Final Fantasy: Zack's second chance

by Freelancer

Chapter 10: Playing with Fire

Chapter 10: Playing with Fire

Pre-read by Edragon

Slowly, the SOLDIER ran his eyes around the throne room of the Canterlot Palace with his sword in hand, or technically, what was left of the room anyway. Most of the proud banners and tapestries that lined the walls had either been reduced to ashes or, as in a few cases, hung still burning, and filling the massive room with smoke.

The various colourful and historical stained glass windows had been shattered into thousands of pieces, resulting in the regal red carpet, that led up to the throne itself, being covered in tiny fragments.

Finally the two royal guards Zack had fought only a day earlier, Double Edge and Lance Point, who usually stood beside Celestia’s throne, lay unconscious in the middle of it all with their coats and manes in disarray, the rise and fall of their chests being the only indication they were still alive.

All said destruction and chaos had, apparently, been caused by a being floating before the gathered group.

For a moment Zack could do nothing but stare at the grotesque creature hovering on its tiny wings before him, his glowing blue eyes locked on its twisted and demented form, while his gloved hands gripping the metal handle of his massive Buster Sword.

Much like everypony else his jaw locked in a feral enraged snarl behind his dangling black locks. Beside him, Shining Armor and the other royal guards began to surround the thing with their weapons and magic ready, with Zack acting as their vanguard, but the creature didn’t seem phased in the slightest.

The creature was, in his opinion, best described as a hideous twisted mix of body parts from various beasts that had been stuck together to form a living being. Its scale and fur body was long and serpentine like a snake’s, its slender frame was adorned by an assortment of various mismatching limbs, and it’s grey beast-like face was splayed with eerily golden eyes and an annoying grin that could rival Soarin’s.

“Ugh, well that took you long enough,” the thing quipped deeply with an unnervingly amused smirk, mismatched forelegs folding in apparent disappointment as it hovered in place. “Hmmf, I would have expected better from somepony as pleasantly chaotic as you Zack.”

The creature’s voice burned in the hardened warrior’s ears as he heard it, causing both his hands and jaw to clench down ever harder, for much like Sephiroth’s voice this one bore an evident and obvious edge of madness.

The SOLDIER replied by training the deadly point of his sword on the creatures chest. “What the HELL are you, and where’s Princess Celestia?” he snapped, pulling his blade back in preparation for a deadly vital strike while the other guards raised their spears.

“He…” Twilight cut in as she came up beside Zack, her horn glowing in case her magic was needed. “Is called Discord.”

Discord shot her a look and once again crossed his forelegs. “Oh! How rude! I CAN introduce myself thank you very much,” he pouted for a moment in insult, the action earning an angry snort from the lavender unicorn.

His maniacal grin returned though as he shifted its gaze from the lavender mare to the SOLDIER, pale golden eyes narrowing and meeting Zack’s own glowing blue ones. “But yes, I’m Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony… perhaps you’ve heard of me, and my love of turning all things Equestrian upside down?”

Zack gritted his teeth and tried to contain his now building rage, and from the corner of his vision saw elements of harmony apparently trying to do the same. He’d heard mention or two on the subject of Discord’s recent short, but chaotic, return from being a lawn ornament from Spitfire, and currently would have enjoyed nothing more than impaling the spirit on his blade.

“Yeah, I’ve heard of you alright… and what you’ve done. Now I’ll ask you once more before I cleave you in two, where’s Princess Celestia?”

“Oh psh, you’re no fun just like these ponies, Zack… but if you really must know, both she and Luna are just… floating around here it seems,” He replied with a smirk, pointing an eagle-like talon towards the roof. “Ha! See what I did there?”

The SOLDIER took a single look towards the vaulted marble ceiling, and instantly froze in place, his ears barely hearing the gasps and cries of the ponies gathered around him.

