The V-Team

by Reizthefakebrony

Chapter 4: Going Through Everfree Forest (EDITED FOR LOCATION INACCURACY)

Everfree Forest... As it is now.

Seemingly lifeless trees making bizarre fruits shaped in warped forms, multicolored roots sprouting out of the ground, glass-made Timberwolves, plant-like butterflies and some other strangeness composed half of the population. The dusk slowly fell upon it, symbolized by a dark-cyan sky.

In the only deserted part of the forest, a huge pillar of black flames suddenly appeared, bursting in a black fiery explosion. One second after that, the four, demonic ponies appeared out of nowhere, looking exhausted and battered from all the blows that they took from Julius.

Dazed and confused like no other, they frantically looked around to find any clue about what happened. They soon realized that they were no longer in Neo Canterlot Castle. They observed the strange and grim vegetation around them. They also noticed the lingering black flames and some destroyed trees that the explosion caused.

Zade, Sera and Chris looked at him for a moment with a irritated and yet unsure look, not knowing if thank him or strangling him for both his recklessness and the destruction that he had accidentally caused. Sera in particular looked very upset toward him.

However they were too tired, so they decided to put that aside for a moment and deeply sighed in relief.

"Despite the fact that I'm still pissed at you," Zade said half angered. "I should thank you for having saved our lives."

"Try to not doing something reckless. Just for once." Chris said.

"I never felt so scared and exhausted in my entire life," Sera said under her breath. "Oh, and for the record, the next time you intend to teleport us, have at least the courtesy to warn us. And most of all, try to not DEVASTATE THE ENVIRONMENT OF YOUR NEXT DESTINATION!"

Sera pointed at one of the still burning trees, whose fire died out, but the damage was already done as their upper body and most of their branches were reduced into charcoal and ashes. Jace looked very astounded, with he jaw almost dropping. Zade and Chris couldn't help but agree with her

"Damn..." Jace whispered.

"I wonder if we are going to be arrested for environmental disaster." Zaid commented with a raised eyebrow.

"Still, I never heard of fluffy animals committing a massacre." Sera said disturbed. "This is insane!"

"I know, right!?" Jace replied. "We found ourselves being turned into pony versions of videogame villains, without having the time to explore our powers that some convoluted Celestia-esque Twilight Sparkle appeared out of nowhere and goes Akroma Angel of Wrath upon our asses!"

The other three ponies glared at Jace, justified by they own reasons.

"You messed with that female juggernaut." Chris pointed out.

"You made our position even worse by angering her off, you dumb idiot." Sera said bluntly.

"Well..." Jace stammered. "That's-"

"That was beyond reckless! You could had get yourself killed!" Zade scolded. "We didn't know how to use our powers properly and didn't know nothing about this world and it's inhabitants! Ergo, we were completely unprepared and so you are! You never had considered that this act of yours would be a suicide, are you!?"

Jace lowered his head crestfallen before saying. ".... No, Zade.... I didn't!"

"Damn it!" Zade muttered.

A silence fell upon them, interrupted only by the noises of the environment around them. Jace did not took well their words, but he knew that couldn't be avoided. His friends were seriously worried for him, so their reaction was quite understandable. Sure, they were reasonably angry or annoyed during the rare times he was almost put in prison for his recklessness.

But wasn't the same thing with what happened in the castle.

"I'm... I'm literally sorry for this. I should had considered our situation," Jace said. "And you are right about that. But you know me. I couldn't stand a patronizing figure who thinks is above morality. Even if is a warped Twilight.... Damn if I lost my cool."

"We should put that behind, now," Zade informed him, calmed out a little bit. "At least we have survived thanks to you. What matter now is where the hell you had brought us into?"

"If I'm not mistaking," Jace said. "That must the the part of the Everfree Forest nearby the Castle of the Two Sisters."

"Everfree... Forest?" Sera demanded confused.

"It's a enchanted, wild place with a arcane quality that allow animals and plants to thrive without pony interention" Jace explained. Still, is the same case as Canterlot. I don't remember this place being a almost lifeless one."

