Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Nightwatch: Through the Fire and the Flames, Part II

Back on the road with the Tantabus and its accompanying horde, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were hardly in much of a position to seize the opportunity. Dash was against the ground, struggling against the jaws of the lion-like creature as it tried to simultaneously bite her in two while stabbing for her head with its long tail. Applejack was doing her best to cut her way through the remaining monsters, but she was halted as a Nighttouched stag burst out and charged for her. Again she braced herself, but this time her strength was slipping and she ended up only able to block it. Even so, it pushed her back slowly but surely, and kept her pinned while other Nighttouched began to clamber for either side of her. The only good side was the Tantabus had stopped making more smaller Light Eaters as it focused on trying to heal itself, but none of them could seize the opportunity.

As Applejack felt a weasel-like Nighttouched suddenly bite her leg and a hawk-like one tear into her shoulder, she struggled to summon her strength to overpower the deer and fight back…

Several loud gunshots made her eyes snap back open. She was just in time to see the blood splatters from the body of the deer Nighttouched fall before it slumped to one side. Another gunshot caused the hawk to screech once before it went limp. Shocked, but also freed, Applejack seized the moment to crush the weasel with the end of her hammer before looking for her saviors.

Much to her surprise, as well as the others who had been alerted by the gunfire, they saw a squad of about thirty Griffonstone soldiers quickly taking position and aiming at the Nighttouched.

Even more surprising…Constable Gruff was at the head brandishing an ancient, rusted, commerative sword.

“Those freaky women can actually hurt those inky sons of bitches, so we’ll take ‘em in once they’ve gotten rid of that big one!” he shouted to the soldiers around him. “Until then, fill the rest of these ugly bastards fulla lead and give ‘em room!”

The Griffonstone soldiers instantly opened fire en masse. Their bullets simply zinged right through the Light Eaters as if they weren’t even there, but they began to cut down one Nighttouched after the other. Ten of the soldiers discharged their weapons into the lion-like one pinning Dash down. While it didn’t do anything much other than annoy it, it did divert its attention, which was all the opening she needed to drive her fist up and rip right through its hard palate into its upper jaw. It reared back and off of her, and she quickly sprung out from under it, leapt into the air, did a backward flip, and slammed her heel down on top of its head. It wasn’t strong enough to be fatal, but a breaking sound did ring out and the monster fell to the ground. She left it to be dealt with by the Griffonstone soldiers as she spun about to the Tantabus.

Twilight didn’t risk preparing another major spell. Instead, as Fluttershy clung to her and kept healing, she readied her wand and sent out one eruption of icicles after another to embed into the Light Eaters. She slung out spells as rapidly as she could, struggling to thin them out into nothing and leave the two fighters be so they could focus entirely on the Tantabus.

It wasn’t a moment too soon. Suddenly, Rarity let out a shriek as the monster managed to lift its limb slightly. Not only was she pulled off the ground a little, but the lance almost slid out. “I could use some help here!”

“Ya’ got it!” Applejack yelled as she rushed up to the side of the monster. She quickly began to hack away for all she was worth at the base of it, pushing herself to swing more forcefully again. Unfortunately, she was well below the point of greatest impact, and aside from knocking off a few bits that easily regenerated she was achieving little. She seemed to realize that as she kept swinging, much to her frustration. Nevertheless, she kept hacking away in hope of success.

“Hey you!”

Hearing Dash shout behind her made her stop. She turned around just as she saw her arrive at her side and clap a hand on her shoulder. Her opposite hand went out and clutched her free limb. “Need a lift?”

Before she could say anything else, Dash suddenly seized her, twirled her around once, and then used her own super strength to fling Applejack into the sky and at the Tantabus’ limb. Shocked and stunned, the farmer cried out in alarm as she found herself sent sailing over and above the major wound area on the giant Light Eater. However, her senses kicked in quickly, and she realized where she was and what she was doing. As she shot toward the gaping wound, she steeled herself, readied her hammer, and swung it down just as she landed.

A geyser worth of dark substance burst from the wound as Applejack dug her in; seeming to almost tunnel through the monstrosity. The thing was immobilized again as she kept smashing. A practical creek worth of its starry dew flowed out of the damaged area as it was torn open larger and deeper than before. Unfortunately, Applejack was still off center. When she finally cut all the way through, the limb was still connected to the rest of its body by a little less than half of its material.

As for Applejack, she righted herself and landed on the ground soon right next to Dash. The Huntsman smirked back at her, and, after a moment of frowning, the farmer smirked as well.

