The Empireo
Armor happily regained consciousness as the cold void swallowed him up. He lifted himself to his hooves, stretched enthusiastically, and yawned as he approached the large purple door in front of him. He wasn’t going to waste any time with this wretched trial. It was time to end it once and for all.
Astaroth called to him with an excited tone, “Are you truly ready for tonight’s climb? It consists of three towers and the final showdown with Thomas.”
“Bring it on! Tell that old bastard to bring his A-game!” Armor shook a confident hoof at the thought of racing Boss up one of the towers.
“I should warn you that tonight will be introducing several new traps for you to conquer. The first of which being the black-hole blocks.”
“Black-hole block? Sounds dangerous enough…”
“It sucks in anything that touches it and destroys it. Blocks, stallions, and items all get swallowed by the vortex. I would advise avoiding it. Another trap for tonight is the special mystery block. You won’t know what’s inside until you step on it, so be prepared to hightail it out of the way.” Astaroth chuckled lightheartedly.
“Got it. Touch and run.” Armor nodded hesitantly.
“The last new block to watch out for is the bomb block. Once you step on it, it starts a countdown before it blows up. It’ll kill anything and crack any block within the blast radius. Get out of the way once one starts ticking.”
“Right!” Despite the new traps, Armor still felt confident in his ability to climb the tower successfully.
“Good luck, Armor. Perhaps you can put Thomas in his place for a second time. I’ll be waiting for your wish at the top of the towers. I’ll also be waiting on the landings to ask you about your motives.”
“You better get ready to grant my wish, Astaroth! When I kick Boss’s ass, you’d better pay up!” Armor shoved the door in front of him open and stomped through with an air of confidence.
The Empireo- Floor One
Once the bright light faded, Armor found himself standing on a particularly bright tower of blocks. All around the tower, large marble walls reached upwards, glowing brighter as they neared the top of the tower. Golden light shined down from above, and thin yellow clouds seemed to shroud the outer walls. Almost as soon as he finished taking in his surroundings the tower shook violently. A row of blocks fell out from the bottom of the tower, prompting the stallion to start the climb upward.
There were no tricks for the first dozen steps. A pull here and push there was all that needed to be done on occasion. It was after that first stretch when things began to get tougher. Armor found himself faced with a wall of blocks covered with curtains.
“These are the mysteries, aren’t they?” He scanned the wall thoughtfully. It wasn’t the first time he had been faced will a wall in this fashion. The only difference was that these blocks could be anything.
After another tremble, he silenced his thoughts and began pulling the blocks out like a normal staircase. Climbing up his first step, the curtain fell from the block to reveal a single normal block. He ran across the rest of the newly-formed row in an attempt to disarm any traps. To his relief, only a few were spikes traps, which he easily avoided. The remainder was normal. He repeated this process as he built his staircase up the tall wall. A few spike traps and dark blocks were revealed, but nothing he couldn’t work with.
After finally reaching the top of the wall, he stopped to examine the heights of the tower. Another wall of mystery blocks with a few glowing blocks here and there met his vision. He assumed that those were the bombs Astaroth had mentioned, and so decided to work his steps in a fashion to avoid a majority of the blue glows.
Of course, with the sheer number of bombs, it was impossible to avoid them all. In his haste to escape the blast of one particular bomb, he had allowed a vital step in his staircase to crumble and trap him with no way to pull out any other blocks. This left him with few options to choose from.
Until he suddenly remembered the stopwatch Astaroth had given him a few nights back. He immediately reached his hoof out and willed the stopwatch to him. It appeared in a flash of blue light in his hoof, causing him to flinch in surprise. He clicked the button at the top of the watch and was sent back to the step before he had last pulled a block out of the wall. The bomb was still ticking, but hadn’t yet blown up. He pushed the button again to find himself just before pulling the bomb’s block out.
“This thing kicks ass! Thanks Astaroth!” he cheered into the void.