"Aaand... Why you brought us here?" Sera demanded sarcastically.

"Because there should be a ruined Castle nearby this area." Jace confirmed. "That should be our temporary refuge."

"Ruined castle?" Chris asked, doubtful about

"How the heck did you even know where this place was?" Sera demanded.

"I checked on the Equestria Map a few days ago," Jace responded. "Don't ask me why, because that was the only location that I had in my mind at the moment."

"In his defense," Chris said. "I will say that all of us couldn't even thinking straight when Twilegion, or whatever that horse called herself was about to execute us."

Before anyone else could say anything, Zade's widened as he had realized something.

"Wait a second," Zade said. "Sera."

"Hmm?" Sera looked perplexed.

"Did you had felt a lingering sense of power, back in the tower." Zade said.

Sera's face became slightly bewildered one second before she looked down. "..... Right now I'm not even sure how to describe it." Sera responded unsure.

"Wait... You had perceived that?" Jace asked.

Sera nodded. "Yes, I had. You would had noticed me summoning these ghosts to save Jace, just like the original Izanami will do. In that moment, I understood what Zade said after he blasted the two alicorns away... Hopefully, they were alive."

"Yeah, putting aside the fact that they attacked us," Zade said. "I'm not happy to employ violence against them. Let alone killing them."

"Talking about that," Sera shivered upon remembering her launching the black blue meteor upon the alicorn royal guards. "I'm feeling a little guilty about that."

"Jace, you also felt that feeling... One second before like launching yourself against Twilegion, right." Zade asked.

Jace sighed. "Yes, guys. And you know what? I had instantly embraced it, because is almost reflect my being."

"In other words, yourself being borderline anarchic." Chris remarked.

"Only if necessary. Geez..." Jace groaned and then looked at Sera. "You know, Sera. I'm thanking you since- WHOA!"

Jace couldn't continue his phrase that Sera suddenly slammed his pseudo flaming body against the ground.

"Be grateful that I had saved your life," Sera lectured him before going in her yandere mode. "Because otherwise I would had beat up your sorry ass personally."

"I'm indeed grateful! Now turn off your psycho mode!" Jace muttered.

"Knock it off, you two." Zade ordered. "Right now is getting dark and we don't know what kind of nasty encounters we are going to face in this moment. We better move."

"I agree with that." Sera said, having calmed down.

"I will guide you to the Castle of the Two Sisters." Jace said half confidently.

"Look, I'm not saying that I don't trust you, but we can't follow a path basing on what you saw in that map." Zade said.

"Just have faith in my hints for once, dudes. Follow me." Jace replied.

He stepped into the path where there the animal noises are more intense. The rest of the group reluctantly followed suit, walking into Jace-knows-what kind of dangers and obstacles. They continued to walk, trying to ignore the feral sounds filling their ears. Everyone but Jace began to think that following that route wasn't a good idea.

They were suddenly frozen by a chilling howl coming from their left. They quickly turned to see what was, only to find a pack of Timberwolves made of glass wandering in the distance from behind the trees. Their fangs, claws and fur were made of sharp glass and their eyes glowed in a menacing red light. The bizarre wolves were oblivious of the four ponies, who were a little startled by their sight. Jace in particular was awfully astonished to see a Timberwolf in live... But not like this.

"W-What are those creatures?" Sera asked, almost trembling.

"Quiet." Jace invited with a low volume. "Ignore them and continued to walk."

Sera looked at him, slightly annoyed. "Said the guy who didn't had the good sense to keep his mouth shut during our encounter with that winged tyrant."

Putting aside any other thought, the other three ponies followed his instruction and pressed on, trying to ignore the wolves because they were both intimidated by them or unwilling to cause more disasters than they had made before with their powers. Jace looked slightly annoyed by a detail.

"I can't help but find that ridiculous," Jace whispered. "We are currently four pony badasses with the powers of the most notorious villains in videogame industry and yet we were afraid by a bunch of glass slashers."

"I heard you, Jace," Chris said sternly, startling him. "We may look like demons but we are still inexperienced, remember?"

