Episode 30: Threshold
Episode 30: Threshold
Twilight Sparkle didn’t even see the first arrow Lemon Zest fired at her. She merely felt the impact on her shoulder like someone had just fast pitched a baseball into it. The blow knocked her back a step, stunned by the sudden pain so much that she nearly lost her grip on her own bow. With wide, frightened eyes she looked at her shoulder, expecting to see an arrow of reishi buried into it, but to her surprise there were just a few fading blue particles of spirit energy and a small tear in her uniform where she could see a bruise forming on her skin. She wasn’t even bleeding, though the hit had been hard enough to hurt.
“What the hell was that, Lemon Zest?” asked Lightning Dust from the sidelines, “I don’t want to see you holding back or treating her with kid gloves!”
Lemon Zest, who stood in a casual, laid back position while still holding her unusually shaped bow at the ready, just rolled her eyes and said, “Teach, she didn’t even see that one coming! I don’t wanna smack around someone who can’t even fight back. That’d be seriously not cool. I’m just gonna knock out these three hits to win the match and call it good.”
As both the other Quincy had been talking Twilight had struggled to get her mind reoriented and focused. She hadn’t been prepared for just how fast Lemon Zest could fire off an arrow, but more than that she suspected there’d been something else to that attack. Even in pain and under pressure her mind worked swiftly and analytically. She judged by the nature of the impact on her shoulder that the arrow had come in from a strange angle, not dead on. Taking calming breaths, Twilight gathered her spirit energy. She wasn’t as helpless as Lemon Zest was assuming, and she wasn’t intending to go down without putting up a fight.
She had to prove herself worthy of being at this Academy, and advance forward, so she could one day stand beside her friends and protect them from the insanity of this pointless war.
Lemon Zest took notice of Twilight’s spiking reiatsu, turning her head to look at Twilight sidelong. Contrary to the girl’s seemingly easy going attitude, when she attacked there wasn’t any hint of hesitation or relaxation. Her hands move swiftly, almost too swift for Twilight to follow. Her right hand pulled back on a quartet of blue shining energy strings, drawing the two separate bows arching from either side of her bow’s central handle back, and released.
Twin arrows snapped out, but not in a straight line. The azure darts of energy twisted and curved erratically, like a pair of buzzing dragonflies. Only because Twilight had been expecting and looking for such an irregularity was she able to judge the timing and move. Hirenryaku wasn’t a technique she could use to its full potential without understanding how to use Blut Vene, but that wasn’t to say she couldn’t use it at all. She knew well just how much G-force the human body could handle, and was able to move in a short burst of speed, dodging to the side as the swirling twin arrows soared past where she’d been standing. It wasn’t the instant, high speed movement that Shining Armor had shown her earlier, but it was faster than a normal human could have hoped to dodge. Twilight felt the strain on her muscles and bones, and grit her teeth. She’d never been anything remotely approaching athletic, but the time spent training with Shining Armor and Cadence had prepared her to a degree, and she kept her balance as she landed a good twenty paces to Lemon Zest’s left, and then quickly aimed her own bow.
She was careful about the amount of power she put into her arrow. This was a sparring match, and she didn’t want to hurt Lemon Zest. While the other girl was more experienced and likely far stronger, even a small accident could lead to tragic results, so Twilight was careful to only put so much spirit energy into her shot as she let her arrow fly.
Despite her apparently laid back nature, Lemon Zest was alert and ready, not taken off guard by Twilight’s counter attack. The girl flickered out of sight as Twilight’s arrow sailed through empty air, impacting with the energy shield surrounding the sparring ground a moment later. Twilight sucked in a breath, her eyes darting around in search of where Lemon Zest had gone. A single moving shadow clued her into the the fact that Lemon Zest had gone up, and she snapped her attention upward to see the other girl hanging in the air, halfway through a graceful back-flip while still aiming her bow with easy accuracy. Twilight had all of a split second to react before Lemon Zest started firing off a barrage of a dozen arrows, each one coming at Twilight on a different rapidly shifting trajectory.
She threw herself forward, pushing spirit energy into bursts of speed from her legs in short, zig-zagging leaps. The force jarred her very bones and strained her muscles until Twilight felt certain she was near to snapping herself in half, but she did manged to weave through the rain of arrows that pelted the ground around her. Almost blindly she fired back as she moved, sending several arrows flying up towards Lemon Zest. The other girl responded simply by twisting her lithe body in mid-air, letting Twilight’s arrows zip past her harmlessly.
I can’t catch her at this speed. I need to move faster. I need Blut Vene.
Her brief observations of Shining Armor’s use of the power only gave her an experimental foundation of understanding. She understood that her body could act as a channel for her reiryuku, or spiritual energy in layman’s terms. Most Quincy techniques relied on a combination of that internal energy and the external spirit energy latent in the environment to power them. Blut Vene, however, was entirely internal. She needed to see her blood as a conduit, as if her circulatory system was akin to a electrical circuit board.
Send energy to one location, then close the circuit to contain it...
She concentrated, trying to coax her spirit energy into her hand as she’d seen her brother do, but she couldn’t take too much of her focus away from Lemon Zest, because the girl was already landing lightly on her feet a half dozen yards away, bow trained on Twilight.
Lemon Zest had the faint look of both irritation and concentration, almost as if she was a bit annoyed with Twilight that she was being forced to actually put effort into the match. Twin arrows of glowing light formed once more on either side of Lemon Zest’s bow and she let them fly. This time both arrows spiraled together into a helix pattern, and Twilight found she had no idea which way to dodge.
So she didn’t. Instead she planted her feet and fired an arrow of her town straight for the center of the helix. Her arrow ricocheted off of one of the spiraling helix arrows, causing both constructs of reishi to fly apart. The last remaining arrow, however, went on an erratic course that still sent it slamming into Twilight’s left leg with a force strong enough to knock her off her feet and lay her sprawled on her back.
“That’s two,” Lemon Zest said, not really sounding all that satisfied, “Just stop moving around and I’ll finish this, and we can all get back to doing things we want to. Seriously, you don’t need to prove anything. Lightning Dust is just being salty. Not like she’s got the pull to toss you out, even if she wanted to.”
