Chapter Fifty-nine: The Battle of Mount Aris, Part One
Firestorm was the first to react.
Flapping into the air above his friend's heads, he pointed his small flamethrowers at the hulking white beasts and ignited them. With a whine and a click, twin gouts of fire spewed from his hooves and covered several beasts in crackling fire. Spinning, he directed the flame into the other minions, and within several seconds each of them were on fire, and they were yelping, rolling away, jumping around, and crawling under nearby cover.
After spinning once more to create a circular barrier of tall flames cutting them off from Tempest and the white satyr, Firestorm settled to the ground again and deactivated his weapons.
Tempest jumped off the large stone block and landed in a crouch in the fire ring. The flickering light made her snarling countenance appear devilish. Her glare was directed at Twilight, who was herself temperamental and determined.
“Don’t make me exert myself too much,” Tempest whispered. She could barely be heard above the crackling fires, but the closer she got, the clearer her voice got, and the more frightening detail was spelled out upon her face. “Otherwise, I might...get angry.”
“Funny,” Twilight retorted. “You took the words right out of my mouth.”
Tempest didn't spare any more words. She leaped in the air towards the princess and, after a flip, straightened her leg for a dropkick.
The problem was, Twilight had teleported behind her and fired her magic down upon her. Tempest was thrown into the pavement, throwing rubble in every direction, and Twilight settled on all fours in a battle-ready stance.
Tempest was already getting up. Once she had stood up straighter, she reached into her armor, pulled out a small pistol, raised her hoof into the air and fired something high with a whistle. It was a flare gun built into her hoof, colored a deep shade of red.
“What did you do?” Starlight Glimmer asked in a whisper. “What did you do?”
“You'll be getting some Noxxa visitors in about, oh, I'd say...three to five minutes.”
Twilight fired a laser blast in angry retaliation, but Tempest simply evaded, and the blast struck near Spike's feet. Twilight abruptly stopped. Firing laser blasts was too risky in such a small space. Which meant close combat instead.
And this Tempest girl looked like she could pack a punch on her own.
Tempest collided with Twilight, and the force threw both of them through the snapping walls of flame around them. Twilight and Tempest disappeared from view.
“Twilight!” Pinkie screamed, bounding for the flames, but jerked in the air and was yanked back by Rarity, who had pulled on her tail.
In front of the ponies, the flames parted again to allow the passage of the white satyr. His height was so tall that his face was thrown into deep, ambient shadow.
“Well, now that she's taken care of,” the white satyr casually said, swiftly swirling his golden sword like a windmill at his side, “now I can focus on capturing all of you!”
Noble Blade took the initiative by drawing his own sword and twisting the hilt, and the chromium blade exploded into a fierce blue glow. “Over my dead body!”
“That's the idea,” he replied with a devilish grin. “I don't have to take all of you alive. I think I can take out the only real threats here.”
Noble lifted his blue blade so it threw a dark shadow onto his own face, standing upright on his hind legs. “We are all threats, and we will never surrender. You should kill all of us if you want the job to be complete!”
"Is he speaking for all of us?" Rarity whispered, biting her nails with a loud chattering sound.
“Then perish!” the Storm King bellowed, and sprang for the kill.
Noble jumped forward just before the Storm King landed, and somersaulted between the King's legs, swiping his sword at the back of both his calves. Blood, frying from the energy on Noble's sword, flew out, sizzling, and spattered on the stone floor.
The King bellowed and swung down for a killing blow, flinging rubble everywhere. Noble evaded the crushing blow by a hair and, standing up from the ground, delivered an armored uppercut into the King's belly. He spun around quickly as the Storm King made a grab for him, and as he completed the spin he aimed for his side and struck.
His sword of buzzing blue power solidly met an intercepting golden blade, making sparks of power erupt from the intersection.
Noble widened his eyes. No sword was equal to his except for Black Blades. How in the world-?
The Storm King gave a deep, groveling laugh, as dark as the thunderstorms he commanded. His teeth glinted like white diamonds, sharp and hard, and his eyes, deep as the sea, reflected the malicious intent he held deep inside.