Right before she reached forward and clapped her own hand on her shoulder.

“Your turn.”

Dash merely grinned as she found herself hoisted off the ground and flung straight into the wound. She purposely put her arms to her sides and became a living missile, and as soon as she was within the damaged area her hands came out and began to beat away inside of the thing like jackhammers. The flow of black fluid running out of the wound intensified, and more and more pieces of it were knocked loose and free.

She kept tearing away as much as she could, struggling and determined to sever the limb. The amount of material still connecting the foot to the body shrank to a third. Then a quarter. Then a fifth…

Suddenly, the regeneration halted. Rarity gave another yipe as the Tantabus suddenly yanked its body forward so fiercely that it pulled her off of her feet and to the ground, but also knocked her already weakening grip on the lance loose. At the same time, by not healing itself, it allowed its fluid to freely flow off and into Dash; rushing into her like a mudslide, catching her up in it, and pushing her out of the wound. She was left shocked and flailing as she slid right out of it and fell back to the street. The Tantabus itself continued to bleed as it moved that limb away from its attackers as quickly as it could, and even for its slow pace it only needed to take a step or two to leave them dozens of meters behind. Applejack, Rarity, and Dash, as soon as she landed, realized it was trying to get away and quickly broke in pursuit, but even they couldn’t match its stride. Soon it was a good enough distance to start closing the wound again.

“No!” Twilight cried as soon as she finished incinerating the last of the Light Eaters. She struggled to aim her wand, but even with Fluttershy’s help she was too dry. “We were so close!”

Still uncontested, its body rapidly started to rebuild itself. In only three seconds, the limb was already back to one quarter of its previous thickness…

When the roar of a cannon went out, and an explosion instantly destroyed the thinned part completely. With a tremendous wet squelching sound, the lower half of its limb broke off and slammed into the ground before melting like gelatin in the sun. Soon it was splattering fully and disintegratng into nothing but blackness. The Tantabus was left standing with only three limbs.

Applejack, Dash, and Rarity halted where they were, and they along with Twilight and Fluttershy gaped in shock.

“Was that…a cannon?” Fluttershy meekly asked.

The five of them turned and looked, along with several stunned Griffonstone soldiers.

They saw a grinning Pinkie slowly pushing out a still-smoking field gun onto the field; only gleaming with her same aura. “Hey everybody! Guess what? I thought, ‘hey, if Rarity can make a flagpole into a lance just by touching it’, I wonder if I can make a cannon work if I hold onto it when it shoots! Pretty neat, huh?”

Four of them continued to stare in amazement at Pinkie, but Twilight only glanced at her a moment before looking back at the Tantabus. Its stump of a limb was dribbling the starry dew like blood, but no new Light Eaters grew from it. Its massive head looked down to it, as if pondering that injury. It continued to stand still as the others also turned and looked back to it.

After a moment, it finally raised its head again.

It focused its moonspots fully on the six of them.

Applejack couldn’t help but swallow. “Well, congrats, Twilight…I think we officially got it to think we’re the biggest threat to it.”

Rarity clenched her sore hands and sighed. “It took us everything we had just to remove that leg. I don’t know if we can deal with the rest of it…”

“Oh…” Fluttershy half-whimpered. “Just as things were starting to look brighter…”

Twilight looked up a little when she said that. “Brighter…?”

She glanced up and around herself. By now, the gunfire of the Griffonstone soldiers had died down. It hadn’t been due to being attacked, however. It was the fact that, in spite of being a light source, their weapons weren’t attracting any more Nighttouched. She could see why. Even with skies choked by smog, the air was a bit brighter over the intact city. The sun had raised higher yet, and there was a good chance the thinning smoke and increasing light was driving them into hiding. Furthermore, the Tantabus wasn’t making any more Light Eaters of its own, and its one limb remained missing as she hoped.

Quickly, she shouted to the others. “Everyone! Don’t get discouraged! It’s working!”

Everyone turned to her. The Tantabus began to shake the ground as it turned around toward them, but she kept speaking louder.

“Look! It’s not able to spread its darkness as much now! It can’t spit out any more Light Eaters or stop oozing from that limb! We’re bringing it to its limit!”

“But it’s already spread darkness over half of this city, Twilight!” Rarity called back. “Even if it loses its power, the smog can still cover it all the way to the ocean!”