“I can hear you, rookie,” said Lighting Dust, arms crossed and eyes flashing dangerously, “I can easily have your ass cleaning the showers for the next week.”
Lemon Zest shrugged, “Whatever.” She then aimed her bow once more at Twilight.
However Twilight had not remained motionless during the brief seconds of that exchange of words. All of her focus became devoted to trying to use Blut Vene. In the span of a few heartbeats she’d shunted spiritual power to several parts of her body. With each pulse of her blood she tried to emulate the pattern of energy she’d seen in Shining Armor. For an instant it nearly felt right. She couldn’t be certain, but there was a resonant echo in her that made it feel natural. As if it was just like taking a breath. Uncertainty tried to claw its way up from her reasoning mind, claiming she had no real way of knowing if she was using Blut Vene correctly, and that by assuming so she could easily get herself killed in the next few seconds.
But Twilight decided to trust her instincts.
As Lemon Zest fired another pair of arrows at Twilight, she moved. Parts of her glowed with red veins of reishi, probably too small for anyone not directly looking for it to see. When she moved, it wasn’t a low powered version of Hirenryaku, but a burst of speed fast enough to leave a sonic wake. G-forces that would have snapped her neck cleanly instead just felt like a heavy push on her body, now fully bolstered by her spirit energy in a full bodied Blut Vene.
Lemon Zest simply blinked in startled surprise as Twilight vanished in one instant, then appeared behind her in the next. Lemon Zest wasn’t even partially turned around when Twilight’s arrow caught her in the back.
In the very next instant Twilight had just enough time to realize something had also gone terribly wrong.
She’d intended the arrow to be restrained like before. Low powered like the one’s Lemon Zest had been using, with just enough strength to bruise. She wasn’t sure how she’d miscalculated, but the moment she’d released her arrow she knew with sickening, cold shock that it had a lot more force behind it than she’d intended.
The arrow hadn’t simply struck Lemon Zest.
It had gone clean through her, leaving a neat, quarter sized hole in the middle-right side of her back, perhaps just three inches from missing her spine.
Lemon Zest just stood there for a brief, shocked second, then started to fall over, her headphones slipping from her head to clatter to the floor.
Then in the very next moment everyone was shouting. Lightning Dust was at Lemon Zest’s side in a single eye-blink, catching the girl before she fully fell. Twilight heard Lightning Dust yell something about medical supplies and with speed that literally gave life to the woman’s name, she zipped off like lightning, taking Lemon Zest with her.
There were some more confused shouts, and a lot of Quincy cadets standing around either stunned or confused, but Twilight didn’t really see any of that. She’d simply slumped down to her knees, her bow vanishing from her limp hands as she stared at the spot Lemon Zest had just been, with a damp spot of blood on the white stone.
She then felt strong hands on her shoulder and saw Shining Armor was kneeling by her, looking at her with unrestrained worry. “Twilight? Twilight just focus on my voice, okay?”
“Shining? What did I just-”
“Shh, don’t say anything, just listen to me, and breath, okay? Just breath in, and breath out. Let go of the Blut Vene.”
She blinked, belatedly realizing she was still holding the power inside her body. She could feel its warmth surging through her. Gulping, she slowly tried to shake it off, surprised at how hard it was to let go, to force the spirit power back into her core.
“What happened...?” she asked, slowly trying to breath.
“You’re a pureblood Quincy, Twilight. One of the strongest in generations,” Shining Armor said with a heavy voice, “It was stupid of Lightning Dust to try to make you fight another cadet like that. Even more stupid of me to let it happen. When Lemon Zest kept hitting you like that, her reishi probably started a chain reaction in yours. It brought more of your latent abilities out. Purebloods can learn Quincy techniques instinctively, Twilight, especially when put in combat. When you used Blut Vene to get behind Lemon Zest, you didn’t realize it, but you instantly and instinctively switched to Blut Arterie to boost your attack. I know you didn’t intend to. It was just your Quincy blood, acting on instinct.”
“Is...” Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat, feeling a cold wetness in her eyes, “Is she going to be alright?”
“Lightning Dust is the fastest Quincy here. She’s taking Lemon Zest straight to the palaces infirmary.” Shining Armor squeezed her shoulder in a warm, comforting gesture, “Nothing beats Quincy medicine, and I could tell your shot didn’t hit her spine. She should be able to recover, as long as Lightning Dust gets her to the palace fast enough. I’ sorry, Twilight. I should have stopped this myself, but I didn’t think your power would come to the fore that quickly.”
Twilight shuddered, realizing just how easily that blow could have killed Lemon Zest instantly, with no chance at recovery. It left her feeling chilled straight to her marrow.
Off to the side, amid the Quincy cadets watching the scene unfold, Indigo Zap sucked in a breath and let it out in a slow whistle, “Damn. And I thought my first day here was rough.”
----------
It had been two days since her first encounter with Ember, or at least as close to two days as Adagio could estimate in this world without daylight. Grogar’s relentless experimentation left little coherent measure for the passage of time, so Adagio had to admit that for all she knew she’d been here for a much shorter length of time. Or longer.
Regardless, she’d waited patiently before starting her plan. Too soon equaled too eager. Grogar would see through such desperation. Manipulation was as much a factor of timing as it was persuasive argument. So she had held her tongue and been cooperative with Grogar. She of course had told him about meeting with Ember. There was no reason to hide that. She’d also mentioned Ember’s offer, in an off handed manner, not making any suggestions as to what to do about it. Grogar had been dismissive, at best, snorting at the notion. About what Adagio had expected.
Since then her life had been alternating between trips to the arena to test her limits, and time spent in Grogar’s primary lab to be poked and prodded by the Espada and his small army of “assistants”. These assistants consisted of quite a number of twisted Hollows with bulbous bodies and various deformed limbs. They didn’t seem to be quite like Arrancars, but weren’t normal Hollows either. More like tortured half-beings, no doubt cooked up in the very lab Adagio had to endure Grogar’s examinations in.
They weren’t dignified examinations, but there was a cold, clinical method to Grogar’s methods that kept them from turning to the realm of something creepy and far more disguising than they could have been. Grogar was solely interested in her body for its practical function, and nothing else. Thank the powers that be for small favors. Adagio endured it all with seething quiet, waiting for what she felt was the right moment.