He pulled the block out again and hoped that the mystery blocks would change into something more useful between redoes. After activating the bomb and running to the other side to pull his first new step out, he decided to give the new block a test step. To his own shock, the block launched him almost five steps up. In a last-minute decision, he latched onto the ledge in front of him and climbed up. He stared down at the block that had shot him upward before turning his attention toward the ringing noise above him.
Three steps were left between him and the golden block. He quickly pulled blocks to form his stairs and yanked the golden rope down once more. Blocks fell beside him, and Armor hurried up to the safety of the landing.
In an instant, the yellow clouds dispersed to reveal windows in each row of the outer wall. Golden sunlight poured into the Empireo and the eerie cold faded and gave way to comforting warmth. The stallion sat down on a small pew in the middle of the landing and caught his breath.
He chuckled, “Won’t be long now, Boss. Just one more tower, then it’s you versus me!” He clapped his hooves together as he realized the end was quickly approaching.
“You’ve done decent enough, Shining Armor. But don’t expect the next two trials to be easy picking. I promise you will not make a fool of me like Vincent did! I’m not going to hold back in stopping you!” Boss’s voice echoed around him, causing him to thrash wildly in search of the source.
He groaned, “Oh yeah? Like I said, you better bring your A-game! I’m not losing tonight!”
With an air of arrogance, the stallion hopped from the pew and stomped toward the confessional. He pulled the curtain back and plopped down on the small bench. He sighed once as the curtain closed and Astaroth began to speak.
“You’ve come far, Armor. I’m glad to see you still alive, even here at the end. You should not underestimate Thomas’s desperation in stopping you from winning.” The deity’s voice had a slight tone of worry hidden deep within it. It was subtle, but Armor could still hear it.
The stallion scoffed, “You don’t have to worry about me, Astaroth. After tonight, everything will be back to normal.” He raised a reassuring hoof into the air.
“Thomas is not going to go easy on you. And unlike your previous trials, I won’t be sending you help when you’re in a pinch. You’ll be working with your own wits and resources. The stopwatch and mystic pillows are your only allies tonight.”
A faint blue glow emanated from the stallion’s chest. An image of a pillow appeared printed on his coat. Stamped inside the pillow was the number two. He chuckled, “I’ll keep that in mind. But tonight’s the end of this shit; I’ll make sure of that!”
“This is still a confessional. I have to ask you a question before I can let you move on.”
“Bring it.” Armor clapped his hooves in impatience.
“Are you truly prepared to sacrifice yourself in an attempt to revive the fallen stray stallions?” Two ropes fell beside him, one golden and the other gray.
He gripped the golden rope and yanked it fiercely. “Of course I am! The only reason I’m climbing tonight is to undo all the damage that bastard’s caused!”
Astaroth burst into laughter for a few moments before regaining his composure. “You remind me more of Vincent with every statement you make. He was a stubborn and determined sheep, just like you. He climbed the Empireo in an attempt to regain the love of his former lover, who he cheated on with Catherine. He climbed for a selfish reason, all for his own gain. You are not, are you?”
“I already told you, I’m climbing for my friends and the other innocent ponies he killed.” Armor’s face twisted in annoyance at the constant rambling.
“I wonder… Will your motives remain uncorrupted as you reach your wish? To have anything your heart could desire is a tremendous privilege. Would you really waste it on reviving the lecherous ponies who’ve been judged?”
Armor stomped a hoof on the wooden floor of the confessional. He shouted, “What the hell else would I use it on? I have everything I need! I have a beautiful lover, loyal friends, and the best damn drinking pals a stallion could ask for! What more do I need?”
“Your temper is short tonight, isn’t it? Is the pressure of the approaching showdown wearing on your nerves?” Astaroth chuckled smugly.
“Just send me up, Astaroth! I wanna get this over with so I can wake up and see everyone!” The stallion sat back against the wall as the confessional lifted into the air.
Astaroth remained silent as the booth rocketed up to the next tower and booted Armor from it.
