him to speak unconsciously, and he let slip a glimpse of his inner feelings. Whether or not he admits it later - or even remembers it - is anypony's guess. That said, he'll probably need quite a bit of patching up after this, to be sure. He's not the only one either.
Yeah, just need to clean up the undead and kick the ass of a certain guard captain...who'll probably try to claim credit for everything. ...Assuming he actually IS who he claims to be. Given his abilities, his contact with the kraken, and his plan to turn Vanhoover into an undead breeding ground until it broke loose upon Equestria as a whole, I seriously wonder if he isn't an extra dimensional impostor.
8171949 Mysteries remain, but surely Lex and crew can handle them after everything they've been through.
...right?
8170943
Right, my bad.
Get the world from wich she was banished confused.
A few typos! Let the kraken at em!
the wizard.
that was a far more preferable?
Pincushion time! No pinning them twice before anything else.
Look, I know you came up with the name, but it was not spelled this way before, so would you kindly maintain consistency?
I believe he would find new ones to replace them.
Per Severance. You picked that intentionally, didn't you?
Not in this story.
The mages had the grand idea of working together to cast one big edit spell. It worked. With their combined power, they removed the kraken from existence, and with it the storm it had conjured, and the floodwaters started receding. The capital was safe once again.
8378779
Fixed.
Also fixed.
D'oh! Fixed now.
Aaand fixed. Whew!
No comment.
Wow what a great battle, I love how the night mare and her weapon is encouraging growth and self reliance.
9431458 Thanks! I'm really glad you liked it!
The Night Mare is a deity who demands much of her followers, but she's generous to those who can rise to the challenge.