• Published 15th Apr 2016
  • 19,499 Views, 4,977 Comments

Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls - thatguyvex



When dangerous supernatural creatures start to stalk the streets of Canterlot City, Sunset Shimmer and the gang become involved in events that will irrevocably change their lives. A crossover series with the Bleach anime/manga

  • ...
37
 4,977
 19,499

PreviousChapters Next
Episode 109: Desperate Times

Episode 109: Desperate Times

Miles eastward from Camp Everfree the sky was rocked by a clash of steel, breaking through clouds that hung close to the peaks of a small mountain range that ran north to south. The vibrations from the collision of blades caused snow to break from loose portions of the mountain peaks, resulting in an avalanche, yet this fact was hardly noticed by the combatants themselves.

Captain Celestia was unwounded and wasn’t even particularly breathing hard, yet. Her opponent on the other hand was clearly hard pressed, his brown, leather cracked skin showing half a dozen bleeding cuts through his white clothing. Grogar was breathing much harder as well, clearly exerting himself substantially more than the Soul Reaper was, just fending off her twin blades.

However despite this fact, Celestia detected no fear in the Eight Espada’s eyes. If anything, his expression looked as calculating and in control as ever, regardless of how hard she was pressing him or how many wounds she’d scored. Being no one’s fool, Celestia hadn’t relaxed her guard for even a split second during this fight. She knew she was more powerful than Grogar in almost every category. It should have been obvious from the start that without a backup plan, a hidden trick up his sleeve, or even releasing his Zanpaktou from the very start that Grogar wouldn’t be able to defeat her.

In terms of power, Celestia knew she only really ranked below a few of her fellow Captains, with her only major weakness being that she detesting having to release her Zanpaktou’s full power if there was any chance it might harm innocent lives. That was the primary reason she targeted Grogar and worked to drive him this far away from Camp Everfree. Near this mountain range, she’d be able to unleash her full power, if need be, without as much fear of harming anyone she didn’t mean to.

But now she was concerned that was a mistake. Grogar’s unflagging confidence gave her a sinking feeling that being at this distance somehow benefited him as well. Then of course there was that red gem inside his Hollow hole. Celestia didn’t need to press her critical thinking skills very hard to surmise that gem was a copy of the siren gem Adagio and her sister’s possessed. What function it served she wasn’t certain, but she’d noticed throughout their fight so far that the gem would keep pulsating at odd intervals.

“You’re wondering about this marvelous invention of mine?” Grogar asked in between their blades clashing. Celestia had been pressing the offensive, her swords crossing both low and high to offset Grogar’s defense. He was forced to make an awkward dodge while blocking the higher striking blade, taking another wound on his left leg as he hopped away from her.

“I imagine Starswirl will be thrilled to analyze it after I retrieve it from your remains,” Celestia replied casually, not wanting to rise to Grogar’s bait. The air cracked with the speed of her motions as she rushed in, zipping from side to side in a dazzling blur as she spun into whirrling set of slashes.

“Urg!” Grogar was struck hard, having to brace his sword with his free arm to absorb the blow that still cut a bloody line across his chest and sent him flying down into the mountain slope. Shaking off snow, he stood and gave off a self-satisfied smile.

“Why don’t you release your Shikai at least, dear Captain? These cuts aren’t going to be enough to kill me, and your sister seems to be in danger, so how long can you afford to toy with an old Hollow like me?”

Celestia kept the consternation off her otherwise placid features. She had been keeping a close watch on how her sister was faring against Adagio, monitoring the respecting combatant’s reiatsu. Sadly, Grogar was right, Luna’s reiatsu had faded greatly after an all too familiar spike that left Celestia fearful for her sister.

She still can’t control that bestial form we inherited from our mothers. I don’t think Adagio will kill her, but if Luna’s lost, that still puts her in a vulnerable position.

Celestia had already largely pieced together what was going on, here. Adagio was seeking to rescue the Arrancar girl, Ember, that Luna had taken during the Quincy assault on Las Noches. Somehow she’d forged some manner of alliance with Twilight Sparkle to accomplish this task, and roped in Sunset Shimmer and the other Canterlot High girls to help.

It’d pained Celestia to a degree that Sunset hadn’t just come to her with this information, but she understood why Sunset would have kept it secret. It wasn’t a lack of trust, but likely to avoid causing Celestia any further trouble. After all, if Celestia had decided to help in some fashion it might have caused a rift with Soul Society. Celestia could well imagine the difficulty she might have faced in trying to negotiate some kind of bargain for Ember’s release, and there would have been an even greater challenge and risk in trying to indirectly aid the rescue.

The girls wanted to solve this problem themselves, and avoid any dangerous complications. Unfortunately with so many unknown variables in play, it was inevitable that plan wouldn’t go smoothly. Now Celestia couldn’t be sure what Adagio might do with her defeated sister, or what was happening between Starswirl and Twilight Sparkle. She could sense that fight as well, but it was only heating up, and nowhere near a conclusion.

Then there were other factors to consider, such as the rapidly approaching Captain Sweet Cider, and that mysterious Kraken. Celestia hadn’t forgotten that creature was out there, and likely doing something nefarious. On top of that, the presence of so many magical creatures from Equestria targeting Camp Everfree was a serious concern. Were they there solely because of Starswirl’s experiments with the portal going awry? Or could they be linked to the Kraken somehow?

At the moment her main concern was dealing with Grogar, and hoping that Luna could still manage to fend for herself in the meantime. As long as the Eight Espada was in front of her, there was little else Celestia could focus on.

“It’s true my sister is in a tight spot,” Celestia admitted, inverting her grip on her Zanpaktou and using an index finger to trace a symbol of light in the air, “But I’m not convinced I need my Shikai to deal with you, Grogar, and you seem a bit too eager for it for my taste.”

The sigil of soft gold light began to sizzle with arcs of power, a set of nine additional smaller kanji symbols forming around the central one as Celestia invoked the Kido.

”Hado Number Eighty Three: Shori no Kiheitai!” (Triumphant Cavalry Charge)

From the sigil of light spawned a set of glowing golden gates, which upon flinging open emerged a line of ethereal horsemen. Dressed in armor akin to samurai, and carrying long naginata-style spears, the calvary of translucent gold light lowered their weapons and kicked their mounts into a charge straight at Grogar. Moving much faster than any mortal calvary could, the horsemen turned into streaks of light, raining down upon the Espada.

Grogar scoffed and threw himself backwards up the mountain with Sonido. This avoided several horsemen who lanced into the ground, and proceeded to detonate like living bombs. Others veered in time to chase Grogar up the snow-covered slope, homing in like missiles. With a glare, Grogar aimed his free hand and charged a crackling sphere of green and black energy. With several rapid burps of static noise, he fired well aimed Balas at the Kido spawned cavalry chasing him.

Each Bala that struck a horseman detonated it prematurely, lining the mountain slope with a series of golden explosions.

However the last horseman broke through Grogar’s barrage and slammed it’s lance right into the Espada himself, engulfing him in a blast of gold light. Celestia, not one to toss aside an opening, used Flash Step to rush down towards the explosion, swords poised to cut down the ancient Arrancar while he recovered from the Kido’s explosion.

Instead, just as she was ready to strike, a streak of motion rushed out of the smoke and falling snow faster than she’d ever expected and Celestia was forced into an off balance parry. Her swords crossed, deflecting Grogar’s blade, but was off angle enough that the sword still cut a painful line across Celestia’s shoulder, spilling her blood to the snow.