The Empireo- Floor Two
Armor looked around the tower to note any changes between the current and prior ones. There were significantly less mystery blocks, replaced instead by blank space and eerie purple vortexes. The wary stallion assumed they were the black-hole blocks Astaroth had informed him about earlier in the nightmare. Before he could truly appreciate the power of the traps, a loud grunting noise rang out from the dark expanse below him.
“You just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? You are perhaps the most stubborn mule I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting. Second only to Vincent Brooks.” A large brown recliner chair suddenly materialized from the emptiness below, followed by a tall lean figure resembling Boss.
Except, this figure didn’t have hooves or a muzzle. Instead it had hands and feet and a comparatively flat face. The white suit it was adorned in was identical to Boss’s, with the addition of a pair of pants to match it. Brown suede shoes covered the figure’s feet, and a pair of sunglasses adorned its eyes. The head of hair was identical in color to Boss’s mane.
The stallion coughed, “What the hell are you supposed to be?!” He pointed a confused hoof at the relaxed figure as it floated up the tower to his level.
The figure boomed, “My dear sweet pony, I am a human. This is my true form, by the way. I am Thomas Mutton, the judge of men and creator of trials. Tonight, I will be throwing my ‘A-game’ at you. You shall not make a fool of me like Vincent did those several weeks ago.”
With a snap of Thomas’s fingers, a small magnum materialized in one hand and a gavel in the other. He slammed the hammer on the arm of his chair and laughed as the blocks below Armor’s current level instantly crumbled to dust. He then aimed his laser-guided gun to a block on the far edge of the row and fired, causing the block to shatter to pieces and fall into the void.
“Oh man…this isn’t good…” Armor swallowed the lump in his throat and climbed a few rows of blocks. He turned to Thomas with a wide grin.
The human had no idea what to make of the stallion’s smile. He groaned, “What the hell are you smiling about?! Have you not realized that this tower will be the end of you? After all, before the night ends, you shall be dining on my Mutton Special!” He held the magnum high in the air and twirled it around his index finger.
“You gotta get your sights locked first, you old bastard!” Armor immediately pulled a block from the wall and climbed up to the next row of blocks.
The two passed petty insults and useless jargon back and forth for several minutes as Armor climbed the tower of traps and tricks. Dodging the occasional bullet from Thomas’s gun and an overenthusiastic kick here and there, the stallion made decent progress up the tower. Climbing this tower was no different than any other. The only challenge was avoiding both the human’s attacks and the black-hole blocks. Bombs, spikes, and immovable blocks were all easily manipulated to allow for easy climbing.
Over half way up the tower, the demonic human decided to step up his pace, and increased the frequency of his attacks. Just as Armor touched one of Astaroth’s checkpoints, the angry man sent his gavel down hard on his chair. In the instant, every block above Armor’s position mutated into immovable blocks. This of course made building steps upward completely impossible.
“…and we change here…” Thomas chuckled as he lifted up to Armor’s level of the tower. “Too bad, if only you had collected that precious bell a few levels down. Perhaps you could survive this tower with its help.”
Armor immediately remembered the power to undo his moves. If it reset the position of every block, maybe it could reset the type of block as well. He had to try at any rate, and so willed the watch into his hooves and quickly pushed the button, just as Thomas pulled the trigger on his gun.
To the stallion’s relief, everything reset one move back. The checkpoint regenerated, and all the mutated blocks returned to their original types. Armor pushed his block and climbed up to the checkpoint for a second time. He immediately started building his stairs up.
Thomas was thrown completely off guard. He felt slightly nauseous at being cast back in time instantaneously like that. He groaned, “What kind of magic was that, you mule?! I thought unicorn magic was nullified in this dimension!”
As he continued to build his stairs, Armor snorted, “Your good buddy Astaroth gave me that power. Pretty nifty, ain’t it?” This statement cast the pursuer into enough thought to allow the stallion to finish his new stairs.