The King swung with his golden blade and Noble parried it aside. Noble lunged, and the King evaded. Their intricate dance, continuing like this indeterminably, led them to the fringes of the burning enclosure. Then Noble jumped onto the Storm King's chest and ricocheted off so he flew over the tall flames, and the Storm King pursued, intent on his destruction, but distracted from the main goal.
Firestorm, meanwhile, was putting his flight goggles on, and he tightened his outfit to allow him maneuverability. “I'm going up there to thin the Noxxa out,” he told the group. “Rainbow, you wanna come help me out here?”
Rainbow looked indecisive at first. But looking at her huddling friends, she knew where her place was.
“They need me here,” she disagreed. “If you need backup up there, I'll come, but…”
“Of course,” Firestorm allowed her. He drew both of his swords and gave one to Rainbow Dash, who fumbled it at first, but finally held it steady. “Let me know if you guys have a plan or something.”
And he flapped up and soared into the air, where an angry dark cloud was forming directly above them in the light grey sky. But that cloud wasn't a force of nature.
It was a roiling mass of Noxxa, eagerly waiting to descend.
Firestorm rose to meet them. Ascending so high wasn't the problem. The problem was mustering the courage and will to face the impossible odds he had set for himself.
Because truth be told, he felt his heart plop into his stomach and churn his bladder. His head felt light, his legs felt painfully weak. But still he climbed. Higher, faster, to his limits.
Firestorm clutched the orange X around his neck as a reassurance. He could plead for the help to defeat the monsters. And this tool would give him the power to do so.
He felt it heat up beneath his hoof as he flew higher and higher, ready, or not, to meet the Noxxa hordes with a single blade. The heat in his arm traveled to his shoulders and biceps, and even his chest and wing muscles.
He was glowing.
Firestorm still flew upwards. The Noxxa had descended now as one black, undulating body, and were striking down like their thousands of bodies were a single massive fist.
Firestorm, incredibly, managed to grin.
Bring it on!
Firestorm exploded into an aura of shining orange light a second before colliding into the first Noxxa in the descending group.
He virtually punched through the entire formation in a few mere seconds, flying upwards with a sword outreached and hacking at any who got close. The fiery nimbus surrounding his body made nearby Noxxa burst into divine white flame and fall uselessly from the sky like rocks.
Firestorm chose his next targets indiscriminately. Firing blasts of pure Elemental fire from his hooves, he quickly incinerated those near him from a single shot. Spinning and twirling, he shot off and began to clean up.
On the ground, Applejack gestured incredulously at the shining orange bolt in the sky. “Did he jus’ say ‘If we get a plan?’”
“He didn't have one?” Rarity panicked. “How in Equestria-”
“I have a plan,” Starlight interrupted. She stared past the forest of fire and to the large white dragon flapping in the distance. Then to the airships above their head, with Noxxa shooting out and hurling towards the flaming pegasus cleaning them up. “We need to escape somehow. I say we use one of the airships.”
“We need to take that thing down first,” Freedom Fighter reminded Starlight, pointing with his yellow staff at the devilish dragon.
Starlight recognized the evil dragon from their exploration of Freedom Fighter's memories, and by association the pale rider atop him, though he was too far to see. “That's Malice!”
“Why d-do we h-have to f-face him?” Fluttershy tried to say legibly, but her overwhelming fear and her concern for her boyfriend made her stumble over her words.
“Even if we manage to get into one of those airships, Malice will shoot us down!” Freedom Fighter exclaimed over the sounds and senses all around them. “And besides, if he escapes, he'll strike at us time and time again!”
“Oh…”
“In other words, if we don't take Marshal Malice down, these attacks are just going to get worse! I am not letting this go to waste!” Freedom Fighter slung his magical staff across his back and glared hatefully at his faint rival in the sky. “Rainbow, I need a ride.”
Rainbow flapped up, hovered above Freedom Fighter, and grabbed him underneath his stomach. After a few heaves, she lifted him off the ground. "Ngh! What dija eat this morning, cement?!"