Above all their heads were two shining translucent spheres that resembled giant bubbles, either one floating about the wooden rafters just below the roof and containing an apparently sleeping princess. Zack and Shining Armor could only stand and hold their breaths as they watched on, fearful of what might happen should one of them strike a rafter and pop.

“Zack,” Shining Armor whispered in a barely registered tone. “Listen to me when I say the princesses are my responsibility, and my responsibility alone… you understand?”

The SOLDIER nodded as his blue eyes narrowed and he once again faced the spirit of chaos, fires of pure hatred now igniting inside him as he stared at the demon-like creature, who simply began grinning back at him like an amused child.

“So yes, there they are… are you happy now?” Discord yawned lazily, stretching and cracking his limbs like he had just awoken from slumber. “Ugh, you’re so boring Zack, you’re making m-GAH!”

Before he could finish his insult the massive edge of Zack’s Buster Sword shut the spirit up, the metal edge arching down from above the SOLDIER’s head in an overhead strike.

The living embodiment of chaos hurriedly snapped his fingers, and with a magical crack vanished to clear the sword’s downward path and left it to bury itself deep in the marble floor.

Upon reappearing he now looked far from his usual cocky self, his golden eyes warily watching the now enraged blue eyed SOLDIER and his massive two-handed weapon.

“I swear if you’ve hurt either of them, I’ll make you wish you’d never broken free,” Zack snapped angrily, pulling his blade free from the stone crevice it had formed in the floor. “Now bring them both down, Discord.”

All the spirits prior humour and joviality hastily returned as a maniacal grin spread across his face once more, one that truly reflected all the madness he respected and embodied.

“Ok,” he chuckled, and once again the spirit snapped his fingers.

The two floating spheres, that held the rulers of Equestria within them, abruptly popped like any normal bubble would when poked by a foreign object.

Thereby sending their former alicorn contents plummeting towards the floor below.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The Spirit of chaos watched on smiling as the two spheres, which had up until then contained the two alicorn princesses, popped like a pair of bath bubbles at his unvoiced command, just as he had intended.

What happened next, however, wasn’t part of his plan.

The situation he had originally planned, in his chaotically jumbled mind, had been organized such that Zack would have been forced to drop his Buster Sword in order to catch one of the two plummeting princesses, giving the spirit a moment or two to fly forward, and slash the SOLDIER with his talons, and hence gather the small amount of blood that was needed by Chrysalis.

Zack, however, took no notice of the falling alicorns, who just as they began to fall found themselves enveloped in two purple auras.

Instead he had followed Shining Armor’s whispered words, and as instructed had decided to deal with Discord.

Having the experience of hundreds of fights paid off for the SOLDIER. Through his body language, Zack had instantly registered the spirit’s plan to distract and then attack, a thought verified just after Discord had snapped his fingers, when he began rapidly moving towards him. Hence instead of closing the gap between them, the SOLDIER mentally yelled out two deadly words and with all strength brought his mighty Buster Sword around in a mighty arc, aiming the razor sharp at the centre of his target and intending to divide the spirit in two at the waist.

“Firaga Blade!”

At his command the sword’s blade burst into flames, leaving a dancing tongue of fire in its wake as it carved through the air towards the oncoming spirit.

Discord’s eyes widened while he skidded to an immediate stop as the sword entered his path, his serpent-like spine bending backwards with astonishing speed to avoid the it, the flaming razer-sharp tip missing his flesh by the width of a hair.

“What…” Discord cried, realizing his element of surprise was all but gone.

Zack took no notice of the spirit’s shock other than using it to his advantage. Instead, he shifted his body weight and brought his blade down in another massive cleave, this one taking a diagonal path and travelling so fast the stunned ponies in the room barely registered it.

“Shining, you get those two guards out of the way and protect the Princesses! Twilight, you take the others and go get the elements!” the SOLDIER yelled as the spirit jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding losing his head. “And be quick about it! Otherwise I might just end Discord here before you can turn him back to stone!”