Both opponents landed on the snowy slope, and Celestia glanced at Grogar with confusion, but without dropping her guard.

Grogar’s body was wrapped in red light, pulsating in time with the siren gem. As he turned to face her again, Celestia saw that the wounds she’d dealt him so far were swiftly closing up. His reiatsu was rising, climbing higher with each heart-like pulse from the false siren gem.

“A shame,” he said, “I hoped to catch you off guard and deal a more telling blow, but you really are among the strongest Soul Reapers, aren’t you, dear Celestia? Even releasing the gem’s stored power in a critical moment wasn’t enough to catch you with your drawers down.”

“I would appreciate it if you refrain from mentioning my drawers. Coming from you, it leaves a distinctly oily and disgusting feeling.”

“My apologies,” Grogar replied with a dry tone, “I have no actual interest in such things, and find it most regrettable that Hollow-kind hasn’t evolved beyond such banal things as biological reproduction. Now then, since my initial surprise has failed, there’s no reason for me to hold back on any of the additional power your Soul Reaper friends have been so generously help generate for me.”

“What do you mean by that?” Celestia asked, prepared to launch into an attack, but unable to help some level of curiosity as to what Grogar was talking about. She imagined the gem had some power to it, but how could her fellow Soul Reapers be helping him?

Grogar’s smile had a very self satisfied twist to it as the siren gem pulsated again, unleashing streams of spiritual energy throughout his body. “Siren gems are incredible batteries of energy, and designed to siphon off power from various sources. Magic generated by different emotions, originally, but Adagio’s mutated when she became a Hollow. This gem is a manufactured copy of that mutation, but with several key alterations and refinements of my own. One of these alterations is the ability to absorb power from other Hollows who have been branded with the gem’s spiritual signature, an idea I got from a certain Privaron Espada who possessed a similar ability. As a result, whenever certain Hollows I’ve branded are killed, the majority of their power flows into me. I’m sure you can guess the rest, yourself.”

His words put previous unknown factors into context. Celestia had assumed the Hollows she’d sensed attacking Canterlot City had been simply summoned by Grogar to be a distraction for Sweet Cider and the other Soul Reapers guarding the city. Now she realized that those Hollows must have been Grogar’s test subjects, altered to serve as additional power sources for him. That was why the fake siren gem had kept pulsating. Every Hollow Sweet Cider and her forces slew only added to Grogar’s strength. Now that he was releasing that power, Celestia could sense that while it was a substantial increase, it wasn’t nearly enough for Grogar to be so confident while facing her.

He clearly had other tricks up his sleeve. Beyond that, with Sweet Cider’s reiatsu approaching, it was clear the Hollows attacking the city had already been defeated.

“While a despicable, if useful, bauble you’ve stolen from your experiments on Adagio, it doesn’t seem to have given you that much extra power, and with your army already depleted you won’t be getting more. As long as I finish you off now, you can’t garner any more robbed power.”

She was still hesitant to use her Shikai, given he seemed so eager for her to do so. However that in itself could be a ploy, trying to make her nervous about unleashing her full power. The only thing Celestia could be certain of was that the more this battle was prolonged, the more it served Grogar’s ends.

That being the case, she decided it was worth the risk.

Her body grew heated as steam-like curls of white reiatsu flowed off her. Celestia raised her Zanpaktou, the katana edges catching sunlight reflecting off the snow, and called out, ”Reduce the firmaments of creation to dust and consume the weeping ashes; Shinryu Taiyo!”

Grogar jumped up the slope as blinding river of white plasma erupted from Celestia’s blades, the pure white flames coiling upwards and unleashing a hellish heat upon the mountain slope. Snow boiled instantly to water, then vapor, for hundreds of meters in all directions. Snow covered trees swiftly burst into flames at the sweltering waves of heat washing over the mountain. The rock of the slope where Celestia stood bubbles to magma and began to run down the mountain in hissing rivers.

All the while Celestia’s Zanpaktou continued to billow upwards in a spiral of blinding sunfire that then split in twin nimbus of heavenly light and heat. They expanded until the gold and white scaled bodies of Shinryu Taiyo’s twin dragons took shape, casting their flaring blue eyes towards their Soul Reaper with eager divine fury. Their twin, feminine voices spoke as one, ”You call us again, and in the realm of mortals no less. What wretched soul deserves to feel the wrath of our judgment this day?”

“That would be the elderly Arrancar fleeing up the mountain,” Celestia responded, unable to keep some sweat from forming on her brow. While she gained a healthy dose of fire resistance with her Zanpaktou released, the unimaginable heat Shinryu Taiyo gave off still caused a bit of sweat, regardless.

Her dragons gave her an incredulous look as they cast glances back and forth between her and Grogar, who’d nearly reached the mountain peak.

”Him? Such an insignificant gnat?”

“His power might not be impressive to you, but rest assured his is a soul most deserving of your purifying flames, Shinryu Taiyo. I humbly request your aid in dispatching this foe.”

”Hmph, we suppose it cannot be helped. Rest assured, even gnats do not escape our gaze. Come, wielder, and let us judge the unworthy, dark soul that dares crawl under our light!”

Celestia nodded, and leaped up to stand atop the right dragon’s head as the pair turned and started flying up the mountain towards Grogar, leaving trails of melting rock and waves of steam in their wake.

At the mountain’s peak, Grogar watched the pair of celestial dragons flying towards him... and smirked.

So far almost everything had gone as he’d planned. Almost. There were still a number of variables he hadn’t been able to predict, but by and large this was all going quite well. Of course that did all hinge on this next phase of his plan actually working. Grogar preferred to have all factors of a situation under his complete control, but he couldn’t deny there was a certain thrill to experimentation in the field, where one couldn’t be certain of the results.

With the Shikai of what might be one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful flame-type Zanpaktou in existence bearing down on him, Grogar was risking more than just disappointment if this experiment failed.

Having already raised a hand, he fired off a modified Bala, a ‘flare’ much like the one he’d used before to signal his army of mutations to attack Canterlot City.

Celestia had only been half right in her assumption that all of Grogar’s forces had been depleted. They had been... from the half designated to attack the city. The rest? Well, they’d been waiting for this signal.

The air distorted as one, giant Garganta was torn open in the air above Grogar, spanning several hundred feet wide. From this Garganta poured out a contingent of Hollows, around fifty or sixty in number. What was unusual about them was that every single Hollow was nearly identical in shape, with only minor differences in size. They looked like floating pillbugs, their faces, including their original Hollow masks, covered by a steel control helmet shaped like a half-sphere covered in metal studs. Their bodies were armored with white chitin, and sprouted multiple grasping, insectile legs, but one could see traces of their previous Hollow bodies grafted inside these shells like imprints. On the back of each ‘pillbug’ Hollow was a semi-organic canister that released vapor into the air from the extreme cold generated by them.

In fact the cold emanating from the entire army of pillbug Hollows was such that the mountain peak, which was starting to melt with the approach of Shinryu Taiyo, started to freeze over again.

“I hope you enjoy my ‘Extinguisher Squadron’, Celestia!” Grogar said, “I crafted them just for you and your lovely dragons!”

With a gesture, Grogar pointed at the oncoming Shinryu Taiyo, and the ‘Extinguisher Squadron’ responded instantly to the command. With baleful howls belying no will outside that Grogar’s programming gave them, including stripping all fear from the poor Hollow experiments, they all flew towards Celestia and her released Zanpaktou in a seething mass.