"Just pick me up, please?"
Rainbow deftly altered her body so she could sling him over her back instead. Flapping hard, she lifted off and ascended. But because the skies were clear, she had nowhere to sneak away. Rainbow's realization was abundantly clear on her face.
"She needs cover!" Starlight shouted, reading her thoughts. Charging her horn, she fired a pulse of magic up at both of them. Upon impact, it splashed and covered them, and their bodies shimmered before turning opaque, like a frosty glass. Now properly disguised, they both rose up and shot in a different direction.
"We gotta prepare fer these guys ta land!" Applejack reminded everyone, jabbing up at the swirling masses. Firestorm, though efficient, wasn't perfect, and dozens of Noxxa were buzzing down past his nimbus to the ruined concrete structures. Around them, the tall forest of flame was dying out, which meant their available territory now included the entire city.
"Let's draw their forces!" Starlight ordered. "Spike and Pinkie, you're with me. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity, you three are together. We'll split 'em up and slice them to pieces!"
"What about Twilight?" Spike asked, tugging on Starlight's leg and pointing where Twilight and Tempest had disappeared. Purple beams shot into the air, along with long arcs of white electricity.
"We've got our own problems to worry about!" Starlight reproved, hurrying Spike along.
A crackling arc of white lightning erupted from Tempest's stubby horn and struck Twilight's hasty dome shield. The relentless barrage continued for a dozen seconds before ending, and Twilight gasped hard and ended the spell.
Tempest was tough. Even Twilight couldn't stand long in her way; she physically dominated the sparring. Twilight could only block her hard hoofstrikes, leap above her sweeps, dodge her long swings.
Twilight flapped about three feet in the air and fired a consistent laser at Tempest. The broken unicorn leaped above the beam and landed on another piece of rubble in the crumbled city. She leaped to another as the purple beam followed her, and to another. Twilight's agility simply couldn't keep up.
Tempest pounced like a cat with her hooves outstretched and her sharp teeth bared. She caught Twilight in the chest and made both of them go stumbling, rolling on the ground over rocks and pebbles. Both of them ended up bleeding.
Tempest ended up on top of Twilight, pinning her down with her knees over Twilight's back hooves. She struck a rising Twilight in the face so hard her head impacted the pavement once more.
"Why do you want me?!" Twilight screamed, blocking another strike with her forelegs and pushing Tempest off her.
Tempest stood up in an instant and wiped a trickle of blood from her nose. "You are the key to my restoration!"
"I don't even know who you are!" Twilight protested.
Tempest grinned. She lunged to Twilight's left. Seeing Twilight stumble in that direction, she switched tack and attacked from the right. She got behind her and flattened her body on the ground in a perfect hold. In two seconds, Tempest Shadow had immobilized Twilight Sparkle.
"I know who you are, Princess," Tempest whispered sensitively in the alicorn's ear. "You will come with me as a captive... or as a corpse."
Twilight twisted her head around as far as she could dare to try to give her a venomous stare. "Now there's the irony," she gasped. "You face the same choice!"
She ignited her horn, but before she could teleport her way out, Tempest's armored hooves had enclosed around the base of her horn and squeezed. Twilight felt her magic cut off as if somepony had flipped a switch.
"What?" she breathed in shock.
Tempest gave a cruel chuckle. "Oh, Princess. I thought you knew enough about magic to understand its resistors. King Metal is one of them."
Twilight's hopes fell. Magic would be of little use to her here.
Very well. Time to try option B.
Twilight's wings shot out. Tempest could only lock down four limbs at a time. She, however, had six--seven, including her horn.
Tempest had apparently realized the same thing. She moved her focus to pinning those wings down with her knees, leaving Twilight's rear legs free.
Twilight then curled her rear legs up to lock around Tempest's midsection, and straightened those legs once again. Tempest went flying off her back and went rolling.
"You're a pony!" Twilight yelled at her, getting up. "Just like me!"