“I’ll take care of that!” Twilight shouted as she swept her sleeves back and raised her wand. “I’m going to make another wind storm! This one to clear the smog all the way to the heavens! Keep attacking it! Get it weak enough to where it can’t produce any more darkness of its own, and this will finish it!”

Fluttershy swallowed, but then began to advance and reach out to Twilight.

“No!”

She suddenly stopped on hearing Twilight shout at her, and saw her staring back at her.

“Get the animals back! Keep anyone from touching that blackness! We’re the only ones who can hurt it without getting corrupted by it! Once they’re away, worry about helping them when you’re not trying to concentrate on it! If you can even just slow it down that’ll help!”

“But…but can you make that wind storm by yourself?”

“This one won’t be as big as the last! The smog’s clearing up on its own from all the industries being shut down anyway! But you have to help the others keep it in one spot! I only have enough power to do it once!”

Everyone heard that last part. Spinning back to the Tantabus, they saw it finish turning about. In spite of missing a leg, it began to move back toward the others.

Dash held her fists up. “Alright, you heard the lady!”

“Keep on pushin’ ‘til it drops or you do!” Applejack shouted back.

As Twilight began to start chanting and making another sigil, Applejack, Dash, and, after taking a moment to pluck up a broken iron grating bar to turn into a new rapier, Rarity began to charge at it. Fluttershy ran back to the animals and started to call out to them as Pinkie grunted and moved the cannon closer.

When Dash reached the monster, it didn’t idly this time. As she tried to go for its leg, it suddenly snapped its entire head down. The spire-like horn slashed down and cut into the surrounding buildings and street pavement with scarcely any resistance; slicing a wide gash across the entire road in her path that forced her to stop. Yet as she halted, Applejack quickly charged on past the wake of the cut and ran right at the leg of the monster. With another cry, she swung out and smashed another piece of it loose. In response, it heaved forward so much it shook the ground, forcing her to halt, before swinging its foot out for her to try and catch her.

She halted by quickly grinding herself to a stop and leaping backward, barely dodging it as it swung by and smashed in the side of a building. As it yanked it back, however, Dash quickly snapped forward and leapt into the air as hard as she could after it. With her added power, she managed to sail up several meters before bringing her fist down on it; knocking out even more of the starry material. It slammed its foot down a second later, shaking and fracturing the street before Dash landed, and snapped its horn down upon her. Quickly, she backflipped to avoid the first slash downward, but it quickly drove its horn in the rest of the way into the road and advanced while snapping it up; cutting a wide swath across the street in its wake. Dash was forced to keep backflipping further to evade it, but it kept moving after her—pursuing her with the blade-like horn.

However, by lowering its head to the ground, it brought itself in range of Rarity, who waved her hand and sent out another ball of fire—this time for one of its eyespots. The mark hit true and erupted in a small amount of flame. It wasn’t enough to permanently blind the monster, but it was enough for it to rear back up again. Not losing her resolve, Rarity forced herself to run forward after it just as Applejack charged as well. Since it used its one remaining foreleg to force itself up, it was still holding weight upon it as Applejack swung her hammer into one side while Rarity slices out for the opposite one. Both weapons hit and shed more of its body.

Suddenly, the Tantabus shook its head with such force that the air around it rippled, and reared itself back on its hind legs to raise its hoof and snap it out. Rarity managed to quickly duck and roll to one side, but the flailing appendage caught Applejack hard. A loud smack echoed down the street as she was taken off of her feet and flung headfirst into a gaslight fixture. In spite of being a glancing blow, her head hit hard enough to dent the metal inward, and she slumped completely to the ground and lay there, for the moment, unmoving.

As Rarity scattered from its wake, the Tantabus heaved itself forward to try and finish Applejack with a follow-up stomp. Yet as it put its weight on the leg to try and make the push, the cannon thundered again. A good portion of the leg was knocked totally loose, and with a monstrous crack and groan the Tantabus faltered down to its breast. Pinkie, from behind them all, let out a triumphant yell before she began to reload as quickly as she could.

Applejack’s senses, fortunately, returned, but she was still staggering back to her feet when Dash ran back in. Gritting her teeth and tightening her knuckles, she didn’t bother with the injured limb but instead went right for the Tantabus’ faltering head. To everyone’s shock, she ran straight at it, leapt up again, and landed on the tip of its snout. She kept on running up its face like it was nothing more than a ramp until she reached the forehead, snapped back her fist, and drove her palm in as hard as she could. The entire upper “face” of the monster rippled as part of it gushed out from the eye sockets. She quickly drove it in again and knocked out even more.