He faintly registered the clatter of hooves on marble from the battleground, but that was it; his focus was on Discord and Discord alone. His mind was racing at a million miles an hour, fuelled by a lethal mixture of adrenaline, magic, and pure and utter burning rage; with all of that boiling fury directed straight at the stunned spirit in front of him.

For a single moment he shifted the weight of his Buster Sword to his left hand, and raising his right uttered two words the spirit would immediately dread.

“DARK THUNDAGA!!”

The echoing words were followed by a flash of light, a crack of thunder, and a blistering arch of lightning, which upon leaving his hand flashed across the room and slammed into an unready Discord with a deathly crack of energy.

To the spirit, as Zack guessed by the expression of pure agony that crossed his face, it would have been like having a thousand royal guards drive their back hooves into him at the same time.

"Why you little..." The Spirit started angrily.

Zack took the opportunity he had and charged forward, his blade dancing and ripping through the air as he swung time and time again. Each brilliant slash threating to slice the spirit of chaos and disharmony in two.

Each of the massive sword’s strikes came down like a tonne of stone, and each one that missed sent all that force into the stone floor, quickly creating a patchwork of cracks and crevices.

"You know, you seem pretty skilled with that oversized butter knife." Discord quipped with folded arms as he reappeared once more. "But you certainly don't know how to aim very well."

Zack smirked. "Who said I'm actually aiming for you?"

Shining Armor, along with Spitfire, the other Wonderbolts, and other royal guards watched the nonstop assault from a safe distance. It was a truly freightening display of skill even in his veteran opinion, but the royal guard captain couldn’t help but notice that Zack seemed to be purposely overdriving his attacks, and was perhaps purposely slamming his blade into the marble floor.

“What’s he up to?” the royal guard captain asked as he turned to Spitfire, horn lowered and muscles tensed in case Zack slipped up and needed a hoof.

“Knowing Zack…” the mare replied, not taking her eyes from the fight. “Probably something none of us or Discord would expect.”

Each attack Discord managed to avoid with relative ease, using his magic to teleport, dodge, or throw up barriers, but Zack refused to let up his barrage, and just continued to hound the lord of chaos.

Each time the spirit snapped his fingers and appeared the SOLDIER was on him in a heartbeat with a strike, every time he summoned a brick wall or similar barrier Angeal’s Buster Sword carved through it with ease, no matter how he tried the spirit couldn’t fully escape.

In return Discord could only really try and avoid the SOLDIER’s rampage, but he knew that running and dodging wouldn't allow him to get close to his target, and silently cursed his initial underestimating of the human-jenova hybrid.

Eventually, after at least twenty sword-swings, Zack managed to catch him off guard, and gladly made the unfortunate spirit pay dearly. Just as Discord cracked back into existence Zack charged at him and pulled his blade over his shoulder, making it look as if he intended to try another diagonal cleave or vital slash.

Instead of drawing back and slicing, however, he tensed every muscle in his shoulder, shifted his footing, and with a mighty yell suddenly brought the sword back down again, Zack catching the spirit unready and slamming the flat of his Buster Sword into the side of Discord’s face.

The applied force wasn’t anywhere near enough to kill the stubborn spirit, but it was enough to both temporarily stun him, and send him hurtling backwards into an adjacent pillar on the room’s far side, which the unlucky spirit hit with an almighty crack of splitting rock.

“Way to go Zack!” he heard Spitfire call.

“Yeah Zack! Kick his flank!” Soarin shouted in agreement.

The stallion’s voice was followed by a number of cheers from the other Wonderbolts and the royal guards, but Zack barely took any notice. He once again trained his sword’s deadly point on the slowly rising threat before him, ready to clear the thirty meter distance between them with a single Silence Aerial attack and end the fight for good if need be.

“Give up now, Discord,” The SOLDIER said with his sword still readied. "You can't win this."

“Me? Give up? Bah, never!” The spirit hissed as he staggered around, somewhat haphazardly.