Tempest stood up with a snarl of hate. Her stubby little horn sparked with anger. "I'm nothing like you!"
She fired a long stream of electricity at the alicorn, who fired a purple laser in response. The two beams collided mid-air and blew apart, and the air reverberated like a plucked string. Twilight and Tempest collapsed again. After regaining their breath, they stood weakly once more.
"I don't want to fight you!" Twilight pleaded. "I might hurt you!"
"Big words from somepony who hasn't laid a hit on me!" Tempest retaliated.
Twilight narrowed her eyes. "It has to be like this, huh?"
Twilight disappeared with a pop. Tempest wildly looked around for where she might appear next. She swung around just as Twilight appeared again.
But it was above her, not behind her.
Twilight swooped down, picked her up, and shot up in the air for twenty feet. Tempest was kicking and curling in her grip. Eventually, she settled for sinking her teeth into Twilight's leg and wiggling around with the intent to rip out flesh.
Tempest's exposed head was encased in a violet aura. Swinging her head around, Twilight hurled Tempest away, and she flew for some distance before hitting her back hard on an upright pillar.
As Tempest began to fall to earth, Twilight flew like a loosed arrow to her falling inert body and sank her hoof into Tempest's stomach, making Tempest shoot to the ground at a doubled velocity.
When she hit the ground she let out a pained groan, tumbling until she came to a halt. The recent attacks from Twilight had been surprisingly powerful, but Tempest, tired though she was, stood up once more.
Twilight landed, but was knocked back by Tempest's pounce, tumbling them both through the rubble.
"Don't touch my friends again!" Twilight screamed, scrabbling at a pebble, and picked it up and ground it on Tempest's stubby little horn with three hard twists.
Tempest screamed and loosened her grip on Twilight's shoulders. Twilight kicked her off and ran in the opposite direction.
Tempest was rubbing her pained horn with sharp gasps, fire coursing through her brain from utter torment. Seeing Twilight run away, however, her resolve collected itself, and she gritted her teeth and stood.
"Don't bet on it," she breathed in cold fury, and sped after the alicorn.
Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity sped through the ruins of Mount Aris, weaving between the streets and fallen white rubble. The skies above them were buzzing with black insects in hot pursuit.
As the three of them skidded to a halt in an intersection, the first Nox landed so hard that the girls were surprised he hadn't been smushed into sand. He was a big one, armed with nothing but the sharp tips on the end of his six claws.
"You're mine!" he bellowed, swishing his front two legs as he scuttled on four.
Applejack took action. Turning around, she straightened her legs and bucked him like an apple tree in the face right as he came within range. The Nox went staggering off to the side before collapsing.
Two more Noxxa dropped out of the sky and settled down in his place. Above them, more Noxxa were circling, blocking off any escape.
"Ooh!" screeched the horrible voice of a thin and sickly one. "That white one looks sweet! I bet she'll taste-"
Rarity had already enveloped him in a blue aura of magic and swung her head, and the Nox went hurling through a rotting old window, shattering the rotten old wood.
"WOULD ANYONE ELSE LIKE TO HIT ON ME BEFORE THE DAY IS OVER?" Rarity challenged, her face contorted into a horrifying visage so unlike her normal one that it made more dropping Noxxa back off.
"I want to!" came a dull and unintelligent voice from a chubby Nox on their left. He waddled their way with the intent of possession, giving a stupid laugh between his needled jaws.
Applejack reared up on her hind legs, grabbed one of his outstretched arms with one hoof, hit his elbow with her other, bending it entirely the wrong way, and smacked him in the face with a wide swing of that arm, followed by a surgically precise punch under his stomach, doubling him onto the floor. She stomped on the nape of his neck, and a few seconds later he began to disintegrate.
"Hey, Shy," Applejack said with a trace of nervousness creeping into her voice as she saw how quickly the Noxxa were assembling. "Ya want a piece o' this?"
"Um... not really... but, I mean, when do I ever get to decide that?"
"Git between us, then."