The human jerked back to the current situation as Armor approached the golden block at the top of the tower. For a single instant, he felt a deep pit fall out of his gut, and immediately began cursing himself for his ignorant carelessness. In one last ditch effort, the judge sent a wild kick right for Armor’s body. The result of this offense was just a few shattered blocks, while the pestering stallion bounced joyfully on top of the highest point in the tower.
“Looks like you lose this round, Thomas!” Armor beamed a toothy smile at his opponent as he yanked the rope with all his might. As the stairs to the next landing fell, an invisible force wrapped around the human and sent him plummeting into the dark expanse.
His voice lingered behind as he screamed, “Damn you, you rotten mule! This isn’t over yet!”
Armor chuckled to himself as he traversed the particularly small landing and plopped down on a metal chair at the center. The confessional seemingly called for him to enter, but he needed to regain his strength before trying the final trial.
“You haven’t won, you smug dumbass! I will not be made a fool of! You will not see the light of the real world again!”
Armor dismissed this outburst as a fit of pitiful jealousy. Suddenly, all around him, the windows of the outer walls shattered and began to break away. Before long, the walls were non-existent, and beautiful golden light engulfed the tower. The warmth of the pseudo-sun in the distance energized the confident stallion, and he trotted off into the welcoming booth.
He sat down and sighed, “It’s getting pretty warm out there. I think I’m actually breaking a sweat.” He smiled smugly at the murky glass that represented Astaroth.
The deity chimed in, “It truly is. This is the closest any living mortal can get to heaven, you know. This final tower is the end of the road, both for you and me. This is the final confrontation, Shining Armor. After this, your nightmares end, whether for better or worse. Please don’t disappoint me. I’m looking forward to a spectacular show.”
The stallion rolled his eyes and chuckled, “I’ll see what I can do. I’m not losing, no matter what. Ask me the last question and let me kick his ass.” He readied his hoof for the ropes that were bound to fall in front of him.
“Very well then. Would you enjoy living your life in peace and quiet? Yes or no.” The ropes fell, and the stallion’s hoof moved on its own.
He yanked the golden rope without hesitation. “After all this shit, I’d love nothing more…” he sighed.
“This is the end, Shining Armor. Once you climb this tower, you will become one of the Men of Legend. You’ll be joining the ranks of Vincent Brooks and Thomas Mutton. I’m proud to say I’ve known you had potential all along. My judgment is still as accurate as ever, it seems.”
With those final words, the booth launched up toward the next tower faster than it had ever before. With what he considered Astaroth’s vote of confidence, Armor knew that he wouldn’t lose this battle. No matter the traps and tricks, he wouldn’t let Thomas win.
The Empireo- Final Floor
The golden light seemed to embrace him as he stepped gently out of the confessional. He breathed in the suddenly-fresh air as he readied himself for the climb up this tower. He scanned the blocks for tricks and traps, but all he found were regular white blocks spanning the entire tower. He raised a confused eyebrow as he wondered why there were no special blocks to hinder his progress as there were in the last tower.
At the very top of the tower, a large bell swayed gently back and forth. A calm silver light radiated around it. Just below it, the top of a massive marble door could be seen waiting for the next creature that would open it. Armor nodded happily as he realized he would be that next creature.
A dismayed roar shook the tower horribly as its source burst into existence just beside it. Thomas sat in his chair with an angry glare plastered on his face. He grunted, “I’m giving you this one final chance to surrender, Shining Armor! Give up now and I will send you back to your world for good.”
The stallion shook his head disappointedly. He snickered, “You just don’t learn, do you Mutton? I’m not losing your game. Why the hell would I quit after coming this far? Even your master has faith that I’ll beat you. Face it, you’re about to fail again, just like you did with Vincent. You’re afraid of that, aren’t you?” The stallion tapped his hoof on the ground several times in arrogant confidence.
The angry human slammed his fist onto his chair and groaned, “You’ve been warned, mule! I’m not playing games anymore! There is no holding back for me any longer!”