That was when something broken inside Zack, said something being the last barrier that had held his temper in check.

With a swift movement, Zack smiled, closed his eyes and, raised his massive blade to a vertical position against himself, and before the eyes of everypony watching became engulfed in an orange and purple aura.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“I assure you, I am fine, Shining Armor,” Princess Celestia calmly said as she got to her hooves, the white stallion, her dark sister, and a few royal guards supporting her side so she didn’t stumble over. “Discord surprised me is all.”

The royal guard captain shook his head. “Are you sure princess? You look a little more than sha…”

“Me? Give up? Bah, never!”

The moment the voice reached everypony’s ears, they all spun around in ready for the worst... only to find a recently all too familiar sight before them, said sight being Zack standing still, with his sword up, and an orange aura around him.

Shining Armor watched on cautiously as Zack’s blade began to glow, knowing all too well that it meant something big was about to happen. Using his own magic, the royal guard captain quickly formed a protective purple barrier between the SOLDIER, himself, and everypony else present, Spike huddling against his older brother figure’s side as together they watched the scene unfold.

“Zack, what are…” The armored stallion started.

Before he could finish, his ears were greeted by the a chorus of clattering hooves.

Turning down the hallway he saw Twilight and the others galloping towards them, their gold inset elements now adorning their bodies. The moment she saw the purple barrier she looked between it and him in confusion, as if wondering why exactly it was there.

“Princess, Shining, what’s…?”

“Twily, I suggest you and your friends get behind me,” he snorted as she skidded to a stop beside him, his eyes leaving her and returning to the dark frame of the SOLDIER. “Something's about to happen.”

“Yeah, big as in really big,” Spitfire put in hurriedly, her eyes more on Rainbow then the others.

The six mares shot looks between each other before obeying, and a moment later were all thanking Celestia they had listened to the stallion and mare’s words.

The numerous crevices that dotted the white stone floor of the throne room, all of which had been caused by the SOLDIER’s cleaving blade, began to crack and spread as red hot flames, smoke, and honest-to-Celestia magma poured out of them.

A single, massive crack then rapidly began appearing in front of Zack as the stone floor tore itself open, like the mountain beneath Canterlot was a beast opening its long shut maw.

More flames began to fill the ruined throne room at an ever increasing rate, the heat now so intense the pristine white marble around everypony was beginning to glow red hot, like the entire throne room was a giant roiling blast furnace. All the while Zack stood perfectly still like nothing was happening around him, and Discord just stood there in utter shock, his mouth hanging freely agape.

And that was when Shining Armor heard it, a guttural roar that caused the entire palace to shake, caused the royal guards to drop to the floor and cover their heads, and likely would’ve scared the utter buck out of a dragon any day.

A mere second later, his blue tail suddenly crammed up between his legs in fear, as he saw the hellish cause leap forth from the burning cleave in the stone floor, smash a massive hole in the roof like it was made of parchment, and then come back down and land beside Zack.

It easily stood twice as tall as the SOLDIER, and had a similar body shape, but the creature was orange skinned, wore nothing but a garb and assorted bits of armour over its etched muscle, and had deadly curving horns sticking from its skull.

“The… buck…. is… that thing?!” Rainbow yelped from where she was hovering, the usually confident and somewhat cocky pegasus, along with the present royal guards, the other elements, and even the recently awakened pair of princesses, suddenly feeling rather fearful.

“Discord,” Zack chuckled at last, his blue eyes opening and facing the spirit as the burning skinned demon-thing first raised its head, and then roared again. “Meet Ifrit.”

A grin spread across the SOLDIER’s face as he watched the spirit gape at the summon, Discord’s mismatched golden eyes locked on Ifrit’s demonic black ones as he tried, and failed, to back away, the flaming spirit returning the glare with his sword-like fangs bared, and monstrous clawed fists clenched.