“Be careful,” Celestia told her Zanpaktou, “Burn them from a distance rather than let them strike you!”

”We are not fearful of bugs!” her Zanpaktou roared, filling Celestia with frustration. Why was her Zanpaktou always so difficult!? Of course she knew the reason. It was the same reason Luna struggled with her own. The heritage of the Beast Realm affected both sisters’ Zanpaktou, making the weapon spirits far more unruly than they should be. Luna’s wolf spirit could become utterly bloodthirsty, and Celestia’s dragon spirit was naturally arrogant beyond measure.

Both had long trained to control their Zanpaktou, and Celestia’s control was better than Luna’s, but if she was being honest, it wasn’t by much.

She steeled her will and focused on her Zanpaktou, sensing the raw heat of the twin spirits that burned with indignation at facing what appeared to be paltry foes unworthy of their time. Celestia combated that arrogance with her own unyielding conviction, pushing back and taking the spiritual reigns, so to speak.

Shinryu Taiyo’s headlong charge at the army of pillbug Hollows became a sudden, sharp upward climb. Both dragons roared and unleashed jets of blindingly bright plasma from their maws, striking the lead pillbugs within less than a dozen meters. The modified Hollows exploded, but not in flames, but rather sudden unbelievably cold bursts of temperatures so low that even the magma rivers Shinryu Taiyo left behind cooled instantly.

Elements of frost even touched the edges of the dragon’s bodies as they flew up, and both hissed in pain from the steam that rushed off them from the clash of cold and heat.

“Do you now see?” Celestia said chidingly, “Do not underestimate our opponent. Grogar has crafted this monstrosities specifically to counter us. Charging in blindly is a certain path to defeat.”

”Hmph, very well, wielder, we take your point. We shall dispatch these nuisances from a distance, then exact punishment on the vile creature that created them!”

Both dragons climbed higher into the sky, the Extinguishers giving chase. The dragons were faster, it seemed, but Celestia wasn’t relaxing her guard just yet. Not only had she lost track of Grogar’s position, but she was getting a sinking premonition that she was playing into his hands. Shinryu Taiyo were both moving in tandem with each other, outpacing any earthly fighter jet in terms of speed and maneuverability manyfold. The Extinguishers followed like a swarm of hornets, but the distance was widening, and both divine dragons began to unleash their firepower upon the horde of modified Hollows.

Rather than focused jets of sun-like plasma from their mouths, Shinryu Taiyo turned around both at the same time, snapping their wings out. Sunfire dripped from those wings in molten streams, and then with concentrated sweeps of their wings, the dragons unleashed a storm of sun darts into the advancing swarm. Each dart was like a white lance so hot that rock and steel would evaporate at it’s touch, and the beat of the dragon’s wings created a storm of several hundred of these per wing.

The Extinguishers were hammered by these lances. They were amazingly maneuverable themselves, and the modified Hollows shifted rapidly through the storm, but even so dozens were struck by the sunfire lances. Each time one was hit, it’s body would expand, deform, and explode in a massive burst of absolute zero cold and frost. Other Extinguishers were immune to this cold and kept on, and to Celestia’s practiced eye it looked like the survivors absorbed the cold from their fallen fellows, with the strange tanks on their backs getting larger.

“Shinryu Taiyo,” she called out, “Maneuver them back to the mountain peak. I’m going to bind them with Kido.”

”Nonsense! We can destroy these bugs handily!”

“They’re getting stronger with each one we slay!” Celestia snapped, “Destroy them all, and the final one may well explode with enough intensity to freeze the entire mountain, and us along with it! Now do as I say!”

As she got more fed up with her Zanpaktou’s rebellious attitude, the more her own beast heritage manifested, her eyes growing gold for a moment, with draconic slits for pupils. They returned to normal an instant later as she reasserted her own long-practiced self control, and Shinryu Taiyo obeyed her will. The twin dragons angled themselves into a sharp descent, shattering the sound barrier as they zoomed back towards the mountain peak. Behind them the Extinguishers followed in a howling mass, exuding enough cold to cause ice crystals to form in a falling mass behind them.

Celestia searched for Grogar’s reiatsu, concerned she couldn’t pin-point where he was, but at the same time she couldn’t ignore the Hollows dogging her and her Zanpaktou. If she could deal with this poor, mutated Hollows quickly enough, she might be able to catch Grogar before he enacted any further plans. And if worst truly came to worst, there was always Bankai...

As Shinryu Taiyo landed on the mountain peach, their mere presence started to melt the stone around them, making it look as if the mountain was something closer to a volcano ready to erupt. Celestia ignored that and looked above her. The Extinguishers were coming down in a straight line, putting themselves in perfect line for the Kido she intended to use.

Throwing her hands out to either side of her, she closed her eyes and curls of vibrant fire gathered in her palms. For this, she needed the full invocation.

”The heated bowels of the earth crack

Open the fateful, hungry jaws

Teeth gnash, screams echo, skin blisters

Rise and swallow the foolhardy intruders!”

The flames coiled into two orbs in her palms, that Celestia then raised above her head and merged together into one blazing mass.

”Bakudo Number Ninety Five: Kyojin-hi no Kaimen-jo no Kuchi!” (Cavernous Maw of the Fire Titan)

In an explosive flare, the fire orb exploded upward and grew into the shape of the massive, flaming head of a twin horned ogre. The gigantic head blazed upwards, it’s mouth opening to an unnaturally large size. The Extinguishers couldn’t stop in time, tumbling into the rising mouth of fire like moths to the proverbial flame, and the Kido was more than big enough to accommodate all of them as it snapped its mouth shut, imprisoning them inside it’s heated depths. This particular Kido was among the strongest binding spells Celestia knew, and she was betting on it’s heated interior being enough to withstand, or at least severely weaken, the freezing explosion when the Extinguishers detonated.

She saw the flaming ogre’s head shutter as the modified Hollows did exactly that, bursting one after another inside the burning interior of the Kido.

“Shinryu Taiyo, add your flames to it!” she commanded, and the dragons eagerly obeyed, both spraying forth focused beams of raw plasma that smashed into the ogre’s head.

As Celestia had predicted, the fire-based Kido weakened the cold explosions. The ogre’s head still froze over, and a torrent of frost and unbelievable cold still poured out, but it was lessened, and with Shinryu Taiyo firing their dual plasma beams into that weakened cold, it was enough to prevent that wave of frost from overwhelming the Zanpaktou or freezing over the mountain.

In the end the peak was still covered in frost, and Shinryu Taiyo were steaming from the cold assaulting their heated scales, but the damage was minimal and the Extinguishers were now all gone.

Celestia would have felt better about the fact if not for one glaring issue... she couldn't see Grogar anywhere, nor sense his reiatsu. She doubted he had anything close to her sister’s kill in stealth, but he was still likely suppressing his reiatsu well enough to make it difficult to pinpoint him without a detailed search. It was also possible that the bastard had invented a device to cloak himself.

The real question was if he’d fled, or if he was still hiding nearby.