“Master Grogar, may I speak?” she asked just after that day’s examinations were complete and she was dismissed to return to her ‘room’, which was just the same cell she’d woken up in days ago. The words, forced to barely sound demure, made her want to spit, but she kept control of her voice. She reminded herself that she’d danced this dance of manipulation for a long time, that it was part of her siren blood, and that no matter what form she took now, she was still a siren and that she would use every weapon at her disposal to sow the seeds of her enemy’s downfall. Including acting the part of a prisoner gradually accepting her supposed place.
Grogar, who had turned from her to take several tissue samples he’d extracted from her on that day’s examinations to test in a set of complex t looking laboratory apparatuses consisting of many liquid filled tubes connected to machinery, barely glanced back at her with a clear light of warning in his eyes.
“I grant you permission to speak, pet, but ensure they are words carefully chosen. I have no patience for games.”
“No games, merely a thought,” she said, moving as deliberately as she she chose her words. Body language was as much a part of manipulation as what one said. Adagio made sure her motions conveyed equal parts trepidation, deference, and casualness, as if what she was saying was something that had just come to her, and hadn’t been planned out in detail. “I told you of that Arrancar, Ember’s, plan. How she wanted to teach me the secret to evolving into such a higher state of being. She serves another Espada, one who is a rival of yours.”
Grogar’s voice cut sharply, “That fool Torch is no rival of mine. He is a simple minded creature whose power lies solely within crude destruction. Do not compare me to him, neonate!”
“No comparison, Master Grogar,” she said, having expected that outburst as she floated slowly closer to him, spreading her talons in a gesture of subservience, “I could tell by the mannerism of his servant that Torch hardly deserves the position he has. She too was... crude, and barely possessing intelligence worth noting. After all, her plan was flimsy, so easy mutable to serve your ends instead of Torch’s.”
This gained more of Grogar’s attention as he slowly turned from his work to regard her. Suspicion simmered in his eyes, but he’s voice carried a hint of intrigue, “Is that so? Go on.”
This was the critical moment. Here, now, her plan would either fall apart disastrously and she would likely know pain unlike any she’d been tortured with before, or she’d fix her hooks into this despicable man and pave the course to her eventual rise to freedom. A toss of the dice that relied solely on whether or not an Arrancar such as Grogar was resistant to a siren’s special magic... the magic of song.
”I know that your power is unrivaled.
Yet it seems so few give you your due.
If there’s one that I know,
Its that power’s not for show.
So why not make an example or two?
It had been a long time since she’d sung without the support of her sisters, yet to Adagio the act still came as naturally as gliding through the ocean depths. Her voice rang with resonate, slow grace, like dripping, fresh honey. Every word was laced with a steady, rhythmic pulse of siren magic, flowing freely and strong from the gem floating in the center of her Hollow hole. Elation and fear mixed inside her with equal measure as she watched for Grogar’s reaction. If he was resistant to this power, he’d immediately know something was wrong, because people generally don’t burst into random song.
When Grogar’s only reaction was to listen to her more intently, Adagio nearly shouted for joy. To his perceptions he’d hear her words, and be more likely to take them to heart, yet he’d never question the oddity of hearing her song. It’d sound as natural as common speech, yet carry so much more weight for the seductive magic pouring from each ringing syllable. She pressed on, floating around Grogar slowly as she sang.
Your foe has given you the perfect chance
To prove you are not a man to cross.
So take advantage of his plan
Plant a spy close as you can
And then in due time Torch shall learn the cost.
”
She bit back a sense of shock as Grogar spoke before she could continue into the next verse. “A spy, is it? You? And all I have to do is allow you to gain more power, and trust that you’d willingly spy upon torch for me? What reason would I have to place such trust in you, pet?”
So he’s not entirely without some resistance to the spellsong. But he doesn’t see it for what it is, only retains a skeptic mind. So be it, I can work with this, Adagio thought, shifting mental tracks. She’d hoped to grind in the potent suggestion of the song more, but she couldn’t risk pressing too far if Grogar had any measure of resistance to it. The seed had been planted, now it was time to water the soil while maintaining the illusion of deference. She ceased her singing, bowing low to him, putting just the right tremble of fear into her voice.
“Even I know trust isn’t something to put stock in, Master Grogar. But I know the price I’d pay for betraying you. Pain and fear is more reliable than trust. Even as an Arrancar, I could not hope to escape you. Also, since you seek to understand the source of my unusual power, wouldn’t seeing how my body reacts to such evolution only aid in your research? As I said, it was merely a thought. A chance to use Ember’s foolish plot against her and her master to gain advantage for yourself, which in turn would only make my position more bearable.”
She kept her head down, eyes lowered. Silence hung like a heavy, oppressive blanket in the laboratory, broken only by the background hum of the lab’s equipment. Then Grogar let out a small huff, a quiet snort of noise, then said, “I shall think on it, but do not get your hopes up, my greedy little pet. While a spy in Torch’s court would be useful, I may have better uses for you. Now return to your room and rest. Later this day we shall test your abilities against something stronger than the lesser Hollows I’ve sent against you.”
That news hardly filled Adagio with any confidence, but she was not going to complain. While he hadn’t fully embraced the idea she’d planted in his mind she knew it was only a matter of time before the notion slowly grew on him. In time he’d come to think the plan was his all along. With the seed planted all she needed to do now was survive, and wait.
----------
Rarity had, over the past twenty four hours or so, come to the distinct conclusion that Ditzy Doo, for all her banter, was something of a sadist.
Sure, she’d allowed Rarity and her friends occasional breaks to catch their breath, eat, take care of basic biological needs that a lady doesn’t go into details about, but those breaks usually only lasted an hour and then they’d be right back into fighting for their lives. And sanity. The arena being bathed in Hollow energy was seriously starting to have an adverse affect on everyone’s minds, combined with the general lack of sleep. The fact that the sky had darkened to night and then turned light with day once more told Rarity it’d been more than a day since they’d begun... but since her exhaustion had gotten to such a point that she’d stopped paying attention she actually didn’t know if that’d happened more than once.
She couldn’t feel her limbs very well anymore, and her wounded shoulder, beneath its brace, ached with a dull throbbing pain that brought tears to her eyes. Then there was the constant agitation welling up from her very core that she knew wasn’t natural. The Hollow energy of her Fullbring was growing ever more unstable, and it filled her mind with dark, unpleasant thoughts of violence that weren’t becoming of a well mannered young woman.