She nearly drove in a third, when suddenly it snapped its head violently to one side. She was catapulted off the top of its head and flung hard against a pile of rubble in the monster’s wake. In spite of the speed and power, she managed to right herself in midair, but the best she could do was brace her legs beneath her before she slammed into it; scattering the debris everywhere. The sound of her crying out in pain echoed over the battleground.

The Tantabus began to heave itself up again now that its leg had a chance to regenerate, only to get another spell in the eye; this time of ice. It reared up once again, forced to put its weight on its front leg once more, and Rarity used the moment to charge in and drive her rapier into its leg. She quickly braced her arm against the pommel and forced her body forward, making it gush out in a growing, ever-enlarging wound while she pushed the sword in deeper. The thing tried to move to crush her, but its limb was deteriorating around her attack and it couldn’t bring its body close enough to actually hit her with anything.

Suddenly, it reacted by snapping its entire leg up in a sweeping move. Doing so made it falter again, but it managed to hook part of its intact limb around and up. It caught Rarity beneath the jaw, and her head snapped skyward as her hat flew off from the potent force. Her body spilled back and sprawled on the ground, letting the rapier clatter out of her grip as she now sported a gash across her chin from where she had been struck. She lay there senseless, and the Tantabus struggled to push itself back up to finish the job.

Before it could, howling again, Applejack barreled at it from the side. She was bleeding and bruised, particularly from a wound staining her straw-colored hair a shade of red, and she staggered as she came, but she still managed to swing out the teeth of her hammer and hooked them into the Tantabus. She raked down and tried to gouge it for all it was worth, and the end result was the black body of the thing tearing and gushing out even further. The Tantabus tried to pull the limb away, only for Applejack to cry out from the strain and force her arms back, letting it hurt itself by digging its own body against the teeth.

This lasted only a moment, before it suddenly snapped its leg up all together. Applejack’s cry cut off as she was flung into the air, and a moment later was slammed into the street as its swung its limb back against the ground with her on it. A cracking went out on impact with the already ruined road, which could have easily come from either her armor or a bone. It was impossible to tell which—only that Applejack’s face showed she was agonized as soon as she landed. Rarity, on her part, was barely turning her head by now and far from recovering.

The Tantabus quickly brought its neck back, readying to swing its horn down again on the two of them and slice them apart. It began to sweep around, once more cutting through the surrounding buildings and aiming for the street…

When Fluttershy suddenly ran out into the middle of the road, covered with sweat and shaking, but also looking right into its moonspot eyes and holding her hands up. “Stop!”

For all its size and power, when the moonspots made contact with her eyes and heard her voice, unbelievably, the monstrosity actually slowed. Its horn which had previously been coming down like a sword slash, suddenly dropped in speed to a mere pantomime of the gesture. Fluttershy, in spite of trembling like a leaf in a gale, continued to look into its monstrous eyes and forced herself not to blink.

Applejack, although it clearly agonized her, forced herself back up. Rarity was still blinking and coming around when the farmer pushed herself to one knee, before using her hammer to push herself up higher. Even then, however, she was breathing harder.

“Applejack!”

She paused, looking behind her on hearing her name. Dash was finishing yanking herself from the rubble and was rushing forward again. However, she was no longer going at her blinding pace. One of her legs had a limp on it and bloody gashes were over one of her arms and abdomen. Nevertheless, she nodded up to her. “Give me another boost! I can’t jump anymore!”

Applejack, unable to yell back, only nodded back tiredly before shifting the hammer to one hand. The Tantabus continued to try and bring its horn down, struggling in vain to complete the swipe, but couldn’t overpower Fluttershy’s stare in time. Dash arrived first and Applejack immediately reached out and seized her. Although it hurt her strained body more in the process, she flung her skyward toward the monster.

Dash let herself sail into the air again, before she aimed herself right at the falling horn. Aiming both of her legs out and holding her hands up, she grit her teeth again as she turned her body into a living lance. She aimed at the thickest part she dared and let herself descend down, before striking it with the most vertical she had managed yet. While it made her cry out in pain from her injured leg, more of the black fluid exploded everywhere as the end of its horn was severed completely from its head.

She landed a moment later, crying out again as she instantly stumbled. Unfortunately, the shock of her yell caused Fluttershy to look to her with concern; breaking her stare. Rarity, finally getting her bearings back, began to lean up again, and Applejack, seeing what had happened, looked anxious as she hefted her hammer and readied herself.