Jace sighed lightly before looking at him. "You are right, Chris. Maybe I was too arrogant to had even thought that."

"Anyone with gaming power fantasies would had though the same. Chris said.

"Jace, how much further until we reach this damn castle?" Zade asked impatiently.

"We are almost there." Jace replied.

"Grr. I'm sick and tired to walk," Sera muttered quietly with a tired tone. "If only I can fly."

The pale unicorn continued her quiet rant until she realized to not feel the ground beneath her. Wide-eyed, she stopped and looked below, only to find herself levitating above the ground, without using any magic. Sera was about to panic when she realized that was her powers' doing. With a bit of intuition, she managed to maintain her equilibrium properly. She then flew toward the others who were oblivious of her levitating.

After a couple of minutes, they saw a castle's deformed silhouette growing closer to them.

"We have arrived." Jace announced.

"Finally," Sera replied before letting out a sign of relieve.

They stopped in front of a bridge suspended above a cliff. They lifted their heads forward and looked in amazement to see the old castle standing in the horizon. The structure itself stands abandoned and dilapidated as much of it was destroyed by a ancient battle. The strange thing is that the two towers and another piece of the castle were missing their top, being cut obliqualy, as they got decapitated by a unseen giant blade. Something that Jace had immediately intuited.

"What happened there?" Jace demanded.

The other three ponies looked at him with a perplexed face.

"What do you mean with that? Weren't you supposed to be the brony who knows something about Equestria?" Zade demanded.

"The castle was destroyed after Celestia battled Luna, who turned into Nightmare Moon, one millennia ago," Jace then pointed at the decapitated towers. "But I don't remember the towers being beheaded. Something must have happened here. It's too recent for me."

"Are you sure of this?" Zade asked.

"Whatever, just let's get there already," Sera said while nonchalantly surpassing the other three ponies, who had just noticed surprised her floating above the soil.

"Sera, wait." Zade said almost loudly.

Sera stopped in her tracks and turned toward them with a perplexed face. "What?"

"You are actually floating above the grass," Chris pointed out, dumbfounded.

"And without using magic I have to say." Jace added. "Just like Hades Izanami will do."

"Hey, don't obligate me to get there," Sera threatened while assuming the pose of a angelic preacher in mid air, except no really considering her annoyed face. "Besides, I should had told you that before, but I am tired, so I wasn't so much in the mood for talk."

"Sera, can you please return to the ground?" Zade asked. "We could explore our powers once we get inside, but not now."

"Ok, fine." Sera muttered as she descended on the ground four legged.

The four ponies walked above the bridge and headed toward the castle, looking around to see if there any creature on their sight. Arriving at the gates, they noticed the door being slightly opened. In a first moment they assumed that someone preceded them. Zade had the impression that someone was waiting for them but entered inside anyway.

The first room they stepped in was the main hall, being room consisting in six exit with stairs leading to different places from both the sides and a stairs that split in two direction. The group pressed on without any question, guided by Jace.

They wandered through the labyrinth of halls for a bit until they reached throne room. It looked ruined as they expected and yet it was mostly clean. The majority of the ceiling was missing, filtering the air and the sight of the dark-cyan sky getting darker. obscuring the room. There are two dusty thrones at the very end, with one half shredded banner being appended on each one while having two different motif. The left throne had a blue banner depicting the moon and right one having the golden one depicting the sun.

Jace expected the place to be same, except for details that doesn't add up. Zade and Chris were just trying to figure out where to go and Sera was eager to find a place in which rest. A minute later, they gathered at the center of the room to deliberate about what to do.

"Jace, just to be clear, this is a castle, right?" Sera asked.

"Yeah, so?" Jace replied.

"What Sera was about to ask was if there are any bedroom around," Zade said.

Jace scratched his head in embarrassment. "I don't even know where it is."

"I freaking knew you would said that," Sera muttered. "At this point, we should sleep in this very throne room. Because I am too tired and still feeling all of the pains of the ordeal we had gone through to wander around like a mad mare to find it."

"Normally I would had called that lazy and impractical," Zade paused. "But she's right. We are all too."