Still, she was handling it better than some.
“I’m gonna be mountin’ yer head over my fireplace ya damn slippery varmint!” Applejack roared, kicking again and again in a repeated succession of energy bursts from the bottom of her boots that smashed apart entire sections of colosseum stands as Ditzy Doo dodged among them with flickering fast movements.
“Still need to hit me first, farmgirl,” Ditzy said, spinning around to meet Rainbow Dash, who’d flown up to the top of the colosseum wall then turned sharply to dive down at Ditzy, flowing so fast that chunks of blown apart stone flew away in her sonic wake. Ditzy swung up a long, shapely leg to block Rainbow Dash’s haymaker punch, her momentum driving Ditzy back down off the coliseum stands and into the arena ground, digging a furrow in the ground for a dozen yards before Ditzy stopped her with a single hard punch to the gut that sent Rainbow Dash flying back into the wall.
Pinkie Pie came at her next, or rather Pinkamena did, both her arms extended into thick tendrils that gripped around the massive pink hammer that Pinkie Pie had transformed herself into. The hammer came down, and Ditzy side stepped it, but as the hammer struck the ground there was a strange wave-like distortion in the air and a crackle of pink, sparking energy that laced through the ground beneath Ditzy’s feet.
Suddenly the ground turned into a literal springboard, one that snapped up and sent Ditzy flying off balance with a cartoonish *sproing* noise. Rarity took advantage of Ditzy’s temporary off balance nature and leaped up, rapier poised to strike. She got to Ditzy’s height easily enough with a small touch of her foot on the air, where a small spark of light appeared. Ditzy had shown them all this little trick about being Fullbringers, and they’d managed to get the hang of it over the past day or so. Aside from the specific, potent Fullbrings they could evolve into higher forms, all Fullbringers could control the minor souls inside inanimate objects around them to one degree or another. That included the very air particles around them. With Fullbring it was possible to draw out the soul of the air to solidify it into a propelling point of compressed air that would allow them to jump higher and literally bounce off thin air. A sort of partial flight and method to move a fast speeds.
Rarity had gotten the best at the fine, finesse of this technique so far, and used it to appear behind Ditzy as she was flipped through the air by Pinkie’s odd hammer power. Her rapier struck out, fast as an adder’s fang. Ditzy’s reaction speed was terrifying as ever, one hand slapping the flat of Rarity’s blade, but Rarity had seen enough of the woman’s speed to fully expect that, and she instantly transmuted her rapier into its bladed whip form, jagged crystals forming the interlocking blades that she then spun around and lashed out at Ditzy from the opposite side she’d attacked before.
It almost caught Ditzy’ off guard, who tucked herself into a tight rolling ball, narrowly avoiding the red, lashing whip. Narrowly. When Ditzy landed on the ground, just a second after Rarity did, Ditzy ran a hand through her blonde hair, coming away with a few lopped away locks that Rariy’s whip had managed to cut free. Though Rarity couldn’t see Ditzy’s full expression past the Hollow mask, the woman’s voice was impressed.
“Getting better. If we had a month to do this, I could work miracles with you girls, with all that potential you five got locked away.”
Rarity smiled past clenched teeth, “Why thank you. The praise almost makes it worth being worked nearly to death.”
“Well, you all did understand that was a possibility before you agreed to do this,” Ditzy said flatly, “Speaking of which, shouldn’t be long now before we hit the ‘crunch’ of this, and so far only one of you has evolved to a safe point.”
“Whadd’ya mean by that?” Applejack asked, hands on her knees as she breathed hard, sweat falling from her chin.
“Only that just about any minute now you girls, save for Pinkie Pie, are probably going to start feeling a bit like you would if you had too many spicy enchiladas... seasoned with nitroglycerin.” Ditzy said, waving one hand in a vague gesture.
“Wait, why not me?” said the hammer, while Pinkamena rolled her eyes and licked her teeth.
“Who cares? All we need to do is make the dumb blonde bleed and we win! If your hammer did something useful maybe we’d already have won!”
“Hey, I’m totally super useful!” Pinkie Pie said, “Did you see the way we sent her flying off with that spring trap thingie! Heh, that was funny.”
“Indeed,” said Ditzy Doo, stretching her arms, “I’ve been watching what happens closely each time you use that hammer, and I think I’ve got a handle on how it works. Aside from being able to hit like a freight train, each time you strike with it the hammer distorts the world around it. It creates changes that basically work like... well, let’s call them ‘combat gags’ if you will. A springboard to send me flying unexpectedly. Or when it ate my Cero, complete with belch.”
Rainbow Dash glanced at the hammer, “So that’s what it’s been doing. I was trying to figure out why it turned a bunch of the arena into a vat of chocolate syrup a little while ago.”
She was referring to the pool of said sticky chocolate goodness that occupied a good ten meter radius portion of the arena on the south side, the result of some of the fighting a few hours ago where they’d nearly gotten Ditzy when she’d been stuck in the chocolate. It was indeed strange, and none of the girls had the time or energy to question it, but now that Ditzy brought it up Rarity could see what she meant. Pinkie Pie’s hammer form did seem to produce odd effects based around Pinkie Pie’s rather bizarre sense of humor.
“Probably has its limits, not unlike Fluttershy’s ability,” said Ditzy with a shrug, “Too much spirit energy possessed by your opponent would limit the distortions. Like me. Your hammer can only create inconveniences for me, nothing that’d outright take me out, because my reiatsu is so much higher that’s all your own spirit energy can manage. But the stronger you get, the more your hammer will be able to do. I’m willing to bet in time you’ll have reality distorting power on par with Discy’s Zanpaktou. That’ll be something to see, if you live that long.”
“Well we ain’t dead yet,” said Applejack, resuming a fighting pose, fists clenched, legs spread in a wide stance. “An’ we ain’t gonna stop ‘till we knock ya down a peg!”