Now able to move freely again, the Tantabus, at first, simply reared back and shook its gushing skull from where it had lost its horn. Yet it didn’t last as long as they liked. The eyespots vanished for a moment only to reform, this time aimed below and away from Fluttershy to avoid her gaze. It nearly reared up to try stomping again…

A third shell went off, and struck it right in the face. To the tune of an explosion of black gel, the Tantabus was knocked back off of its front foot and slammed its “rear” down onto the street enough to cause the two buildings on either side of it to collapse. The resulting quake nearly broke Twilight’s focus as all the others save Pinkie were knocked back into the road. As the rubble around them continued to fall and the echo of the cannon shell died, the monster’s face was left smoking and smoldering.

After a few moments, a passing breeze cleared it and revealed what was left. Most of the horse “snout” was gone, and the eyespots had enlarged into deep craters that almost went through its head. Instead of an elongated mouth, it now had a squat one filled with jagged, irregular teeth.

It glared down at the group for an instant, but then began to rise, if possible, even faster than before.

Seeing it still coming, the others struggled to react as fast as they could. Fluttershy steeled herself and tried to rise to look it in the eye again. Rarity got to her feet but didn’t charge, instead throwing every ball of fire and ice she could manage at the rest of its body before throwing in a small lightning bolt as well. Applejack and Dash forced themselves up in spite of being the most injured, then staggered forward for its forelimb, which it was still forced to put most of its weight on. Fortunately, it was still rising when they arrived, and they quickly began to carve away at it again; frantically punching and pounding. In spite of their panic and fury, they noticed that, just barely, it seemed to be regenerating a little slower…

Yet they couldn’t stop it from rising again. As soon as it did, its monstrous mouth opened wide. Ignoring the limb, instead it swept its head down…much more quickly now that it didn’t have a long horn or snout. The broken remains of its original horn flashed across Applejack, and the raw force tore her away and flung her to the side of the street. She yelled in pain as a streak of blood flowed off her chest and painted the sidewalk, right before her body slammed against it. The Tantabus snapped its body around and struck Dash next with its misshapen chin, smacking her away and driving her body through the air and into an intact building. This time, unfortunately, she went shoulder-first, and an audible pop rang out as soon as she hit. When she fell to the ground, she went rigid and clutched for the limb screaming from clenched teeth.

Keeping its fearsome head down, it began to heave forward. Rarity readied her sword, but was still dizzy from her previous blow as well as fearful now that she had faced it. She managed to be brave enough to run forward and thrust for its jaw as it came near, but the colossal creature merely yanked its head down and snapped her to the street with it, before making a casual gesture to the side to rake her along the rubble. The splintered cobblestones beat and slashed through her clothes to bruise and gash her entire front side, knocking what fight she had back out of her and leaving her lying in the street stunned and agonized.

Fluttershy now found herself facing the monster alone. Yet hearing the pain from Applejack, the screams of Dash, and seeing what happened to Rarity caused her resolve to melt away. She couldn’t get the bravery to look it in the eye, and even if she could there was no stopping it now. Finally, she panicked and turned to break for it, and as a result she managed to avoid a direct hit from the Tantabus. As it was, it flashed its teeth out for her, and the sound of her robe tearing echoed as another long yet relatively shallow cut was opened across her back. The force still flung her to the ground harshly and left her sprawled out, but the monster didn’t follow up for the kill.

It was going for the most severe threat.

At the field gun, Pinkie was actually looking worried for once as she struggled to reload it with one of the remaining shells as fast as she could. Yet she was still cleaning the barrel when the Tantabus began to shake the ground so severely that she lost her grip on the ramrod. She turned and saw it coming and casting it shadow over her. Its great foreleg took only one step nearer before it suddenly went back on its hind legs and reared up. As it towered over the entire surrounding city, it hefted its building-sized limb up and above her.

She gulped once, staring at it in genuine fear, but then did something that could best be described as pure insanity. She reached out, seized all three of the remaining shells and, in spite of them each weighing a good hundred pounds, hefted them and held them in her arms with their cones aimed upward. She stared unblinking as the Tantabus’ foot came down like a sound of thunder, and smashed down on her so hard that the road around her and the cannon caved inward two meters.

Only Twilight and Fluttershy had enough of their wits to actually see it happen. Yet as they opened their mouths to shriek “no”, it was swallowed up by another thunderous noise. By smashing the upward-facing shells into the ground, she hit them with sufficient force to fire them up and directly into the middle of its leg…each one still imbued with Pinkie’s own aura. A pillar of erupting fire burst from the inside of the limb, rising higher and higher as the combined power blew into it. Its darkness was splattered all up and down the street enough to paint the surrounding buildings the same night color. The colossal monster reared up again, but this time not of its own volition, as fire and smoke rose in its wake.