----------

Around Camp Everfree itself the harsh sounds of battle rattled the relatively thin walls of the buildings. The students taking refuge inside the camp center were doing their best to remain calm. None of the students were foolish enough to go rushing outside, but that didn’t mean they were all idle either. Lyra Heartstrings was on standby with one of the camp’s medical kits, and was tending to the wounded from the hike, assisted by Derpy who seemed fairly knowledgeable about basic first aid. Chappy, whom at this point everyone had more or less figured out wasn’t Sunset Shimmer but was someone Sunset needed to control her body while she was out Soul Reapering, was helping Bulk Biceps grab shelves or unused desks to barricade the windows and the back door. Bon Bon was at the one window the group was keeping clear to allow for monitoring the fight outside.

Timber Spruce was laying on one of the tables so his leg could be bandaged up. He’d fidgeted about having to take his pants off so Derpy could see the wound, but she seemed immune to his protests or any embarrassment at seeing him in his boxers. The burns on his leg were painful, but not crippling, but also a bit beyond what a first aid kit could handle beyond wrapping them up.

“Is my sister still out there?” Timber asked, teeth clenched past the pain. Derpy blinked and cast a look towards one of the windows next to the front doors, where Bon Bon was keeping tabs on the fight.

“Oh she’s out there alright,” Bon Bon reported, “Doing her best Poison Ivy impression, too. I’m getting some amazing footage, here.”

The girl had her cell phone out, recording away. To be fair, so were a number of other students, who knew this kind of thing was not uncommon at this point for Canterlot High. Given the danger of the situation, most knew bringing in actual police or medical services was a no go. On top of that, several students had checked the news on their phones to discover Canterlot City was in a state of emergency. Whatever was going on, it was affecting more than just Camp Everfree.

Timbre looked on helplessly, hoping his sister would be okay, and equally hoping for the safety of everyone in the camp. It was maddening to see his home under assault, and innocent campers who’d come here to have a good time now being threatened by the insane dangers that a few weeks ago Timber had never even known existed.

He wished his sister had never found those geodes. He still didn’t know what had possessed her to go wandering in that part of the forest in the first place. Sure, Gloriosa liked to hike even more than he did, and knew the back trails and hidden pathways through Everfree better than anyone alive, but Timber still couldn’t account for why she’d wander into that cave and would just happen to find a set gems with magical powers.

Had it really just been coincidence?

His thoughts turned to Twilight Sparkle. He had no idea where she was in this whole mess, but if her Quincy friends were here, helping protect the camp, then she had to be out there somewhere, right? What was she doing, while the rest of her team was here?

Further thoughts were interrupted by a heavy slam on the back of the camp center, rocking the entire wall and cracking the back door. Even the barricade of desks that had been built up there was knocked aside by the force of the impact. Campers shouted in alarm, and the three young girls who’d been watching the door all jumped back.

“Uh-oh!” said Sweetie Belle, “I think one of those big crocs got around back!”

“Ya think!?” shouted Scootaloo, “If I could get to my scooter I could call for Alerion.”

“Where’d ya leave it?” asked Applebloom, already removing her pink hair ribbon and holding in her hand. Timber recalled seeing the kids using their own odd powers the other night, so he knew they could handle themselves, but it still tore at him to see three young girls prepared to fight while all he could do was lay there.

“It’s still by our tent,” Scootaloo groaned, “I’m not skilled enough to call him at a distance like my aunts can do with their Dolls. He has to be able to hear my voice.”

“There’s no way we’re risking going for the tent grounds,” said Silver Spoon, rising from her seat at one of the tables as another hefty impact shook the wall. Beside her Diamond Tiara was standing with a look of fear and apprehension on her face that battled with a clear desire to stay near her friend.

“W-what should I do, Silver Spoon? I’m, I’m supposed to be like you, right? A Quincy? H-how do I make a bow?”

“You can’t, right now,” said Silver Spoon, “It takes dedicated training, even with your pedigree giving you better potential than most. Just stay back for now, and let me and the Cutie Mark Crusaders handle this.”

“But I-” Diamond Tiara began to protest, but Silver Spoon held the other girl’s shoulder with a comforting grip.

“It’ll all be okay, Diamond. Trust me.”

Diamond tiara gulped, but nodded and moved back to take cover amid the other students, many of whom had grabbed up chairs or other objects for defense. Silver Spoon nodded before turning to the back door and joining the CMC there. She shook loose the Quincy cross around her wrist and called forth a blue bow of spirit energy just as Applebloom and Sweetie Belle both summoned their Fullbrings.

Many of the other students backed away, while Lyra kept working on the wounded.

With a rumbling, guttural hiss the snout of a Cragadile poked its way through the doorway, its wide jaws opening to snap at the nearest target; in this case Scootaloo. The girl might have been young, but she was athletic, nimble, and quite a bit stronger than her frame would suggest, so she had little trouble dodging backwards from the croc’s teeth.

Applebloom’s whip cracked out and struck the creature right between the eyes, dazing it and making it shake its head and shoulders back and forth. The movement only smashed open the hole where the back door had been wider, causing a ceiling beam to fall and smash one of the nearby tables, trapping one girl’s leg.

Derpy rushed to that girl’s side, and as Timber watched, to his astonishment, the slim blonde actually lifted the ceiling beam a few inches with one hand while grabbing the other girl with her free hand and was able to drag her clear. The girl, an unremarkable looking person with green skin and hair, mumbled something incoherent as Derpy carried her back towards Timber’s location.

Timber paid the girl little mind, almost as if she slid from his consciousness, as he stared at Derpy. “How did you lift that?”

“No time for questions. Keep an eye on her, would you?”

“Huh?” Timber had to almost force himself to realize the green skinned girl was still there, collapsed by the table with her knees curled up as she hyperventilated. She had a head wound that was dried up with matted blood, and Timber realized she probably needed more medical attention than he did. “Y-yeah! I’ll take care of her, but what about-”

“Cool, thanks!” Derpy said, and spun around to rush towards the door to the kitchen.

Meanwhile the Cragadile was still trying to shove its bulky body inside the building to get at all the tasty morsels inside, but was held back by Applebloom continuing to smack it upside the head with her while, while Silver Spoon fired off slow but precisely aimed arrows that struck its softer underbelly whenever it raised its head.

“Can’t that wand do anything?” Silver Spoon asked, jumping to the side as the croc smashed its head towards her.

“I’m trying!” said Sweetie Belle, having aimed her want at the creature and struck it with a silvery beam, which wasn’t having any apparent effect, “I don’t think it’ll work on something this big. It’s too huge to take inside.”

“Phrasing, Sweetie Belle, phrasing!” shouted Scootaloo, who’d grabbed a discarded chair to throw at the corc, “Besides your wand absorbed a whole tree! This thing isn’t bigger than a tree!”

“I think it’s different if it’s something alive. Uh, that and it feels like there’s something pushing back against my wand. I don’t know what to-” Sweetie Belle paused mid-sentence, her eyes locking onto the ceiling beam that had fallen down. “Hold on a sec!”

She turned her wand towards the ceiling beam and cast out the stream of glittery light towards it, engulfing the wooden beam and sucking it into the orb on her wand.

“Uh, how’s turning into that gonna help?” asked Applebloom, cracking her whip to keep the croc’s attention as it got one arm pulled into the widening hole in the wall.

“I’m not going to turn into it. My wand can expel stuff it absorbs. Watch!”

Sweetie Belle aimed her wand, and in a flash of light, the ceiling beam came flying out of the orb at remarkably high speed. It struck the Cragadile dead on, shoving the massive beast backwards. Silver Spoon and Applebloom capitalized on this and struck together, whip and bow both aiming for the same spot together as they slammed into the monster’s snout and managed bloody it.