"Well, we don't have pretty much choices." Jace agreed.

"I didn't got used to sleep like this... In a body of a quadrupedal creature, of all the things.," Sera said before yawning. "However, I don't care, because is almost late."

"Let's just pretend that we are nearby a Dark Souls' like bonfire and sleep already." Chris proposed.

"Then good night... I guess." Zade replied.

That being said, the four exhausted ponies laid down on the huge red carped and closed their eyes. Despite the pains of their injuries, they didn't even need much effort to sleep as their fatigue easily encouraged their descent toward Morpheus' arms.

---

Four hours later...

In the now darkened throne room, Zade woke up due to a nonsensical nightmare regarding memes and stuff. Dazed, he glanced at his friends, who were sleeping like angels. He then lifted his head toward the nonexistent ceiling revealing a very dark-blue sky, symbolizing the night. A very creepy kind of night.

Feeling sleepy, Zade was about to sleep again when his mind began to perceive something that he never felt before. Reopening his eyes, he immediately stood up and looked around. He didn't see nothing, but he could tell that something inside of him was suggesting him something. He could perceive some kind of energy, as he could feel presence getting closer to him. His eyes widened upon realizing the obvious.

They weren't alone.

Knowing that, Zade goes to wake up his shook Chris' body and tried to wake him up along with the other two.

"Guys, wake up!" Zade called but none of them answered. "GUYS!"

Chris groaned heavily as he woke up. "Zade, what now?"

"Did you had forgot that I need to rest?" Sera retorted, sleepy face. "Why do you have to wake us up?"

"We are not alone." Zaid warned.

Chris, Jace and Sera looked at him with a little alarmed face as they were getting up.

"What!?" Chris exclaimed.

"What do you mean we are not alone?" Sera asked.

"How can you tell that?" Jace asked.

"You won't believe but my powers... Gave me a hunch." Zade replied, turning toward the entrance. "We need to get out of there!"

But it was too late as multiple sounds of hooves against ground were getting closer to them, as they were rushing. True to that, multiple quadrupedal creatures already stormed inside the hall and blocked their escape, with a few of them being unicorns illuminating the room with their magic.

"What the fuck!?" Jace exclaimed.

They seemed to be a organized army, composed by earth-ponies, pegasi and unicorns alike, with half of them being in golden armor. But it's not just them as there are also changelings among them, being elegant and bright colored. All of them glared with scorn at the four ponies.

No one among the crowd surrounding them dare to say anything for a moment. Then, two pegasi, being Royal Guards flew upwards and looked down on them.

"What are those creatures?" One of the pegasi said. "Are they part of Twilegion's regime?"

"Impossible! She cannot afford to have somepony who can rival her, remember?" Another one said being a mare. "We saw what happened with Tirek and Discord."

Jace reacted in bafflement upon hearing the names. "Wait, Twilegion killed Discord for real!? Wasn't he supposed to be her friend!?"

Zade groaned in annoyance and scanned the whole mixed crowd. All of them looked so eager to rush toward them. That was the point were his question sounded very legit.

"Can this rude awakening get even worse?"

Comments

[Lorddarkrai2000]

I hope Murphy is merciful.

[Reizthefakebrony]

9060532
Well, Murphy should also that Cerebus Syndrome wouldn't kick in, because in the next chapter I'm planning to exposed what the hell is going on in this alternate universe.

Also, the four protagonist being the pony form of videogame villains? It rocks.

Still, you are invoking Murphy because of the fact that the protagonists doesn't have any break since the beginning of the story or maybe because they didn't learned to control their powers properly and ended up being in trouble or devastating anything in their sigh? Keep in mind that these question are just guessing.

[Lorddarkrai2000]

9060675
good point

[Zwillingen700]

Let's Get Ready To Rumble !!!

[Reizthefakebrony]

9062161
Well.... Just wait until chapter 5.

Besides, is there any single rumble any time they got mass ambushed in that way or are facing a powerful enemy?

And why the hell I'm even asking to a question in which I already know the answer?

In any case, you can put any song that you want.