The three girls had been surrounded by the devil-bugs on all sides. Applejack and Rarity were pacing in a circle with Fluttershy between them in the exact center. It would not be a battle for any particular goal this time. It would simply be a desperate battle to survive.
But the desperation was felt on both sides as well. The Elements of Harmony were not to be trifled with, after all. And the Noxxa knew this. Above all, it was they who the demons feared.
The Noxxa closed in anyway.
Rarity's horn shone constantly like an unearthly, divine weapon, pushing Noxxa back on all sides like the waves of the sea hurling them out into the deep.
The few bugs that got past her were almost immediately pummeled by Applejack. Only two or three came through at a time, giving her plenty of time to rush for the nearest enemy and give a solid blow in a vital region, then run off to the next one and, with one blow, reduced them to a groaning pile of dissolving ash.
In under a minute, Applejack, alone, had elbowed, kicked, punched, grappled, and blown the arms off over a dozen Noxxa. In the next few minutes, which passed by like hours instead, she incapacitated fifty more. Her speed and sheer strength was unmatched.
Rarity, when not repelling the advances on all sides, was firing blast after blast of blue fire into the ranks. Her divine white horn began to smoke at the tip between attacks.
Fluttershy, however, was stuck between them both at the exact center. When would it end? They were all surrounded. It was only a matter of time now.
Noble Blade and the Storm King fought with fast flurries of furious blows. Their swords clashed so often it looked like a constant light was flashing between them from their contact.
They were fighting in a ruined living quarter of the mountain. All around them were abandoned cubes acting as homes, and the occasional monstrous birdcage. Most of the homes had been turned to rubble by age, pilfering, or erosion. Loose rock was everywhere. In the street, on the tops of homes, and even where homes were supposed to be. The precarious environment did nothing to ease the fight.
The blows just kept coming. The Storm King was relentless and hard, and though Noble could parry them all, his strength was immense. He would wear him down by sheer force alone.
So Noble responded with magic. After a quick look at his rubble-strewn surroundings, he disappeared in a flash of blue light and reappeared on top of a large stone roof that had been split in half like an egg. The Storm King let out a defiant roar and climbed up onto equal ground, which let Noble find some time to catch his breath.
The Storm King and Noble Blade were on either half of the broken roof. The air had turned darker in its grey palette. Noble could feel, taste the water in the atmosphere, and it was making his armor stick to his skin.
Noble didn't allow any time for the Storm King to make the first move.
He fired a magic bolt at the satyr. He saw it coming, though, and batted it back at the unicorn. Noble tried to parry it back, but the bolt had struck the handle of the sword, and Noble's blade went flying.
The Storm King let out a loud laugh, switched Stormkeeper to his left arm, and picked up a handful of rubble at his feet. He whipped his arm out, and the rocks went flying at Noble at a respectable fraction of the speed of sound. A dozen pieces had scraped across his face leaving long marks, and Noble fell down, which probably saved his life; the larger pieces came next, and any one of them would have brained him. Noble quickly got his large shield off his back and onto his left arm.
The Storm King greedily pointed Stormkeeper at the rising knight and fired a long stream of electricity at him next. Noble's shield was already out by then, and the bolt struck it and splashed to every side, blowing apart the ground at his feet. The stream was white in color, but turned blue on impact.
Straining with all his might behind the shield, struggling to keep it up, Noble ignited his horn and, without peeking, focused on the arm holding the golden sword.
His opponent's exposed left shoulder, encased in a blue aura, popped out of place, and the King's arm dropped to his side in an instant.
"What?" he wondered amidst the pain. He used his other hand to pop it back into place once more, then glared at the upright knight irately. "You are more annoying than other ponies that put up a fight, you know!"
"Desirest thou to see annoying?" Noble dared him, beckoning with his other hoof. "Fight me further!"
The Storm King growled in fury and pulled off a coiled chain at his hip. Straightening it by throwing it behind his head, he then whipped it right at the unicorn.