Thomas lifted both hands high into the air and shook his sunglasses off of his face. His crimson eyes seemed to radiate with evil force, and his muscles began to convulse wildly. He let out a throat-wrenching scream as darkness below reached up and swallowed him whole. For a few moments, Armor was left wondering if Astaroth had put the old man out of his misery.
Before long, a hideous figure burst from the shadows of the expanse. It slightly resembled a head, but it was made up of what appeared to be the dismembered and mutilated corpses of ponies. It had two large crimson eyes, and a functional mouth. It spoke with the bartender’s voice.
“You’ve been a thorn in my side since day one, Shining Armor! But now I’m angry! Prepare yourself for my wrath, mule boy!” A beam of energy poured from one of his eyes and obliterated all of the blocks at the bottom of the tower.
Armor’s eyes widened at the sight of the blast. “Oh shit!” he screamed as he hastily began crafting his stairs up.
The demon with crimson eyes cried out, “My name is Dumuzid the Shepherd, and I shall be your end!”
Armor pulled out all of his wits and techniques to help climb the tower as fast as he possibly could. Dumuzid was hot on his tail the entire time, and the demon judge had many horrendous tricks up his sleeves.
At one point, Armor had just finished building an entire staircase and began his ascent. The demon called out some foreign words before the entirety of the blocks turned into spike traps. Although they were easily avoided, it was unnerving to one minute be standing on a normal block, only to find spikes shooting out the next second. If they could become spike blocks, what else could that strange power do to them?
Dumuzid continued shouting foreign phrases as his eyes shined in different shades and colors. Just about every time Armor would have a puzzle figured out, the demon would make some alteration that upped the risk factor by tenfold. This carried on for several minutes, until the stallion reached a check point roughly half way up the tower.
The shepherd screamed in a deep demonic voice, “Divine punishment, rain down!”
Blocks all around Armor began to flash a bright red color. A large flaming boulder crashed down on the block directly beside the stallion, sending him into a slight state of panic. Each red block was hit in turn by a meteor similar to the first. It took everything he had to not hastily rush into building his new staircases.
To his irritation, he found that every block hit by the meteors became cracked, with very limited uses. This problem was remedied very easily by simply pulling out new blocks on top of the cracked ones, but that mystic power was definitely not safe for continued use.
The demon noticed Armor’s distraught expression and chuckled, “Relax. You’re only going to die!” With that, he released a beam of concentrated energy at the bottom of the tower, disintegrating it very hastily. Armor had limited time to build up before the bottom would fall out, adding the pressures of time limits to his list of worries.
Through it all, he managed to keep his composure. The demon continued his onslaught of attacks, along with several cheap tricks to try and distract the stallion. They were to no avail, as Armor reached a second checkpoint almost all the way at the top of the tower. All that stood between him and the final door was a few steps up and several more onslaughts of Dumuzid’s attacks.
Dumuzid was pissed as he realized how close the end was. He shrieked, “But you’re just a mortal! How can you be winning?!” In obvious desperation, the demon let out everything in his arsenal at the almost-victorious pony.
Lasers charged into the different rows of blocks, destroying random steps as a result. Meteors fell from the heavens to crack the blocks and render them useless. A cloud of purple smoke wrapped around the entirety of the tower around Armor, rendering him unable to see anything outside of it. Blind to both the attacks coming at him and the blocks that awaited him, Armor simply trusted his instincts and continued to climb ever upwards.
Loud roars from Dumuzid continued to unnerve him, but he didn’t hesitate to pull blocks from the walls and reach ever upward toward the landing. Despite the demon shepherd’s massive arsenal of deadly assaults, everything was wasted on the determined stallion. He continued to climb, undaunted by the uncertainty that clouded his every move.
Finally, he reached the top. He scrambled up onto the landing and darted toward to door as one final meteor exploded behind him and smashed the only step connecting the landing to the tower. Dumuzid made one last attempt at seizing victory as the stallion approached the door’s handle.
“This can’t be!” the monster shouted as it unleashed one final laser at the pony.