As it towered into the sky, Rarity managed to get enough of her own bearings to look up with Twilight and Fluttershy to see the aftermath. A second gushing stump was left where its front leg had been. The thing actually staggered on its rear legs for a moment, before, with another resounding crash that seemed to heave the world around them, it actually fell back and landed onto several of the remaining intact buildings. Debris and smoke flew everywhere as they were flattened in its wake, and yet another cacophony was sent throughout the entire city and for miles beyond.

However, as soon as it was down and the quaking had diminished enough, Fluttershy forced herself up and moved as quickly as she could to the crater it had made with its monstrous foot. Considering it had stomped that hard, and the fact that an explosion had gone off that Pinkie was holding onto, it was an utterly foolish move. There was no way anything would be left, and she began to realize that as soon as she reached the side.

Yet on glancing over the edge, she couldn’t help but give a surprised gasp.

The clothing of the “Rogue” had vanished, and some of her original clothing was now dirty and torn. She herself looked soot-stained and beaten about. And yet Pinkie still lay there; in one piece and not even bleeding.

Fluttershy almost thought she was imagining the whole thing or looking at a ghost. Yet in spite of her doubt of her own eyes, she tentatively and nervously stepped over the edge of the crater and came closer. Pinkie didn’t vanish, however. She only continued to lie there all the way until she reached her side.

Still nervous, she bent down next to her. “Pink…Pinkie? Are…” She hesitated, almost wondering how she could be asking this question. “Are you…alright…?”

Pinkie’s eyes cracked open, a clearly-dazed look in them. “Did you get the number of that locomotive…?” she half mumbled before shutting them again, apparently passing out.

In spite of the fact she would obviously be ok, Fluttershy couldn’t help but stare at her in disbelief. She knew full well what she had witnessed wasn’t possible. Anyone in the world could have watched that and known that nothing should have been left of Pinkie but what could be scraped off of the remains of the street, and yet there she was. Finally, she swallowed, before reaching out and grasping her to try and pull her up.

She didn’t manage to touch her before the area around her shuddered violently, causing her to yelp and recoil. Outside of the crater, Rarity and Twilight both looked as Rainbow Dash and Applejack only now grew composed enough to bite back their pain. Suddenly, more buildings were shaken apart as the two-legged, faceless remains of the Tantabus suddenly heaved and rolled itself over onto its belly, smashing enough of the surroundings to be seen sprawling out by all of them.

Tired and weary as they were, Dash forced her good arm into a fist and with Applejack, who was clutching her bleeding chest with one arm and holding her hammer in her other, start to pull themselves up. They watched and waited for the monster to make the next move.

Eventually it did. Its massive rear legs pushed up its rear, but it didn’t try to heave the front part of its body. It merely pushed its backside up as best as it could on the two legs. It held there for a few seconds.

Then, to the sound of the rhythmic tremors again, it began to drag itself along as quickly as it could. Its upper body was left on the ground and began to scrape it, smashing through whatever was left in its way like a living bulldozer, but it kept pushing regardless.

Away from the six of them…and toward the darkness it had left in its wake and, beyond that, to the seashore.

“It’s trying to get away!” Dash yelled.

“No, it’s trying to get to the ocean while it still can!” Rarity shouted back.

Applejack whirled back to Twilight. “If ya’ got that spell ready, do it now!”

“No, it’s still spreading darkness around it! Look!”

The four glanced back momentarily. Sure enough, the air around the Tantabus was much brighter than it was before, but around the immediate area, extending only a few feet from the rest of its body, an air of “night” remained.

“It still needs more! This won’t hurt it!”

Applejack winced but tightened up, hefting her hammer, and then began to hobble after it. “Just cast the spell!”

“What?!”

Dash, getting what she meant, nodded as she began to limp after it too. “She’s right! Just cast it!”

“We’ll take care of its last defense, darling!” Rarity yelled before she ran after them.

Twilight wanted to protest, but by now she had summoned so much energy to herself, not to mention had to regain it after her numerous distractions, that she couldn’t hold it any longer anyway. She was dripping sweat all over, her legs were weakening, and her arm muscles were on fire. Looking at the Tantabus and praying she was aiming right, she aimed at the sky just a bit ahead of it. Moments later, her sigil gleamed. A fierce gale erupted from it so powerfully that she was nearly bowled over.