Noble's horn was already glowing, and his sword was zooming back into his right hoof as the chain came for him. Noble caught his sword just in time for the King to wrap the chain around the tip of the sword. Noble tugged with a sudden jerk, and the King's weapon was ripped from his grasp. The King Metal chain flew away off his sword and landed in a heap behind Noble.
The Storm King leaped across the chasm separating both of them, skidding several feet when he landed, and brought Stormkeeper down with both hands for a colossal strike. Noble blocked it, but a tremendous fountain of lightning erupted from where their swords crossed, almost blinding him.
The Storm King kicked the upright Noble in the stomach, knocking him onto his back. He swung down, but Noble rolled to the side and quickly rose once more.
"Just stay down, will you?" the satyr irritably demanded. He roared and lifted his sword aloft, the bold golden color giving it the appearance of a flaming beacon, and the dark skies above them grew darker still, rolling and coiling like the angry waves of the sea.
Noble knew what was going to happen an instant before it did.
A streak of blinding lightning connected the skies miles above them with the tip of the golden sword. The world was thrown into silhouette as the evil despot absorbed the most destructive force on earth and held it in his upraised blade. Accompanying it was a terrible CRACK! that shook the earth itself and knocked Noble down once more.
The knight scrambled away as the Storm King directed the lightning right where he was a second ago. Marble blew in every direction. Noble jumped off the large stone slab as another lightning bolt shot off over his head, blowing another tall pillar in front of him into rubble. As he landed and rolled, he charged his horn and ran down the broken street.
The Storm King peeked over the edge. Upon seeing Noble running away, he let out a laugh. "Trying to run?! You can run, but you can't HIDE!"
He fired a waving bolt of lightning out of his sword again, turning the ground in front of the running knight into a crater of dust. Noble skidded and swerved to the right, disappearing behind a tumbled pile of broken stone.
The Storm King jumped off the slab and landed without injury, and, going at full sprint, followed his path down the street and to the right.
As soon as the Storm King appeared in the narrow alley Noble had gone down, the King spotted him running down the street at full gallop, his sword sheathed across his back.
"Why are you running?" the Storm King taunted, tapping the side of the old building next to him. "Lost your honor?"
Noble paused in his run right as he was at the other end of the alleyway.
"Or have you decided this fight is unwinnable?" he relentlessly continued. He balled his left fist in anxious anticipation. "Well, I haven't decided that!"
The Storm King sprang forth and ran at full tilt at the lone figure. His legs quickly burned, and his breath came short and quick. In no time at all he had almost closed the distance between them in the alley.
Just before the Storm King was within reach, Noble ignited his horn.
The rubble on top of the abandoned houses fell off their perches and tumbled down into the alley like an avalanche. Large and small pieces of old marble collapsed and buried the Storm King in a mound of glowing blue rocks.
Noble then teleported up to the top of the house on the right side of the alley. As he reappeared, he panted and heaved his chest; teleportation was a tricky spell. He drew his sword and leaned on it for support as he took a breather. He wouldn't be able to do that again for a little bit.
Beneath him in the alleyway, the Storm King's furious fist burst through the mound of rocks, throwing rubble everywhere. As he scrambled out of the pile, he was heaving and breathing furiously, gripping Stormkeeper so hard his knuckles turned as white as his fur.
"Foolish knight!" the King bellowed up at him. "I haven't fought this hard in years! Your head will adorn my bedside table!"
"Thinkest thou hast the ability to divide my head from my body?" the knight challenged. "If thou canst, I challenge thee! But if not, I defy thee!"
The Storm King let out a furious roar and leaped to the top of the building, and the battle resumed.
The air got more cloudy and dark the higher they went. Rainbow Dash could handle Freedom Fighter's weight on her back, if only barely. But the weight of what they were about to do was weighing her down more than Freedom Fighter.
Though she knew they were invisible to the naked eye, she still stuck to the dark clouds in the atmosphere. The smoke from the airships directly above the mountain only added to their chances of remaining undetected, but Rainbow still felt an anxious pang jolt in her chest when they passed too close to another airship.