Applejack surged forward like a charging elephant, hitting the ground so hard with each step Rarity could actually feel the ground shake slightly. However, just before Applejack got inside striking range, something strange happened. A crack appeared in the armor of her right boot, and red, flame-like energy started to jet out of it uncontrollably. Applejack cried out, losing her balance and hitting the dirt in a skidding roll, stopping just a pace from Ditzy. Her face was pinched in pain as she clutched at her leg.
“W-what in the...hay is this?”
“That’s what I was figuring would be happening soon,” said Ditzy, “Before long all of you will be experience the same thing. Your Fullbring’s are being overwhelmed by the Hollow energy of the arena.”
“What does that even mea-” Rainbow Dash started to say, then let out a scream of pain as her left wing suddenly convulsed, with an audible bone-snapping crack, and red lightning started to arch from cracks appearing all over the metallic appendage.
Fluttershy, who’d been hanging back from the battle due to how exhausted she’d been, barely able to stand, now rushed forward heedless of that, now that she saw her friends in pain. She reached Rainbow Dash first, trying to use her third-eye’s power to heal the damage, but it was as if the wing didn’t even notice the attempt to heal it. Furthermore, the moment Fluttershy started to pour more energy from her eye to try and heal the wing, she suddenly shrieked in pain as luminous red energy, like drops of ethereal blood, started to pour out of the third-eye, leaving Fluttershy to collapse to her knees.
Rarity, seeing her friends struck in such a manner, was able to mentally brace herself, fully expecting the same to happen to her; and it did. The armor plates on her elegant battle dress cracked, and shards like barbs of red crystal stuck out from them. She was torn into by lances of horrific pain, as if the same thorns were digging into her own skin, and Rarity barely managed to stay standing under the assault of agony. She could feel her Fullbring’s power thrashing about inside her like a wild animal, tearing at the bonds of its cage... her.
Pinkamena stared at all this with flat shock, and looked at herself as if expecting to explode or something, then said, “Huh, I feel fine. Why’s everyone else letting out such musical screams?”
“Like I said, it's the Hollow energy suffusing this arena,” Ditzy said solemnly, one hand on her hips, “While it has the benefit of enriching the power of a Fullbring, making it easier for that Fullbring to gain power rapidly and increase the chances of evolution, it also highly agitated and destabilizes it. Power continues to build, and without a proper outlet, without actual evolution occurring, the power just grows until it reaches a meltdown point. That’s what makes this training so dangerous, and potentially lethal. If your friends don’t evolve their Fullbrings soon, this will only get worse, until...”
She held up a hand, making a fist, then spread that fist and said, “Boom.”
“B-boom?” asked the hammer-shaped Pinkie Pie.
“They’ll explode. Violently. And die.” Elaborated Ditzy Doo.
Rarity, still maintaining her sense of clear thought despite all the pain she was enduring, said, “And Pinkie Pie is unaffected, having already evolved, yes?”
“Bingo. If the rest of you can do the same, you’ll be fine,” said Ditzy, and she tapped a non-existent watch on her wrist, “But the clock is now ticking. These effects you’re feeling are just the sign of the final countdown. I’d say you’ve got less than a day left to evolve your Fullbrings before it's too late. Do or die, girls.”
“Then there ain’t no other choice,” Applejack grunted, forcing herself to stand, despite the pain wracking her cracked leg, which still spewed small jets of crimson fire as she rose unsteadily to face Ditzy Doo. “Ya best hit us wit yer strongest attack.”
“Are you sure? I held back with that last Cero a lot,” said Ditzy, “I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason Pinkie Pie was able to absorb it. I go all out, I may accidentally kill you.”
“Yeah, well, we’re dead if we don’t pull this off, and I’m thinking the only way to make these Fullbrings come out is to go all out,” said Rainbow Dash, “So I’m with AJ. Hit us with your best shot, Ditz. If we can’t step up to the plate, then...” she gulped, showing a bit of the fear lurking underneath Rainbow Dash’s usual bravado, “Then it was going to be the end of the line anyway.”
Through she’d clutched her third-eye shut against the pain, Fluttershy stood on shaking legs now, and forced the eye back open, despite the ethereal blood dripping from it. There was a hard fierceness there, in all three of her eyes, as she breathed hard and stood beside Rainbow Dash, “I don’t know what else we can do, but I won’t let any of you down.”
Rarity took a deep breath, joining the line, as it were, and held her rapier up, “I’ve worked under tough deadlines before. I believe the proper term for such a situation as this would be ‘bring it on’, yes?”
Ditzy Doo regarded all of them with a grim gaze, then she simply vanished. She reappeared about twenty meters away, cracking her neck.
“Can’t say you girls are wrong. Discy would never approve of me going this far, but I think he didn’t realize just how far you girls would need to be pressed, either. The guy is kind of more old fashioned than he let’s on. So...”
Ditzy Doo extended her right arm out to the side, fist clenched, and suddenly a severe white glow surrounded her body. A jet of what looked like compressed air snapped out from her fist for a second, before her body erupted with an intense storm of what appeared to be both swirling, cutting air, and erratic arcs of white lightning.
“...I’ll go all out with this last attack. I haven’t even shown Discy this move, believe it or not. Even if I tried to hold back, I could only scale it back so much, so if you girls can’t defend yourselves this may well kill one or more of you.”
For a moment her expression softened, “Are you absolutely sure about this?”
Rarity looked at her friends, who all exchanged looks with each other. There was absolutely no doubting the fear present in all of them, or the fact that they all felt like they were at the ends of their proverbial ropes. They were all in horrible pain, exhausted to the brink. With the very possibility of death looming near, the only thing keeping any of them standing was the fact that they were standing together with equal purpose and will to live.
Like with many of the challenges they’d faced since coming together as friends, it was the very real power of that bond that kept them going.
And for Rarity, at least on a personal level, she was willing to sacrifice anything she had if it meant ensuring that her family and friends no longer had to fear the dangers looming over their lives. Ever since encountering that first Hollow that fateful night a few weeks ago Rarity had had to live with the constant fear that any one of the people she loved might be massacred by powers beyond their ability to defend against. She had had enough of that fear. No matter what she had to give of herself, her safety, her blood, her very life, Rarity would give it in a heartbeat if it meant protecting what she cherished.
Their present power just wasn’t enough to overcome Ditzy Doo’s might. That was the point of evolving their Fullbrings. If they couldn’t do it now, then it wasn’t going to happen at all.