“Perfect,” Scootaloo said, seeing the Cragadile had taken several steps back from the hole it’d ripped open in the wall. From somewhere in the camp center the girl had found a bull horn, one that both Gloriosa and Timber had used for organizing camp events. With it in hand, she rushed to the hole and raised the bull horn up, shouting into it.

”Alerion; Zeige Dich!”

The shout carried into the distance, through whether it reached her scooter or not was unknown. However, the Cragadile recovered it’s senses, and seeing the girl in front of it, hissed and charged forward. Scootaloo scrambled back, but was slower this time, her foot getting caught by the monster’s jaw. She yelped as she was yanked off her feet and dragged backwards.

Her friends moved to help her, but faster still was a grey blur that rushed past them and jumped out into the open.

Derpy, wielding a huge, cast iron frying pan, performed a surprisingly elegant front flip and landed right on top of the Cragadile’s snout. She then raised the frying pan with both hands and smashed it down atop the creature’s skull with enough force to make its eyes go cross and for the beast to flop to the ground in a stunned heap.

“Wow, um... thanks?” Scootaloo said, regaining her feet and gingerly checking her foot. She was lucky that it had been caught between the teeth, rather than impaled by any of them. It was sore and bruised, and she was pretty sure she’d twisted the ankle, but she could still walk.

“No problem, heheh!” Derpy replied with a happy chirp, twirling her frying pan while presiding over the fallen Cragadile with a pose akin to a knight having felled a dragon. “I knew all those self-defense lessons mom gave me would come in handy one day.”

“Self-defense techniques?” inquired Silver Spoon with incredulous eyes, “That doesn’t explain the half of it.”

“Ain’t no use wonderin’ ‘bout it now,” said Applebloom, “Git yerselves back inside ‘fore more o’ ‘em show up. We gotta figure out how ta barricade this hole!”

Just then the ground began to quake and rumble. The girls all looked around in confusion, but Silver Spoon’s perceptive eyes spotted the bulge in the ground beneath the Cargodile. She swiftly shouted, “Derpy, jump!”

Derpy was already moving, springing away like an expert acrobat. She was just in time, too, for the ground beneath the stunned Cragadile exploded upward in a tower of dirt and grass. The croc hissed and bellowed as something gigantic and worm-like grasped it in jaws that opened up in three portions, pink and discolored. Black tentacles shot out of the tooth laden maw and wrapped around the doomed Cragadile as it was dragged into the giant worm’s mouth, swallowed whole in a single gulp. Several black, orb shaped eyes turned to look at the camp center, the pinkish head sitting atop of a thick and gargantuan purple body swaying towards the building as it blocked out the sun.

“Whoa nelly...” Applebloom whispered in frightened awe, “Don’t suppose anybody’s got themselves a’ rocket launcher in their back pocket, do they?”

Her question was punctuated by the Taztlewurm opening its mouth and letting out a shrill, warbling roar.

----------

Glorisa was starting to let herself hope that they were getting the situation under control, despite how very much out of control things seemed to be. With the help of Sunny Flare, Indigo Zap, and Sugarcoat adding the power of their Quincy weaponry and alchemy to the mix, the onslaught of giant crocodile monsters was fast thinning out. It helped that Pinkamena and Pinkie Pie were so very capable, to the point where the pink menace was able to hold off three or four of the Cragadiles at the same time with powerful swings of that ludicrous hammer or Pinkamena herself lashing out with those disturbing mouths of hers.

Gloriosa was holding her own as well, albeit with some difficulty. She was in a mental state of continuous shock, and not just from the severity of combat. Not long ago, she’d witnessed the entire lake of Camp Everfree fly up into the sky as if controlled by some vast telekinetic force. The sky had become black as pitch across the span of the lake, and mere minutes after that a tornado of titanic water had smashed into the forest, ripping up huge swaths of trees. Gloriosa had frozen upon such sights, saved from being snapped up by a Cragadile only through intervention from Pinkamena. But Glorisoa couldn’t help it, she was seeing parts of her home being destroyed, piece by piece. She remembered being taken out on that lake by her parents, learning to fish or sail. Now the entire lake was an empty, muddy lakebed.

Even when she was able to focus on the fight, she was dealing with the strain of continuous magic use. She’d never tried calling upon the geodes magic to this degree before, and she could feel the strain on herself from doing so. It was like her spirit was a well that was being drained through a hose. She was creating thick pillars of vines and roots left and right, tying up Cragadile legs or wrapping their jaws shut, leaving them vulnerable to the Quincy’s attacks for Pinkamena to sweep away with her hammer.

The tactic was working, with Gloriosa at the center controlling and limited the monster’s movements while the others both circled her to protect her, and finish off the crocs she stopped, but Gloriosa was breathing heavily now. Her sunny yellow shirt was soaked through with sweat and her hair was matted around her face. She wasn’t sure how long she could keep this up, but it looked like most of the Cragadiles were down, save for one that had slipped behind the building.

“Huff... somebody... huff... go after that one... “ Gloriosa said, “Before it... it gets into the back door.”

“We’ll finish these ones off first,” Sugarcoat said, blasting an immobilized Cragadile in the eye with one well placed shot from her pearl colored bow, “You’re too tired to leave alone with any of these things still alive.”

“That won’t take long,” purred Pinkamena as she opened a massive, fang filled mouth along her left arm, which stretched out like taffy to engulf the head of another immobilized crock, “Mmmhmm, so satisfyingly crunchy! Pinkie, we’ve got to have crocodile more often.”

“Ewwwww, Mena. Don’t talk with your mouth full!”

“Pfft, I do what I want.”

Sunny Flare rolled her eyes, “It doesn’t matter. I think that was the last of them. Indigo and I can go finish off the one that got behind the building-”

They all felt the tremors in the ground, and looked at each other in bafflement.

“Anybody else feel that?” asked Indigo, just before there was a sound of erupting earth from the other side of the camp center. All of the girls could turn to see the sight of the gigantic pink and purple worm rearing up over the building, easily topping fifty feet.

Sugarcoat adjusted her visor much as she once did with her glasses, “Am I seeing this right? Is that a giant peni-”

The worm roared at something on the ground behind the building and dove its head down. They all heard screams and shouts from that side of the camp center. This forestalled any further questions and galvanized them all into action.

First, the Quincy girls all jumped up as one to reach the roof of the camp center, even as that roof shook under the impact of the Tatzlwurm. The trio split up as they fired their bows, aiming for the creature’s head. Indigo Zap was a tad slower, her artificial legs giving her trouble as she had to focus reishi into controlling them, but her electric laced arrows shocked the worm and caused it to briefly shake its head in confusion. Sunny Flare’s smaller darts didn’t inflict much damage, but she kept the barrage strong from both dart guns while Sugarcoat used Hirenkyaku to leap higher and aim a potent shot at the creature’s head.

The arrow struck and stuck in, but hardly seemed to slow the Tatzlwurm down as it roared and opened its mouth to shoot its black mouth tentacles at Sugarcoat. She zipped away with a swift dodge, but was caught by surprise as the tentacles turned and followed her, one of them catching her arm and yanking her towards the Tatzlwurm’s mouth.