The Tantabus, fortunately, couldn’t move as fast as it wanted now that it was dragging itself. Applejack and Dash managed to reach the side of it and, once there, they began to attack it again. Sadly, their assault was almost as pathetic as its attempts to flee them. They were too hurt and exhausted. Applejack could barely chip away with her hammer, and it was all Dash could do to punch at the side of it with her one good arm. It was still so massive that the small blows weren’t phasing it, and the dark aura about it remained whole and intact.

Twilight began to cry in pain again as she kept sending out the titanic wind from her sigil. It shot over the city with enough force to shift loose bricks and bits of iron, but its true power came when it reached the designated spot. Once there, it quickly began to whip up and circle around itself. As the veins and tendons of her body began to grow visible beneath her skin, she started to turn her arm around. The still-emerging wind kept pouring and condensing before it began to spiral, and slowly it started to pick up dirt and debris around it into a dust cloud. The smog far overhead slowly began to get drawn into it.

Rarity, still in relatively good health, reached the side of the Tantabus at last. She brandished her newly-restored rapier and nearly moved in along with Applejack and Dash, but only took a few steps before she slowed. She looked to her tiny weapon, still but a toothpick compared to it. However, she also noticed the beautiful, flawless, shining silver it had been transmuted into. Twilight’s twister was continuing to grow and sweep away the smog. And as it did, through the haze and gloom overhead, a glow of morning sunlight was slowly starting to come through.

She suddenly put her sword to her side and doubled her speed…running right past it and Applejack and Dash. Both tiredly glanced at her. “Where d’ya think yer goin’? The fight’s right here!”

“I have a plan! Just keep it busy!”

“We can barely run, let alone hit it!” Dash shouted back, but Rarity was already long gone.

Applejack tiredly chipped away at it again, heaving and sweating heavily now, but only knocked off a chip of the material this time. “I…I think my glow is…is dyin’…”

Dash looked and saw she was right. The golden aura was starting to dim. The armor she was wearing was starting to look shabbier and more ordinary. The hammer even seemed slightly smaller.

“I think we’re at our limit…” she managed to say back.

“So…what now…?”

“One last try… Run as hard as you can, and when I say so…drive the teeth of that hammer into its side.”

“Yer crazy… It’ll just drag me along ‘til I fall out…”

“Trust me…”

Applejack let out one more exhale, but then tightened up. With all her remaining power, she ran forward as fast and hard as she could. She was soon red-faced and gasping, and seemed to drive herself into more pain with every step, but she pushed herself to go faster than the Tantabus again. She slowly gained more and more on it, passing its hindquarters, its chest, and beginning to reach its shoulders and thick neck region. As she did, Dash ran after her as hard as she could hobble. She noticed her own aura rapidly began to dim, but she ignored it and pushed herself on even harder.

Finally, she saw Applejack begin to stumble. Her gait began to falter. Dash cried out. “Now!”

Still panting, Applejack weakly swung her hammer into the side and drove the teeth of it into the monster’s neck region. She nearly collapsed…

But before she could, Dash seized her body, wrapped her good arm around her, and with all of her own strength dug her feet into the ground. As a result, she forced Applejack to hold firm as the Tantabus kept moving; ripping the hammer into it. With a tremendous shredding sound and another flood of starry material, the teeth cut into it all along and down from its neck and shoulders all the way to its lower torso. The thing visibly slowed as it realized it was gashing itself open, but by then Dash and Applejack could bear it no longer. Both of them stumbled and collapsed.

However, the damage had been done. The black aura shrank to almost nothingness against its body, and the monster itself slowed even more as the ambient glow through the smog-choked clouds about it began to affect it. What more, Twilight was summoning her windstorm, and it was still dragging itself right into its path.

Finally, as she fell to her knees, Twilight pushed out the last bit of the wind and focused only on manipulating it. It at last coalesced into a true tempest, and as she forced it forth the final bit of clouds were removed. Over the skies of Grifftham City, everyone for several blocks all around could look and see a ray of true sunlight spill down for the world below like a beam from Heaven; right in the path of the Tantabus.

At first, the thing only seemed focused on the patch of night that was now only a block away, still lingering even with the fading smog, and continued to push itself toward it in spite of the fact the sunlight was now directly in its path. One of its massive legs raised as its body stopped its latest drag only a scant few feet away, the next push sure to force its body completely into the light…

And halted.