Despite the writhing of her Fullbring, its unstable energy coursing through her painfully, Rarity could feel the sparking core of its potential as well. Her blood felt like it was ready to burst out of every pore in her body, and she didn’t feel any urge to fight that feeling. Let her give of her blood. All of it, if need be.
Seeing the resolve in their eyes, Ditzy Doo just nodded, and prepared to unleash her final attack. Blasts of white lightning ripped asunder the ground around her, and the back of Ditzy’s shirt ripped itself apart as the energy being shunted out of her body tore the fabric to shreds. Shock-waves of power radiated from her as she tested her legs, then said one word.
“Shunko.” (Flash War Cry)
Then she burst forward in a blast of speed and force unrivaled by anything Rarity had seen before, shattering the earth as she came at them.
The five girls from Canterlot High stood ready to face it, to whatever end.
----------
It was the ninth floor of the tower, and Sunset was learning all about the wonders of having a broken arm.
Mostly that they hurt like hell and became about as useful as a bottle of tabasco in an ice cream parlor. What was worse, it was her shield arm. Not only was she in constant, mind numbing pain from having to still carrying around the shield strapped to said busted limb, but she couldn’t effectively block anymore, which would have been extremely useful when facing the ninth floor constructs.
Unlike the other floors, the ninth already had a staircase present when she and Clover had dragged their wounded, weary bodies to it after barely having scratched by the eighth floor’s challenge, which had involved battling ninja-like skeletons that had been able to cloak themselves in that floor’s deep, encompassing shadows. Only Sunset deciding to risk lighting fire to the tower walls themselves had banished enough of the darkness to let them see their foes and mount an effective counter attack, but one of the sneaky skeletal bastards had snuck a final blow past Sunset's defenses with an iron staff that had caused the broken limb she now dragged around.
The ninth floor stairs were unlike the others, being huge stone steps as broad as a mansions, and flanked by tall lanterns of glowing violet flame held by carved skeletal figureheads.
Guarding these stairs were only two constructs, and they were... disturbingly familiar.
Both were about the size of young human women, and something about their stance gave them that feminine quality, but more than that each bore trappings that were eerily familiar. The skeleton on the left had scraps of orange and yellow hair falling past her scalp, and with a prideful and confident pose carried a broadsword covered in flames, and a large kite shield. The other skeleton carried itself with calm and calculating poise, bits of green curly hair hanging from its otherwise mostly bare head, and it twirled a staff in its bony fingers that had a ring blade on one end, and a metal spike on the other.
They were skeletal copies of Sunset and Clover, and the moment she and Clover had arrived at the stairs, both skeletons rushed into the attack with incredible coordination. Sunset had been trying to count the hours, and knew that getting up here had taken her and Clover at least two days, maybe three, and even with Clover’s provided provisions she’d brought along she and Clover both were at the very edge of their stamina. On top of their many sustained injuries, there was also the fact that this floor was the worst yet for how badly it suppressed their reiatsu. Sunset felt like she’d could barely move and lift her sword, let alone manage a Flash Step.
And her skeletal self was fresh, full powered, and as aggressive as she was.
The first blow nearly knocked Hokori from her grip and sent her sprawling back along the chamber’s stone floor like a penguin on ice. Clover didn’t fare much better, only managing to block one or two strikes from her skeletal copy before losing her balance as she tried to leap out of the way of one staff strike that caught her in the side and sent Clover tumbling in a heap.
“Clover! Back to back!” Sunset called, realizing their only chance was to stick close and coordinate their efforts. Alone, these copy skeletons would overwhelm then in moments.
Clover, grimacing, rolled to her feet and rushed towards Sunset, who in turn scrambled to meet with the other Soul Reaper. Their rattling, undead counterparts moved to intercept them, and both Sunset and Clover had to turn to meet their headlong rush. They did manage to get their backs to one another just as the skeleton constructs struck, and Sunset felt a margin of confidence feeling Clover covering her back as she swung to parry her copy’s fierce blow. Once more she nearly lost her grip on Hokori, her sweat soaked palms barely keeping hold of the broadsword. She tightened that grip, ignoring the numbing ache that made her arm feel like it was made of petrified stone, and counterattacked, slicing at the skeleton’s head and unleashing a burst of flame at the same time.
The flame was pitifully small, however, with how much her spirit energy was being suppressed, and the skeletal copy of her used its own shield to easily block her blow.
“Dammit!” Sunset cursed, struggling to keep her balance and stay standing as the skeleton pushed hard on the shield, nearly knocking her over.
Clover wasn’t fairing much better. She twirled Chishiki around, trying to mount an offensive against her copy, but she too was at her limit and her moves were sluggish and easily parried by the skeleton’s own spinning staff.
Then both skeletons moved at the same time, vanishing and then reappearing with motions akin to a Flash Step. They’d switched places, with Clover’s copy smashing hard at Sunset’s shield side with the ring blade, while Sunset’s skeletal doppelganger made a backhanded swing at the unprepared Clover.
Both girls took hefty hits. Sunset had no choice but to try raising her shield, and the pure storm of overwhelming pain on her broken arm made her choke out a scream as she was sent flying by the blow. Clover was hit as well, taking a large cut across her left shoulder that made her lose that arm’s grim on Chishiki, now stuck limply holding the staff with just her right hand as she used the last of her spirit energy to Flash Step fast enough to catch Sunset and prevent her from smacking into the far wall.
Feeling Clover gently set her down, Sunset gasped through the pain wracking her arm, dropping her shield.
“I...I don’t think we can win this, Sunset,” said Clover, her eyes narrowing and her pale face showing wide eyes as he looked at the blood seeping from the wound on her shoulder.
Sunset, breathing hard, trying desperately to push down the pain flooding her senses, forced herself to stand, “If we don’t, then all of this was for nothing! I won’t let that happen!”
“Sunset, listen to me, we can still retreat to the lower floors,” Clover implored, while their skeletal copies slowly advanced on them, “On the first floor I could use my healing Kido to recover our wounds. We could use the time to plan a strategy.”
It made a certain amount of sense. In fact it made a lot of sense, and given how badly they were both hurt it was clear continuing to fight would probably be an exercise in futility, not to mention get either of them killed. On every logical level retreating was the correct move.