Then, before the eyes of everypony present, including the recently returned elements of harmony and the now awake princesses, Ifrit roared like an unholy beast and charged straight at Discord.

Sprinting forward with a speed that could’ve matched Rainbow Dash’s, the demon-creature’s body started becoming a living meteor in a matter of seconds, his entire frame becoming a rampaging inferno.

Then, bathed in a swirling torrent of magical flames that grew hotter and brighter as he surged forward, with a colossal burning fist raised, and before either Discord or anypony else could twitch or blink, Ifrit’s Hellfire attack slammed into the chaos spirit with all the uncontrollable wrath of hell behind it.

What followed was a massive fiery explosion, the shock wave of which could have been easily mistaken for a major earthquake.

Zack just stood and watched the flames blaze around him like he was witnessing the end of the world, and then just as quickly as they and Ifrit had been summoned, the fires died away and the demon disappeared again, leaving the throne room looking just about like nothing had happened.

The only suggestion there had been a fight was the now barely conscious spirit of chaos on the far side of the throne room, who was kneeling over on his claws and knees on the floor in a vein effort to try and stand again, his body covered in the smoking scorch marks of Ifrit’s Hellfire.

His mood darkening when the ponies in the room started cheering at his demise.

Discord first looked up at the massive sword resting between his horns, and then at the glowing blue eyes of its wielder.

“Zack… please, I beg you not to do this,” came the voice of Celestia, and looking over his shoulder, Zack saw her gingerly walking over to his side, a downright shocked and gaping group of Shining Armor, the elements of harmony, and Princess Luna supporting the white alicorn.

He was surprised to see the two princesses awake, let alone walking, although neither looked to be in great shape.

“Celestia, he nearly killed you and your sister. You can't honestly just let that slide.” The SOLDIER replied with his blade still lowered, his remark only drawing a shake of her head from the ruler of the day.

“Discord may be the spirit of chaos and disharmony, and he should be punished for his crimes… but slaying him will only make things wo...”

“Hey!”

“Zack!”

Zack spun around as he felt pain tear up his right shin. In response his leg suddenly kicking out, slamming into Discord’s jaw, and knocking him backwards head over furry tail.

Upon looking down the veteran SOLDIER saw a small claw-made tear in his dark pants, and a patch of blood quickly blotting the weathered fabric; luckily the wound was barely a scratch in his opinion.

And then refocusing his gaze saw Discord strangely smiling up at him, the sticky red substance stained on one of his eagle-like talons.

“It seems the last laugh is mine this time, Zack.” he laughed. Then, with a mad grin and a snap of his fingers, he was gone in a faint magical crack.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Notes:

I know Zack may seem… overpowered in some regards, but remember he beat enemies like Genesis (I can’t remember if that demon form of his had a name like Angeal’s) and Bahamut Fury (and we all know what he can do).

Comments

[Ultima D]

Dude that was killer

And FIRST
had to my first, first post too cool

[not-so-anonymous]

Genesis Avatar, just fyi.

[Seraph973]

Epic.

[Zephyrion]

I call BS, all the mean boss creatures were immune to all the crippling status effects like silence and stop. As Discord was basically stated to be a Q expy by Lauren Faust. (Beings who in their infant stages are capable of knocking planets out of orbit.) Also Zack got killed by a bunch of douche-bags with machine guns. This fight should not have been easy at all, even allowing for plot armor Zack should only won that battle by the skin of his teeth.

[Icarus Crimsonhoof]

Discord meet ifrits falcon punch

[Mother3Forever]

I wanna see the Cactuar....

[LuluTia]

Lol I facepalmed so hard I almost broke my nose when discord said he will hAve the last laugh GOOD LUCK with sephiroth a being of madness bro you will need it

[Norkix]

Music for this chapter:

This was epic! Good thing Summons don't seem to have any physical effects other than MAJOR ASS KICKING!

[Autumn breeze24]

I want Celestia I have her sister killed because she didn't want to kill an enemy.