Armor quickly rolled to the side of the door to avoid the useless attack. He gasped, “This is the end, Mutton. You lose…” The stallion yanked the massive door open with all his might, the purifying white light engulfing the entire landing.
Dumuzid let out one final cry of pain before the light swallowed even the sound around them. “I…I can’t believe it!” No sight or sound was experienced as the blinding white light engulfed the two creatures.
After a minute of euphoric energy, Armor lost his balance and fell on the ground in exhaustion. Once the light finally faded, he found the battered body of a white stallion on the ground a few feet away. The stallion’s suit was ripped to shreds and his shades were cracked. He had blood running from his nose and cuts covering his body.
Armor chuckled, “This was…fun, Boss.”
The older stallion groaned, “You’ve won, Armor. You bested me in my own game…”
The guard captain sighed, “So, I get my wish, right?”
Boss nodded and coughed, “Naturally. Simply think hard about your true wish, and enter the door. Astaroth and I shall cover the rest…” The resentment was overflowing in his hoarse voice.
Armor crawled to his hooves and stumbled toward the older pony. He placed a sore hoof on the bartender’s shoulder and laughed, “How about we catch a drink tomorrow at the bar?”
The beaten man sent an evil glare at the cocky victor. He snarled, “Get the hell out of here, you mule.”
“I’m serious. Let’s put all this behind us with a couple of mugs of whisky. No sense in holding grudges, right?” The stallion’s face radiated with genuine forgiveness.
Boss frowned in confusion. “You would truly forgive me so quickly?”
“Of course. Besides, who else knows how to mix cocktails like you?”
“Your naivety knows no bounds, Mr. Armor. Perhaps I can arrange something of the sort with Astaroth.”
“Good. We’ll talk more then.”
The younger stallion limped painfully into the bright light of the doorway. Its warmth embraced him, and in an instant, he was gone, leaving the defeated god limp on the floor of the landing.
“Congratulations, you lost! But look on the bright side, Dumuzid. At least now you can go back to being a human…” Astaroth chuckled smugly.
“Of course. But, you don’t mind allowing me one final day as a pony, do you? I have to tie up some loose ends…” The stallion frowned and cradled his head in his hooves.
“Certainly. But first we must grant Shining Armor’s wish.”
“What did he wish for, anyway?”
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” –Ambrose Redmoon
Stats
Page generated in 0.021 seconds
Total duration
671 users online
825,677 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Oh man, such a horrendous delay! I'm terribly sorry about that!
Between responsibility and laziness, I haven't been arsed to work on anything! But now that my 'research' is completed, I have plenty of time to work on stories!
Enjoy the next-to-last chapter of "Catherine: Love is Over!"
Oh nice, a "Catherine" story with Shining Armor as the lead. I find it quite apporiate due to 'future' circumstances (at the wedding, lol). I plan to give this a read later, I love the game and find this quite interesting.
Aha, yes! Shining is victorious!
It's nice that he actually ended up forgiving Boss - seems like everything's gonna be okay after all!
Amazing chapter, sure I saw a few mistakes that involve Armor relating to a human, but I don't care. This story is awesome.
...I still never played the game.
1082227 Wait, you haven't played the game?
What do you mean Armor related to a human at some points? Can you give me an example?
1082418 I haven't played the game, but I know the storyline and seen a lot of gameplay so I know what your talking about.
And for an example: Armor immediately remembered the power to undo his moves. If it reset the position of every block, maybe it could reset the type of block as well. He had to try at any rate, and so willed the watch into his hands and quickly pushed to button, just as Thomas pulled the trigger on his gun.
1082576 By God, I can't believe I missed that!
for a second, i was worried, but then i realized that diamond tiara is a filly not a stallion. i know its clinging at straws but a guy can hope right?
a fantastic chapter! as always, and i wait for the next chapter and the many endings that you promised us!
1083966 Better go back and read some comments, my bros. I decided to stick with one ending (or did I?) that matches the events in the story.
And boy, are you ever clinging to straws at this point.
1085443 like i said, i can hope bro!