Yet Sunset somehow knew that if they did retreat, then it would end up being the same as if they’d lost here and now. The challenge to overcome in this tower wasn’t just to defeat the ever increasingly potent constructs. It was to overcome themselves. They had to fight past their own limits, if they were to unlock the potential to ever face the likes of Captain Platinum on equal terms. They could fight, retreat, fight, retreat, over and over again... and it wouldn’t mean a thing because come the end the strength to push past one’s limits required that you kept going when you were certain you had nothing left to give.
Hokori’s voice laughed richly inside Sunset’s mind.
I was worried for a moment that you’d fail to figure out something so basic. I die if you do, but I can’t give you any freebies either. My own pride would never allow it. But now that you’re in the right mindset... it's time I showed you what I can really go.
Sunset blinked in surprise, glancing at the broadsword in her hand, which began to pulse with reserves of spirit energy that she hadn’t felt before. Time seemed to slow, the two skeletal doppelgangers coming their way with weapons raised to strike, but their motions suddenly seeming sluggish. At the same time Sunset felt her consciousness being pulled on, and she felt light headed as her vision swirled and yanked her mind into the inner world of her Zanpaktou.
----------
Clover felt her heart clench at Sunset’s words. Fear rose in her like a cold tide. Of course they should run! What was Sunset thinking!? Staying here to fight a losing battle was tactically foolish, even suicidal. Clover’s mind was hardly calm, but she could still analyze and calculate outcomes easily enough, and there was simply no way to win this scenario! Discord had given them a no win situation! But Sunset not only seemed pridefully determined to keep fighting, even at the cost of her life, but she didn’t even seem worried about the advancing skeletons now.
If anything, Sunset looked calm as she closed her eyes and started quietly muttering under her breath, as if speaking to someone. Clover felt a spike of spiritual energy radiating from Sunset’s Zanpaktou, and noticing that Hokori’s blade was starting to shimmer with heat.
What? How is she pulling up more spirit energy all of a sudden? We’ve been drained to our cores by this tower. She can’t have more left in her, can she?
It was then that she heard a clipped and coolly collected voice in her head, a voice she actually hadn’t heard directly in some time.
I am somewhat surprised at your lack of foresight, Clover. You are usually much swifter on the uptake than this, but I suppose you’ve never been placed in a situation quite this dire. Unlike that hot-headed brute, Hokori, I prefer to avoid unneeded risks, so I can provide you some hints.
Briefly confused, but then feeling a profound sense of comfort, Clover found her mind being swept away into another mental state. When she saw with her mind’s eye, she stood upon what looked like the surface of a infinite, still ocean.
The water didn’t ripple, even with her steps. From the ocean depths rose great stone obelisks, hundreds of them as far as the mental landscape could stretch. The obelisks were carved with great, massive shelves of stone, and within each stood countless tomes and scrolls. The volumes were huge, tall as a person, and covered with the dust of ages.
She took a few steps forward, until she found the spirit of her Zanpaktou.
“Chishiki,” she called, looking upon the spirit for the first time in a long while.
Chishiki turned his head, that of a great owl’s, his feathers a mix of rich brown and snowy white. He was perched upon a smaller stone obelisk that allowed him to rest comfortably while perusing one of the giant books with his wings. Giant, sharp yellow eyes regarded Clover critically.
“Since time is short I’ll not take long. Tell me, have you forgotten the reason you became a Soul Reaper?”
Clover stared at Chishiki, stunned for a moment before she recovered her wits, saying, “Well, of course I do. I couldn’t forget something like that.”
Those memories were the kind that never left a person, and Clover could recall them intimately. She could remember the streets of the Rukongai, the vast slum where countless souls dwelt. For some it was a peaceful and unchanging place, while for others in the less controlled districts it was a more dangerous area where some souls took advantage of the lack of Soul Reaper oversight to form gangs that roved the streets. Ironically the souls of the afterlife faced the same problems souls of the living world did; that they could be killed. Such souls were absorbed into the flow of energy that passed between the living world and the spirit world, to be reborn among the living once more.
A small comfort to any of those left behind, much as it was for those in the living world. It was the loss of the friends she’d made among her fellow children living in the Rukongai that had filled Clover at first with sorrow, which then had transmuted into a ravenous hunger for knowledge. Above all Clover had a desire to understand the nature of things and why the universe existed and functioned in the manner it did. That desire had led her to develop and train her latent spiritual energy to join the ranks of the Soul Reapers. Her hope had always been to use that position of power to seek even more knowledge, and perhaps in time find an answer to the state of the universe.
But then somewhere along the line of performing her duties as a Soul Reaper that desire had dulled. The flame of that hunger for finding knowledge had been weakened by the decades of day to day routine, until it was a passive hobby rather than a driving force.
“I wanted knowledge, above all else,” Clover said, and Chishiki nodded.
“I share that passion, and I feared perhaps you’d forgotten what it felt like. To seek ever greater knowledge requires ever greater risks, Clover. And power. Will you run every time that quest becomes difficult?”
“No...” Clover said, clenching her hands into fists, “I won’t. But not just because I want to unlock the secrets of this world.”
Chishiki tilted his head at her, golden eyes searching, “Oh?”
“Losing the friends I had back then, it's little wonder I substituted a quest for knowledge for ever building those connections again,” Clover said, her mind turning over the many events of the past few weeks, feeling a warm upwelling of feeling inside her, “But those girls, I can’t call them anything other than friends. The kind I don’t intent to lose. So yes, I want knowledge, but that’s not my only reason for wanting power anymore. Chishiki, will you keep helping me?”
The giant owl gave a small, amused hoot, turning the page of his book as he resumed reading, “Friendship, is it? Perhaps that, too, is worth seeking knowledge of. In any case, go, back to the waking world. I would hate for that uncultured arsonist to upstage me.”
Clover felt herself being drawn back out of the inner world with a cold snap of energy, followed by a surge of strength flowing up from inside her.
----------
Upon the tenth and highest floor of the training tower, Discord stood upon one of four balconies that actually opened up out to view the surrounding area. One part of his mind had kept focused on monitoring Sunset’s and Clover’s progress, but the rest had been sensing the developments taking place in the distance, upon the mountain.
