Fred Walsh: Diverted

by Baguettedood

Chapter 22 – Confrontation

Chapter 22 – Confrontation
"Okay, we're rather terrible at navigation, and also awareness of our surroundings. Somehow, DemonTrixie managed to get right in front of us without any of us noticing. We need some minimaps, that'd make our lives much easier. Then again, that'd never happen. For one, life would never make itself that easy. Second, it's rather impossible as far as current technology goes. Hopefully I can go home after this is all done.”

“My vlogs are normally longer than this, but I really don't know what more to say right now. I've already said that we're off to fight DemonTrixie. Another reason that I need to get home. Eventually, one runs out of things to say.”

---

“WE MEET ONCE AGAIN,” the possessed pony screeched. Fred tensed up and closed his eyes to survive the voice.

The human looked at Twilight and remembered their conversation earlier. “Who better to ask?” he muttered to himself. “What's the deal with all this?” He asked Potens Daemonium. Meanwhile, the unicorn mare was looking around worriedly, anticipating something to happen.

“THE RIDICULE OF THIS WORLD MUST BE PURGED,” he shouted back.

'And he dodges the question. He'd be a great politician.' “Why?”

“BECAUSE IT MUST. THIS WORLD WILL FALL UNDER MY RULE.”

Shining Armor interrupted. “We're not going to let you try anything!” he yelled angrily.

“YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO INTERFERE,” the demon commanded. In rage, he threw a large, red, sparkling energy ball at the team. Twilight had been preparing and immediately deflected the attack with a purple shield. Some of the energy became absorbed by the bubble, though the rest bounced to the left and hit the ground. The dirt erupted nearly a foot in the air.

DemonTrixie's eyes widened slightly. He still wore the harmonic emerald, supposedly able to block magic. Then, he saw his mistake, that purple unicorn and the pink alicorn both wore amethysts to counter his own jewellery's effects.

Twilight continued to sustain the shield. Said barrier had a dual purpose: Protecting against offensive magic, and preventing unwanted parties from escaping via teleport, so their enemy could not escape. Meanwhile, Cadance took the offensive position and attacked with her own magic. She cast a few offensive spells, but she never had formal training and didn't know them as well as she could. The princess knew that if she tried to give it to her husband, she would fail thanks to the magic blocker.

“Give the amethyst to Shining!” she called out to Fred. The human ran behind the rest of the team, still inside the shield, to Cadance. He took the ring off her horn and as he pivoted around, he threw some of his magic outward. By some miracle, the inaccurate blast struck the demon. Immediately after he attempted his spell, he equipped the gem on Shining Armor and ducked back to his previous position.

The attacker continued to fight, despite the shield blocking his attempts. Twilight seemed to struggle a bit from keeping the barrier raised, with the force of the attacks against it.

The unicorn stallion sent a few blasts on the offensive. Although DemonTrixie couldn't produce a full dome shield like how Twilight and Shining both proven they could before, he still managed to bounce attacks using precise counter-attacks.

Fred quickly ran through an inventory check. He used his index finger to draw imaginary diagrams in a small area of about two centimetres as he remembered the items they brought and where they were. He recalled he brought along a magic-blocking sapphire and took it out of his pocket.

“We need to use this!” he shouted. Twilight looked at the jewellery and nodded. She whispered some words to her brother before lending the human her amethyst. As he took it, Shining Armor took control of the shield. Armed with two harmonic gems, Fred jumped out of the shield to stick the sapphire on the demon.

The strategy lasted all of three seconds, at which point a blast struck the ground, causing a large explosion and throwing him back into the shield. The harmonic amethyst could only block direct attacks, unfortunately. That plan failed, he stood back up and slid the amethyst back on the unicorn mare.

DemonTrixie continued to barrage the shield as it was sustained by Shining Armor. Both he and Twilight shot out some blasts when they could. Nothing much happened as the two factions reached a stalemate without any new plans.

The lavender mare thought it a good idea to try a new strategy. Her horn ignited brightly as she poured energy into it. A smaller bubble encompassed her and Fred, in order to negate the regular shield's nullifiers, and they vanished in a flash.

They re-materialised on the other side of the battleground, behind Potens Daemonium. Along with a strong ozone smell, Fred witnessed a small object that looked to be some sort of spacial tear quickly seal itself after a few seconds. He guessed it to be a scar from their teleport. He returned his attention to the current task.

It seemed they weren't noticed teleporting over. The demon stayed focused on Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. Twilight erected a shield, just in case he did.

Fred took the sapphire out of his pocket again with his right hand, raised his left to his chest and muttered a prayer in Latin to no god in particular. “Precor me superesse hoc,” he pleaded quietly. Translated, he said, “I pray that I survive this.”

The human took a deep breath. He then sprinted out of the purple bubble towards DemonTrixie. His footsteps, thanks to his speed, echoed to the demon's ear and he turned to investigate. He saw the two-legged creature that called itself a human moving quickly towards him. Potens Daemonium intended to make short work of the biped by throwing a blast. Just as he charged the attack and released it, Fred dove, dodging above the spell and getting in reach of the horn. With his free hand, he managed to slide the emerald straight off.

He landed on his front and tried to reorient himself to make some use of the momentum from the jump. He rolled to the other shield.

Twilight showed up on the same side with another teleport flash. Now that magic was no longer being drained, the three ponies went on the offensive. Fred stood up and joined in with whatever he had learned over the last day and a bit, using all the power he could.

With nothing to inhibit, the team quickly managed to subdue DemonTrixie. He fell on his side and the four moved in closer. Fred attached the harmonic sapphire on the horn.

“I've said it before, I'll say it again. This universe is protected,” he restated from what felt to be a long time ago.

Twilight cast another spell. “Sleep,” she commanded verbally as her target fell unconscious.

“Well, thought would be the better term,” he clarified to himself. “Also, what are you? A stage hypnotist?” he asked Twilight.