Pinkamena jumped up, smacking the tongue with the Pinkie Hammer. There was a cartoonish stretching sound effect as the hammer’s impact pulled the tentacle down like a big rubber band, Sugarcoat somehow held in place on the other end like a cartoon that physics hadn’t caught up to yet. Then having pulled the tongue all the way down to the ground, Pinkamena snickered along with Pinkie Pie, removing the hammer and letting the tentacle snap back, which then struck the Tatzlwurm in the face with a loud whip crack.

It howled and let go of Sugarcoat, and then roared at Pinkamena and smashed it’s whole body towards her.

Seeing the danger to the camp center if the worm hit, Gloriosa reached out with one hand while grasping the geodes tightly with the other, pouring as much will as she could into what she was trying to do. The magic coursed through her, but something else was there to, like a yawning hole from which her desperation poured forth. She didn’t notice the way her eyes were being taken over by streaks of black, or that the crackling glow of magic from the gems was now tinged with red.

The camp center’s roof also glowed, green primarily, but with small arcs of red as the wood of the building shifted and grew under the magic Gloriosa poured into it. Around Pinkamena a network of interlocking vines grew, forming a protective dome that took the brunt of the Tatzlwurm’s blow. The wood and plant matter still broke and snapped under the monster’s powerful weight, but it bought Pinkamena time to get clear, and the Quincy girls an opening to fire another barrage of arrows to nettle the massive worm.

As Pinkamena landed back on the ground, she gave Gloriosa an odd look. Sensing her Fullbring’s mood, Pinkie asked, “What’s up, Mena? We’ve got a worm to whack! Stop staring at Glori just because her blouse is all soaked with sweat and she’s kinda showing.”

“It’s not that, you dolt. Just now, didn’t you feel it?”

“Feel what?”

“...Never mind.”

Firing off another arrow, Sugarcoat stood on the edge of the roof just above them, “Stop chattering and get everyone out of the building! It can’t take another hit like that!”

“Whoopsie, good point! Mena, let’s get everybody out!” Pinkie said, and Pinkamena didn’t argue, making a beeline for the front doors. She didn’t even need to bother, as those doors opened up and Lyra came out, carrying an injured Bon Bon, who looked as if she’d gotten a piece of wooden debris caught in her leg.

“Everybody out!” Lyra said, being followed by a steady stream of campers.

Inside it was possible to see that at the back of the camp center Applebloom was trying to do some damage to the Tatzlwurm with her whip, although the beast’s thick body was shrugging off the blows with seeming ease. Silver Spoon was doing the same with her bow, while waving everyone else back, including Sweetie Belle, Derpy, Scootaloo, and Diamond Tiara.

“Go! Me and Applebloom will escape out the back!” Silver Spoon shouted, and the others reluctantly obeyed, if only because there wasn’t much else they could do against this behemoth monster.

Gloriosa could see her brother bringing up the rear of the group, being helped by Derpy as they both carried a dazed girl between them, the same green haired girl with the brown shirt who had the head wound. There was a bit of a jam of people at the front doors, so it was taking a minute for everyone to get clear, and in the meantime the Tatzlwurm was flailing about to try and crush the tiny creatures buzzing around it.

Applebloom and Silver Spoon were forced to run past where the worm had emerged from the earth, leaving them more exposed in the open, but getting themselves clear of the monster’s body as it smashed the walls of the camp center. The Quincy were still trying to drive it back, but the Tatzlwurm was in a frenzy, ignoring the sting of their arrows for the moment. Pinkamena was helping yank people through the door.

Gloriosa feeling nearly drained, tried to bring up some more vines to wrap around the Tatzlwurm to restrain it, but it’s strength was immense and the vines snapped almost as fast as Gloriosa could summon them to wrap around the creature.

Then a piercing cry was heard and a huge, stone shape descending from the sky and slammed into the Tatzlwurm’s head with an impact that could be heard across the entire camp.

Alerion raked stone talons across the Tatzlwurm’s face and stabbed with his beak, drawing blood from the monster. The worm made a warbling cry and smashed its head back at the Doll, Alerion’s body of hardened, spiritually charged stone taking the blow well, but still knocking him to the ground. Alerion recovered fast, rolling up and spreading his wings to take to the air again. The Tatzlwurm disgorged its many black tongues, wrapping them around the Doll, and the two struggled back and forth, spiritually animated stone contesting against the might of a magical titan.

“Alerion, just bite the damn things!” Scootaloo shouted, having gotten a safe distance away with Silver Spoon, both girls standing by the entry arch into Camp Everfree.

“Brilliant idea, hatchling!” Alerion replied in a tone that made it difficult to tell if he was being sarcastic or not, but he did use his beak to savagely bite the tentacle tongues holding him. His stone beak severed one, then two in quick succession, green blood spurting from the wounds. The Tatzlwurm screamed, rearing back and letting go with it’s tongues. The motion was so violent it lost its balance and fell back towards the camp center.

Gloriosa’s heart jumped up her throat as she saw that colossal body falling towards the building. Most of the students were out, but her brother, Derpy, and the wounded girl were still just inside, a mere few steps from the doorway.

With a grunt of effort Gloriosa tried to raise a wall of roots to stop the Tatzlwurm’s fall, but it’s weight and momentum were too great. The roots shattered first, then the camp center’s roof. She saw Timber Spruce and Derpy make a dive for the doorway, carrying the unconscious girl with them. Then the whole building seemed to explode under the Tatzlwurm’s weight, a blast of debris and air pressure knocking everyone nearby over, including Gloriosa.

The air echoed with groans and coughs from dozens of students slowly getting back to their feet. Gloriosa felt dizzy as she did the same, turning shocked eyes towards the destroyed remains of the camp center. She looked around desperately, and spotted Derpy, Timber Spruce, and the unknown girl laying nearby. They must have just barely gotten clear in time, but her relief was short lived as Gloriosa saw blood seeping through Timber’s shirt from where a sharp chunk of wood debris had pierced his side like a javelin.

“Timber!”

She staggered over to him, falling to knees by his side, one hand over her mouth while the other hesitated over the chunk of wood. Pulling it out would be dangerous without having a way to stop the bleeding. Next to her, Derpy rolled over and sat up, coughing, then upon seeing the damage, swiftly leaped to her feet.

“Oh no! Where’s the first aid kit? Lyra!?”

“I-I’m coming!” Lyra shouted, rushing over, medical kit in hand. She looked between Timber Spruce and the girl with the brown shirt, who lay unconscious now. “I, uh... dang it what do I do?”

Gloriosa had already checked to make sure Timber was still breathing, and although she didn’t want to look away from her brother, she did the same with the unconscious girl. Both were still alive, but were in such bad shape she wouldn’t be surprised if that didn’t last very long. Internally she was in a state of absolute panic, but she didn’t have time to process those feelings, because a moment later the ruin of the camp center shifted.

Bursting upwards, the wounded Tatzlwurm roared, shaking its head as it homed in on the creatures below it. Now far more furious than it was hungry, all it wanted to do was smash everything around it. It began to do just that, rearing back to slam it’s body down on the dozens of helpless humans beneath it.

However, in that moment, something snapped inside Gloriosa.

Her home, all but in ruins. Her brother, bleeding out and possibly dying in front of her. Nameless beasts invading the forests she loved so much. Strange factions from a spirit world she’d never known existed fighting their war over the remains of her once peaceful life.

It was too much for her spirit to bear. There was also a font of powerful magic ready to react to the emotions boiling inside her... alongside another power that Gloriosa wasn’t aware was there, but had been waiting for just such an occasion of overwhelming negative emotions to properly bloom.