Twilight could barely see from where she still stood, but she just made out the bulk of the Tantabus had stopped moving. She didn’t even have the strength to cry out in anguish at the failure; still focusing everything she had left to keep the tempest together.

The monster simply lay there not moving; patiently waiting for the last of her power to give. Once it did, it would push itself back into the safety of its darkness. The best they could hope for now would be that it would retreat, but in the blackness it might regain enough power to continue to the ocean. Either way they couldn’t stop it. Applejack and Dash looked up weakly from where they lay on the roadside, their own power fading and their clothes reverting. Fluttershy, with Pinkie on her back, was struggling to move forward only to stop and gasp on seeing the final move fail.

However, the Tantabus only was able to lay there idly a moment longer.

A ray of light suddenly swiveled out and touched it in the middle of its head—which instantly began to melt and bubble away like lava on a piece of ice. It quickly began to spasm and flop uselessly around on its front side; showing the first expression that could be classified as pain.

And standing before it in the light, using her own shining blade, Rarity was grinning as she aimed the sunlight’s reflection right onto it.

“Like the rapier, darling? Isn’t it simply dazzling?”

The Tantabus continued to wriggle, desperately trying to push itself out of the deadly light as Rarity kept aiming it at its head. She raked it all up and down along its face, leaving bubbling starry ooze sloughing off in her wake. It tried to move to one side. It tried to push its legs forth to shove it around her and the light and into the darkness. Yet it couldn’t. Pushing itself further forward would expose it to more light, and it couldn’t bear it.

Twilight saw that it was immobilized mere feet from her tempest. She looked to the sky and hesitated. Taking three deep breaths, trying to force her eyes and dimming vision to focus, she continued to aim her wand at it and spin while also pulling back. The pain radiating through her arms almost made them numb. She fell down to her waist, nearly collapsing all together, but somehow she pushed her upper torso up and maintained control.

The smog was slowly stripped away a bit closer, and the glow bore down closer and closwer toward the Tantabus. Just as it finally got its rear legs underneath it enough to try and flop itself to one side, Twilight cried out and dropped her wand.

The spell broke, but not before sending its wind blasting in all directions. Doing so, it was just enough to push aside the smog cover and expose the Tantabus’ entire upper half to pure sunlight.

Not even Twilight had ever heard a Light Eater “scream” before, but some sort of horrible wail came from it as its darkness was pierced by radiant sunlight. Rarity snapped back and dropped her rapier in alarm, and everyone else cringed as they listened to it give that horrendous noise. From all about the city, in every place someone was still holed up from Nighttouched or running from Light Eaters, from the soldiers engaged in street fighting to those manning various airships in the heavens, they heard that monstrous shriek it made and saw it was coming from the gigantic monstrosity.

For a moment, every last one of them thought of a friend, loved one, parent, child, instructor, comrade, or companion they had watched their soulless, unfeeling, unstoppable enemy take from them, and on hearing the sound of one of the same creatures writhing in the same agony it had made them all feel for eight years…a long cold and quenched spot inside them felt a tiny spark.

The monstrous face of the Tantabus turned up into the morning light one last time, still shrieking, before its entire body convulsed. Every last remaining piece of its inky blackness suddenly imploded in upon itself, like all of space was a drain in which it now flowed down. All was drawn in to one single condensed black mass for a split second, and then burst.

The six women shielded themselves as a black mist rolled out and past them, scattering in a potent shockwave throughout Grifftham City and for miles beyond it. From the sky, all airships could see a black ripple of mist blast away and into the heavens. Yet it bore no corruption in it and was soon gone. While all of the places that the Tantabus’ foul presence had defiled remained shrouded in eternal night, much of Grifftham City was still free to the effects of day. The long trail of destruction it had left from the mountains through the city to the ocean, back to the gas main, and finally back around in an attempt to escape were all that was left of it.

The Tantabus was gone.

To be continued...

Author's Note:

Not done yet. One part left...

Comments

[dvdspires]

When Dash reached the monster, it didn’t idly this time. As she tried to go for its leg, it suddenly snapped its entire head down. The spire-like horn slashed down and cut into the surrounding buildings and street pavement with scarcely any resistance; slicing a wide gash across the entire road in her path that forced her to stop. Yet as she halted, Applejack quickly charged on past the wake of the cut and ran right at the leg of the monster. With another cry, she swung out and smashed another piece of it loose. In response, it heaved forward so much it shook the ground, forcing her to halt, before swinging its foot out for her to try and catch her.

didn’t sit idly.