They passed ship after ship, almost in a trail, on their way to the monstrous dragon in the distance. It amazed Rainbow as to just how many ships there were. Equestria had airships themselves, of course, but these... these were mass-produced and powerful. Armored, black, and armed with harpoons and even rudimentary cannons, they were designed for one purpose.
War.
Finally, they passed by the last ship and ascended into the ocean of black smoke fountaining from the engines. Rainbow coughed madly and rose higher into the low clouds to hide their approach.
"Hey, Malice…"
Rainbow heard Freedom Fighter's thoughts, but it sounded much more malevolent than she remembered.
"I don't know what kind of expression you have on your face right now... probably one of those sick smirks you give when everything's going your way... but I intend on changing that!"
"Because you... really are the devil. A mishmash of nightmares and bones, feeding off the blood of innocent ponies. Like my father! My mother! My brothers! I doubt if I looked throughout all of Equestria's history, I would NEVER find anyone as vile as YOU!"
Rainbow Dash was drawing closer. The dragon was so close she could see the details of his horns, spines, and fangs. Its wings were just out on display, staying splayed there as a result of an updraft.
And she could see the small Pale Rider atop the nightmare. She felt a jolt of fear shoot from her skull to her tail, almost dropping her from the air. Malice, even from a distance, was even worse in person than in memory.
She looked down at her hooves in front of her, and was disturbed to see the blue color. The invisibility spell was wearing down. She flapped quicker. Quicker! Faster!
"Look at you!" Freedom Fighter spat. "What are you thinking? Probably how victorious you are. It makes me want to vomit!"
"This is no victory because this is no war!" the other voice he had butted in. "This is PEST CONTROL! And it's time to exterminate your vermin from the face of the earth!"
She felt him leap off her back.
Freedom Fighter emerged from the dark cloud with his blazing golden staff in both hooves near his head. He was in the middle of a spin as he hurled in the air at the Pale Rider.
Malice saw him just before he struck. His expression was one of absolute shock.
All that could be seen of Freedom Fighter's expression, however, was his rage-filled eyes, smoking from the heat therein.
He swiftly brought his staff down for a colossal crash on Malice's shoulder, who had evaded at the last minute to avoid getting cleaved in half.
But his upper right arm wasn't so lucky.
His sickly pale arm flew away, cauterized at the shoulder, and spun to the ocean below.
And Freedom Fighter landed behind him on the dragon's back, digging his burning staff into the dragon's back to slow him down.
Malice spun his upper body with a snapping of bones, bellowing in pain, and Freedom Fighter galloped across the massive dragon's back with his staff in one hoof and made a motion to pierce him in the chest.
Malice grabbed the burning staff with his three remaining claws and forced it to the side. He took one of those claws and drew his massive Black Bladed sword across his back, and made a horizontal swipe.
Freedom Fighter jumped above the swipe, just barely missing the deadly arc it made, and, in midair, made a swipe of his own across his axis. The end of the staff struck him in the teeth, shearing off half a dozen long fangs.
Malice roared once more and grabbed him with a free claw, and hurled him backward so he rolled on the back of the dragon. His staff fell from his grip and rolled to the edge of the dragon's back.
Malice made a grunt and cradled the stump of his shoulder. Freedom Fighter noticed his face and eye was disfigured by a long black scar, and it was recent, too. This made him grin underneath his cowl.
"Freedom Fighter," Malice snarled, and it contained unbridled fury. "You're here? And you dare to harm me?"
"Yes, I dare," Freedom shot back. "How does it feel to lose an arm?"
Malice gave an inquisitive tilt of his head. "You can talk?"
"My friends helped me out!" he roared in his head, and reached for his staff. Picking it up and spinning it like a propeller, he eventually leveled the deadly weapon at the field marshal. "You deserve to know before I tear your head in half down that scar of yours!"
As he lunged, Malice blocked. Malice grunted in surprise at how much force he needed to use to counter his attack. "No living creature... can kill me!"
"The Unforgiven can kill you!" Freedom Fighter retorted, aiming a pierce at one of Malice's eyes. Malice evaded, and the staff instead grazed his cheek. Freedom Fighter tore his staff from the deadlock their weapons were in and spun it in the other direction.