“No...MORE!

Exhaustion be damned, she let the floodgates open on the geodes as much as she could, searing her senses with the magic that poured through her as she stood up and threw all of her rage, fear, and hate towards the Tatzlwurm. Her eyes became fully dark, the sclera turning coal black as her iris’ shifted to a burning yellow. Emerald colored magic flickered over her body, then exploded outward in a wave.

The ground burst upward beneath the Tatzlwurm as gigantic, thick roots almost as wide as it was rose around it. Sharp shorts, almost like blades, sprouted from the roots, each encased in emerald magic that was tinged along the ends with crimson red. The Tatzlwurm was caught by the roots, halting it’s slam instantly. The roots not only handled the Tatzlwurm’s weight, but the thorny blades upon the roots cut through its hide with ease, spraying green blood everywhere.

Gloriosa held her hands out like claws, her face a fearsome grimace, and she clenched her hands like she was squeezing something. The roots responded to her, squeezing the Tatzlwurm and wringing it like a wet towel. The Tatzlwurm shrieked and shook, but was held fast by the towering roots and their unnaturally sharp thorns.

Nearby, the Quincy girls all stared at Gloriosa in mute shock, and while they were hardly alone in doing this, those three, along with Pinkamena and Pinkie Pie, were sensing something else that was the root of their surprise.

“Sugarcoat, is that...?” Sunny Flare said, mouth agape.

Sugarcoat touched her visor, carefully examining the information the device was providing her, as it’s entire ability to allow her to see was based upon reading reishi particles. Even without the visor, she’d be able to sense the same thing the other spiritually aware people were.

“There’s no doubt. Hollow energy.”

“But how?” Indigo Zap said, “She’s a normal human!”

“Does that freaking look normal to you, Indigo!?” yelled Sunny Flare, gesturing at Gloriosa.

“Whoa! Glori! H-hey, you need to calm down!” shouted Pinkie Pie, her hammer form gaining a massive sweat drop as it wiggled in Pinkamena’s hands nervously, “There’s some seriously bad mojo coming off of you!”

“Oh relax,” Pinkamena said, “She’s dealing with the jolly pink sausage. Messily, too, which hey, extra points for style.”

The scene was cut rather mercifully short as Gloriosa wasn’t trying to draw things out, just get through the Tatzlwurm’s hide. Once she was able to sense the roots get through, she ended it as quick as she could with a sharp gesture that saw the roots swiftly saw their way through the beast entirely, leaving two severed halves to fall to either side of the camp center’s flattened remains.

The moment it was done, Gloriosa’s anger drained out of her, leaving a cold, sick feeling in its wake. The magic, however, wasn’t gone, and neither was this new, strange sensation of a chasm opening in her chest. This feeling was accompanied by a sensation of cold power in her limbs that somehow sat alongside her exhaustion and left her limbs numb. And inside her mind, she heard a voice.

”...You’re ready. Come to me.”

Gloriosa’s hearing faded, gaining a ringing sensation in her ears as she looked around, trying to find the voice. Her eyes were drawn towards Timber, and she raised a hand towards him. She had to help him. The voice spoke again.

”Bring him. I will save him. Together we will be whole.”

“-orisa? Gloriosa! Hey!”

Someone was shouting at her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that more people had arrived. Sunset Shimmer, Rarity, and Fluttershy were all here. Strange, they didn’t look like Gloriosa remembered, with Sunset Shimmer in black robes, carrying a flaming sword and bright glowing shield, or Rarity in that crystalline red dress, or Fluttershy shining like a gold spirit surrounded by a halo.

Yet for some reason them shouting at her, or any of the events around her felt so much more distant. All that mattered was saving Timber, and finding the voice. She could feel it, down beneath the earth. She had to go to it. She had to bring Timber to it.

”Yes. Come now, swiftly. No one else can help but me, once we’re whole.”

Gloriosa couldn’t ignore the voice. It was as if it had a grip of thorns on her heart, yet that grip felt like it had always been there, even before she’d found the geodes.

”Because you’ve always been mine, child. Your family has carried the seed I’ve planted for generations. Now, it’s time for the seed to return to me.”

Sunset was suddenly in front of her, grabbing her arm. Gloriosa could see the fear and concern flaring across Sunset’s eyes, and the girl’s grip on Gloriosa’s arm was strong. Sunset’s mouth was moving but it was as if her voice was coming from very, very far away.

“...an you hear me? You’ve got to... Hollow inside...”

To the side, she could see Fluttershy moving towards Timber Spruce, and the voice all but screamed inside her head with the force of a typhoon.

”They’re going to keep you from bringing him to me! If that happens, I can’t heal him! Come to me, NOW!”

Glorisa was confused. Her mind felt like it was wrapped up in thorny vines, much like the kind she’d created with her magic. Fear and anger flared up again as she saw Fluttershy reaching for Timber. Magic, and more of that dark power from her core, flared up and she swept her arms out, throwing Sunset away from her.

“Get away from him! Get away from us! Leave my home alone!”

She had to escape. Escape with Timbre. Find the voice. Roots ripped themselves from the ground, lashing around her and Timber. Fluttershy glided back with shocking grace, her expression hurt and worried. Sunset cut some of the roots away with her flaming sword, but by then Gloriosa had thrown herself over Timber.

Her whole body felt cold, yet it was an empowering cold. In fact she was feeling stronger by the second. She didn’t notice the way a thick, white substance was forming in the air around her face, and slowly plastering it over the left side of her features in the form of a partial, bone-white mask. A mask of a beautiful woman bearing wicked fangs and a crown of thorns.

”I’m close. Beneath the earth. Come...”

The voice beckoned, and Gloriosa followed. Roots formed a cocoon around her and Timber and they both sank into the deep, dark ground.

----------

“DAMMIT!”

Sunset knelt by the hole in the ground where Gloriosa and Timber Spruce had just been, looking down into the depths as her frustrated shout echoed down the shaft. She couldn’t even tell how deep the pair had gone, and couldn’t see them anymore. Sunset’s brain was muddled with equal parts confusion, fear, and regret. How had things gotten so out of hand!?

It was bad enough that there was a mysterious Quincy assassin running around. It was bad enough that she had no idea if Twilight and Adagio’s plan was succeeding or not. Bad enough monsters from her home world were appearing here on Earth and terrorizing people.

Now Gloriosa was out of control, channeling far more energy from those mysterious geodes than she should be able to, and to top it off she had a Hollow inside her!? Or at least, it sure felt that way, from the reiatsu Sunset felt when she’d arrived on the scene. She and Rarity had been rushing to the camp as fast as they could. Fluttershy, surprisingly, caught up with them with little trouble, saying she’d left Gilda and Smooze in a safe place along with the still unconscious Lemon Zest.

Sunset was a tad worried about leaving those two Hollows alone like that, but Fluttershy seemed to believe things were okay, and Sunset was inclined to believe her friend on the matter. Besides, they’d just gained another fish to fry.

“I don’t believe what I saw,” Rarity said, shaking her head, “It’s just like with Ditzy Doo or Starlight Glimmer. Those eyes, the mask... but how?”

“Was asking the same question a minute ago,” said Indigo Zap.

“It doesn’t matter right now,” Sugarcoat replied in her usual, frank manner. “We can’t let her just run off like that. Our job is still to protect human life, and right now she still counts.”