He could barely see the arena Ditzy Doo had summoned to train the other girls, and Discord had felt the ebb and flow of their struggle until it reached the fevered pitch that he had known it had to. Even Discord, however, was surprised to feel the intensity of reiatsu that Ditzy summoned up, then, and he wasn’t at all sure what kind of technique she was about to unleash on those young ladies.
For a moment the overlapping explosions of intense spiritual pressures confused Discord’s usually keen senses, and in the distant arena he saw a torrent of energy erupted into the sky, colors of blue, gold, crimson, and white all intermixing in a swirling tornado of color. It was impossible to tell exactly what had happened, but one way or another Discord suspected the matter of those girls’ survival was resolved.
He was prevented from further trying to sense the details of what had occurred over there by a much closer explosion of spiritual energy from behind him. Intense heat hit his back in a pressure wave, and the entire tenth floor became bathed in a azure glow as a wave of cobalt flames smashed their way up the staircase alongside a burst of red fire. Both colors of flame flickered upon the floor and ceiling for a bit, until two forms emerged up the stairs, covered in bits of bone dust and ash.
Sunset and Clover both looked entirely beaten and exhausted, sporting blood soaked clothing and multiple wounds on their tired, sweat soaked bodies. Yet both girls were rimmed with the residual glow of spirit energy, wafting off of both them and their Zanpaktou, and Discord could feel the strengthened connection between the blades and the women wielding them.
He turned to face the pair, smiling slightly as he stroked his beard.
“Wasn’t too much trouble to get up here, was it?”
“If my arm wasn’t broken I’d be flipping you the bird right now,” said Sunset between panting breaths, but she was smiling, “But yeah, we managed.”
He gave them a sage nod, “I suspected you would. This tower could easily kill a Soul Reaper who wasn’t ready for it, but you and Clover are both possessing of talent and determination beyond the common. Now it's best we get those wounds tended to before you drop dead on your feet.”
Sunset looked relieved, but a concerned frown soon replaced it, “How are the others doing? I felt some strange spirit energy coming from somewhere. Thought it had to be them, but I couldn’t tell what was happening.”
Discord turned his gaze back towards the arena on the slope of the mountain, where things had gone rather ominously quiet. “Why don’t you two stay here and rest. I’ll go see how things are going on that end.”
And if any of them are still alive, he mentally added.
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I was trying to sing along with Adagio, only to realize; I didn't know whether to use the tempo from 'This Day Aria' or 'Unleash the Magic'.
Chapter full of achievements for all the girls. Now I just want to see how the other Fullbrings are evolved and what Hokori and Chishiki's Bankai looks like.
Ps: Pinkie's with reality-changing powers? The end is near!
Ha.
Oh some baddies are gonna be in for a bad time.
Arrancar is spannish (to forcesibly pull out) , so only spannish words could rhyme with it, and there are a lot, amasar, arrastrar, arrebatar, abrazar, arrasar, atacar, acatar, adiestrar, afanar, agachar, ahogar, aclarar, allanar, apanar, etc. Well, all the same, incredible story You have cocking here, i love everything, from the writing to the lenght of each chapter, waiting for more Man
SO AWESOME! The next chapter is gonna be even better. I can tell!
just listen to me, and breath, okay
set of complex
tlookingwillingly spy upon torch for me
Clover wasn’t fairing much better
1. Breathe.
2. Extra T.
3. Forgot to capitalise.
4. Faring.
Good chapter.
Also, did you get new cover art? ...I like it.
Great chapter!
I was imagining Adagio's song to the tune of Cinch's song near the end of the Friendship Games. Seemed to line up pretty well.
Despite the ocean imagery, I still couldn't help but picture Chishiki looking like Wan Shi Tong from Avatar...
7691329 you say that like its news.
7691993 It was late when I read the chapter. After reading your comment, and re-reading mine, I remembered that IS Pinkie Pie.
You don't necessarily need pairs of single words to make a rhyme, just a close phonetic match and a similar pattern of syllables in each stanza. You could couple Arrancar with simpler, shorter words like far, scar, or par (as in the phrase 'performing under par'), all of which come to mind as something that could be worked into a song like Adagio's.
If you find yourself in need of another song and get stuck shoot me a message; I like writing lyrics,
EDIT: Also, nice cover art! Seems brighter than the original; it belies the steady drama of story at present, but also makes it feel more like the original Bleach opening with all it's crazy.
Bloody hell that was fun.
7692874 Personally i would use this
7695656
I never thought I'd say this, but it has too many hooves for this story,
That is a great video tho...
I like the new cover art, looks sweet.
Man this chapter was exciting got me really pumped! cant wait for the reveal of the girls new powers.
7695688 Yeah i know, i couldnt find any EG/Bleach fanart, which really surprised me, theres a ton with the Pony versions but no EG/Bleach art sadly
Another enjoyable chapter. Great job.
It was a good song, no need to look down on yourself.
The final steps of the training on both parties was so awesome.
Ok, this story is amazing!
I love your characterizations and how you adapted the world. And this comes from a person that doesn't like Bleach much, mostly because of its characters; so maybe it makes sense, because I very much prefer Sunset to Ichigo. 
Your story telling is great, you really have a good feeling for this kind of action packed writing. However I suggest that you get help fixing the far too many typos on the story. With a better presentation this would be perfect. Thank you for writing.
7691298 Those Poor Unfortunate Souls fits the bill a little better, I think. Right down to the aquatic nature of the singer.
7691974 He who knows Ten Thousand Things, definitely. You're not alone there.
Ok i know its a bit late to bring this up so late in the story but i looked up the name of Sunsets sword and i have to ask, Vex if your reading this, are you sure that the word "Hokori" means Pride? cuz from what i found it means "Dust" and the actual word for it is "Hokoritakai" well its kind of similar i guess but im no expert on Japanese kanji and how they use these words. But its fine the way it is i was just curious thats all.
7722348
The extent of my research on the matter was checking a few online dictionaries and Google translate. I'm not too surprised if it turned out to not be the exact word to mean Pride, but I decided it was close enough and as far as names went it had a good ring to it.
Wow, when they talked about desperation, they really were talking about desperation.
P.S. Good luck, Twilight and Adagio.
7691974
Is there any other way to imagine a giant owl man?