"I DESTROYED THE UNFORGIVEN!" Malice bellowed, blocking that strike and bringing his Black Blade down for a smash. Freedom Fighter dodged, and the sword went deep into his dragon's back. Blood spurted from the wound when Malice ripped the sword out, and the dragon let out a roar of pain.
"You can bleed!" Freedom Fighter yelled at him. "If you can bleed, you can die!"
"I will never die at the hooves of a puny, pathetic pony!"
The weapons of Malice and Freedom crossed once more. Both faces behind the weapons contained unbridled rage at the other for simply existing.
Malice's other limbs thrashed out at Freedom, making him jump back. The demonic centipede scuttled further onto the dragon's back, swiping his massive black sword indiscriminately.
It was then that Malice noticed a golden glow from Freedom Fighter's left shoulder. Squinting with his three good eyes, he saw what looked like a jewel embedded into his arm.
That jewel... it was so familiar to him…
And in a flash of revelation, it hit him.
"You bear the Element of Sacrifice," he hissed with every ounce of malevolence.
Freedom Fighter simply nodded. There was a gleam in his scarlet eyes.
"You bear the Element I wielded in the war in heaven?!" he demanded.
"Ironic, isn't it? Some sacrifice you had to have made, huh?"
The words stung more than the cauterized pain in his shoulder--or in his face, for that matter. "Just because you can use a rock doesn't mean you are worthy to."
"Aww, is the wittle demon upset that he can't wield it anymore?" Freedom Fighter sneered in retaliation.
Incredibly accurate to his thoughts. The lad was more perceptive than he let on. Malice made a derisive noise and ignited the antennae atop his head with a grey aura.
Freedom Fighter quickly reacted. Snapping the ends of his staff back, a yellow string appeared between the ends, and he drew back the bow and shot the arrow that had appeared.
Malice deflected the bolt with his Black Blade, and the golden projectile bounced back at Freedom Fighter, who was only barely able to put up his staff in time.
The blast threw him back onto the base of the dragon's tail, and something flew off the edge of the dragon. It was Freedom Fighter's cowl, falling to the ocean to be lost forever.
Marshal Malice took interest. He had been curious as to the pony's identity for some time now; this was the time to discover it.
He scuttled over on six legs, leering unpleasantly over Freedom Fighter's struggling form once he got to him. Freedom Fighter, his face exposed for the world to see, looked up into Malice's eyes.
Malice was instantly petrified. His needled jaw fell open.
His legs began to wobble. His throat felt constricted by barbed wire. His entire frame began to shake uncontrollably. Malice was speechless.
He knew that face. The mark of the sun in his forehead! The scars!
It was a nightmare, painful for him to recall in his reminisces, when he felt satisfied nonetheless at his victory over the only one destined to destroy him.
That nightmarish face was looking back at him with equal fear at first. But then the nightmare gave a sadistic grin when he saw the terror in Malice's face, showing his bloody teeth and stretching the ancient wounds on his face.
The wounds he had inflicted!
Freedom Fighter... he was… he was the…!
"Unforgiven!" Malice choked in absolute horror.
The Unforgiven gave a slow, evil nod as a response.
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Having just come back from Avengers: Endgame (which was amazing, BTW), I think I can safely say I know where this reference came from.
Although honestly, I think it was cooler when Scarlet Witch said it. It had a lot more weight behind it in the movie. But a nice reference all the same.
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To be honest, it was just what popped in my head when writing. I didn't think much of it until I was proofreading.
Who said anything about hiding?
memegenerator.net/img/instances/63500374.jpg
9617777
Who knew I could include so many nods to other sources like Attack on Titan? I dunno if that's plagiarism or something, but I like to think it isn't.
Can’t wait to read more soon.
Also, out of curiosity, are you familiar with an actor named Matthew McConaughey?
9858719
Yeah. What are your thoughts on the actual battle, my guy?
9858809
Epic with a capital ‘E’, my friend.