“Oh my, and she took her brother with her, and he looked very hurt,” Fluttershy said, hanging her head, “If she’d just let me near him, I could have healed his wound in just a few seconds.”

Sunset took a deep breath, letting it out slow as she forced herself to think clearly, “You still can, once I go get him back. Right now, there’s injured here that need your help.” She gestured at the girl nearby with the obvious head wound. “Take care of her first, then anyone else who’s hurt, Fluttershy. Rarity, Pinkamena, Pinkie, guard the camp.”

“Wait, what about Rainbow Dash and Applejack? Weren’t we going to go help them?” Rarity asked.

“They’ll have to hold out on their own for now. This just shifted our priorities,” Sunset said, and Pinkamena walked over, hefting Pinkie’s hammer form over her shoulder.

“You’re planning to hop down that hole after the crazy lady, aren’t you?” Pinkamena said, licking her lips.

“I can’t just let her go while she’s like that. I need to bring her back, along with her brother.”

“Oooh, that’ll be super dangerous,” Pinkie Pie said, her hammer head drooping, “Can’t we come with you?”

“I need you guys to protect everybody up here,” Sunset said, turning a reassuring smile towards her friends, “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I’ll be back soon, with Gloriosa and Timbre. Just keep everyone safe in the meantime.”

“You can count on us, Sunset,” Fluttershy said, already kneeling next to the unconscious girl with the brown shirt, laying her hand upon the girl and suffusing her injured body with a radiant golden glow. Sunset saw the girl’s head wound close up smoothly, and the girl even began to stir, murmuring.

Sunset nodded, knowing she was leaving the camp in good hands. Giving them all a final nod, Sunset jumped down the hole into the earth, wondering just what she would find down there when she caught up with Gloriosa Daisy.

----------

“Hah... hah... that’s thirty nine...” Applejack said, her gauntlets and leg armor steaming from the number of blasts they’d unleashed in fighting what appeared to be a near endless horde of monsters that kept swarming out of the Everfree’s depths. At her feet were the broken remains of wooden wolves, several of the scorpion cats, and a new set of enemies in the form of giant, rock covered crocodiles.

Rainbow Dash was flying above Applejack, her energy wings providing a steady rain of lightning bolts that broke up the horde and kept it from amazing too much to surround Applejack. At the same time, Rainbow Dash was fully engaged with the six armed bug bear, which while badly wounded was still doggedly pressing both girls with its own continuous magical attacks.

“Hey! No fair counting while I’m busy keeping this jerk off of you!” Rainbow Dash complained, dodging a set of green, flaming spheres the bug bear threw at her. She wasn’t having trouble evading the attacks, but the spell was homing in nature, so the flaming spheres kept chasing her. Since the bug bear kept throwing more and more of them it left Dash flying about like she was being chased by a swarm of giant, angry fireflies.

“Don’t ya worry Dash, I’ve been keepin’ track o’ the one’s you’ve fried down here, too,” Applejack said, making a sharp spin as she kicked out with her right leg and sent a heel blast to take out another group of the wolven plant creatures that were trying to circle around her. “You’re up ta forty, by the by!”

“Cool, that means- waitasec, I got way more than that before you even showed up!”

Rainbow Dash turned into a bolt of cobalt speed as she rushed the bug bear. Her lightning spear made a cracking sound like a chorus of thunder as it assaulted the flying beast with powerful thrusts. The bug bear’s speed was utterly insufficient for evading Rainbow’s supremely swift strikes, so it had to rely entirely on the formation of a magical shield to protect itself. It’s one advantage was that it’s six arms let it weave six different spells simultaneously, so it could form it’s shield, maintain the homing fire spheres, and retaliate with a new spell in the form of a cone of black acid that shot out like spray from a hose.

Rainbow Dash’s shear speed let her vanish right out of the cone of acid’s path and while an afterimage of her was still left in place, she hammered the bug bear’s shield from multiple directions at once. To an observer it would appear as if at least twenty or so Dash’s were stabbing her spear into the shell of protective green magic all at once. The barrier cracked like a thin wafer under the blitzing attacks, but the bug bear was already teleporting away with another spell, while the homing spheres of fire it’d cast earlier caught up and swarmed through the spot it’d just occupied. Rainbow spun her spear in an electric blur, forming the equivalent of a solid disc of lightning power in front of her that deflecting the emerald spheres of flame.

Glancing at the ground, Rainbow Dash could see Applejack was holding the line still, but as she watched something strange happened. The horde of monsters had slowed down their advance, and were now slowly coming to a stop, or in other cases backing away. Had they finally had enough? Spotting the bug bear, Dash saw that it had teleported back towards the tree line and was hovering just above the forest a good distance away.

“What n’ tarnation are they doin’ now?” Applejack asked as Rainbow Dash landed next to her.

“Dunno. Maybe they’re just tired of getting their butts kicked by the two most awesome gals in Canterlot City?” Dash suggested with a smirk, holding out a fist. Applejack rolled her eyes but shared the smile and touched a gauntlet to Dash’s fist.

“Be nice if they’d had their fill o’ our boots up their kiesters, but knowin’ our luck I think they’re just catching their breath fer round two.”

As the pair watched, the majority of the monsters melted back into the woods, only leaving the bug bear behind. Rainbow Dash and Applejack shared a shrugging look, not at all sure what was going on. At least until the bug bear held out it’s six hands and started using them to form a particular large magical circle. With the formation of the circle, it flickered brighter, and then behind the bug bear a hole was torn in the air. The swirling blue portal opened tall and wide, even taller than the trees the bug bear was hovering over.

From the portal stomped a creature that dwarfed the trees around it. It’s body was somewhat reptilian, but thick and bulky well beyond what most lizards had. It stood on two stubby but hugely thick legs, and it’s wide body ended in a long, spiked tail at one end, and four necks that sprouted up to end in four independent heads. The heads had short snouts and wide, angled features, red spikes forming crests alongside otherwise swampy beige skin. Four sets of green eyes blinked at their surroundings, and one of the heads of the Hydra turned to the bug bear.

As Rainbow Dash and Applejack watched, the Hydra’s one head opened its mouth and... spoke? The language made no sense, it was purely garbled, guttural, and unintelligible to the two human girls, but the Hydra and bug bear exchanged words. The bug bear gestured at the girls, and looked genuinely fearful as he bowed its head to the Hydra before flying back through the very portal it had created. By the time the portal closed, the rest of the monstrous horde had vanished back into the Everfree forest, so only the massive four headed Hydra remained facing Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

“Uhhh, AJ, any clue what’s going on here?” Dash asked, “Because I’m a bit lost. Like, where did that thing even come from?”

“Yer askin’ me?” Applejack said, shrugging, “How the heck am I suppose ta know? What’s it even matter fer now? Whether it be a bunch o’ little critters, or one big four-headed critter, our job ain’t changed. We still keep ‘em from gettin’ close ta Camp Everfree.”

Author's Note:

Always a bit more to get to than I can really fit into one chapter, it feels like. This was mostly catching up with Celestia's fight with Grogar, and the situation with the girls at the camp, leading to Gloriosa's snapping point. I did want to do another scene with Twilight and Starswirl, but just didn't have it hammered into shape for this chapter, so it'll have to wait until next time. Everything in it's due time, I suppose.

Anyway, thank you all for reading, and as always I'm happy to hear any and all questions, comments, or critiques you folks might have for me. 'Till next time!

PreviousChapters Next