The Demon of Canterlot City

by Amadeus cancer

The Freaks Are Everywhere

"There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought."

- The Second Doctor (Doctor who)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Somewhere in the high Northwestern mountains of Equestria

A small artifact lay gently in his mighty palm, gold coloring shining like a star in the otherwise grim, grey crevasse. Using his massive thumb he overturned the object in curiosity, the large horns atop the golden statue’s head making it slightly difficult to move with merely a thumb. Bringing it closer to his face he inspected it intensely with his one massive eye. Though small by his standards, it being palm sized, the pricey artifact was quite large by those of…smaller stature.

A couple shuffling peering at its every nook and cranny was all it took for him to give a toothless grin. Yes, this prize would suit well in his collection. The small creatures, yaks as he recalled them being, had been most vicious during his assault. Yet as all others before them, their efforts were simply in vain when compared to his great might! He’d made sure of that once reducing their pathetic hobble to dust once he’d claimed what was now his. Besides, if they were foolish enough to try and stray far apart from their mountainous kingdom it should have come to no surprise an attack of any kind bigger than their small group would appear eventually.

Shifting a leg to right himself, he snarled at the sharp pain from his armpit. One of the yaks had managed to hit a soft spot just below the boney shoulder. Of course he made sure to trample the tiny insect shortly after. But that did little to dull the sheer embarrassment he could feel.

Immediately, voices of fellow kindred drifted into his mind with thousands upon thousands of familiar and unfamiliar faces laughing and sneering down upon him.

“What a deluded young fool” he’d hear one say. “Taking after that greedy old goat as if he were some form of royalty.”

He angrily slammed his large hand to the side as if he were hitting someone else, only to feel a rock wall hit his own flesh instead.

“As if our kind didn’t have enough trouble with Arimaspi, now we have this little lost rat trailing behind him.”

The statue in his hand shook as he clenched his fist around it, eye narrowing forward.

“Such potential wasted on thievery those two.”

“Arimaspi is as sharp with his words as he is boastful, no wonder that poor boy fell for his delusional views.”

“ENOUGH!” a loud roar echoed across the canyon as he stood to his full height, body defensive as if he were ready to fend off attackers. Only, aside from the birds he was the sole being there.

How dare they, Arimaspi was like a brother to him and taught him many things the rest of his kin were too soft or old to realize. Arimaspi was many things, but a fool he was not. “It is by nature’s will the strong overcome the weak. And, if the weak wish to create things solely for themselves, then it is our purpose to remind them of their place.” he would always say.

And he was right. If weaker beings wished to make beautiful artifacts and other bountiful trinkets it was only fair the strongest got to claim it for their own as a reward for their survivability. Arimaspi held that idealism to his grave when attempting his greatest theft yet, rushing for the Idol of Boreas head on against the Griffon army. A shame he was too weak to fulfill his goal. Once hearing the news about his found brother’s fate, it was honestly rather quite more disappointing than saddening to say the least.

But Rameses was no Arimaspi, he would not fall to those beneath him. He would prove to all that Cyclops were beings meant to be both respected and feared. He would steal and rob whomever he pleased, be it yaks, griffons, ponies, or even the great dragons he’d heard of up north.

Even if his own kind refused to believe him, there’d be no stopping the great Ramses. He would find the most treasured artifact of all Equis and take down any who stood in his way!

His thoughts were interrupted once he felt a presence overcloud him, as if the very sun were being shadowed and the mountain air turned colder. On instinct he clutched his prize and gazed around in bewilderment, hoping to find the being or source of such a change. A warning began to rise in his throat, yet quickly died down when the sounds of unknown whispering flowed through his ears, as an unspeakable fear drifted through his body causing his thick fur to stand on end.

Until, before his very eye he saw a thin line cut through the air in front of him, as if by an invisible blade, then a bright light shone through the thin rip causing him to shield his vision and drop his precious trophy.

“What… what trickery is this?” he gaped. Suddenly, the whispers inside his ears slowly became less muffled to where he could hear what they were saying.

“Rameses.”

His heart nearly stopped as he whirled in absolute shock. It couldn’t be.

“A- Arimaspi?”

The voice in his ears paused just for a moment, before speaking again.

“Rameses, go. Go.”

He continued to whirl around, eye searching wildly.

“Arimaspi? Arimaspi is that you? Go where?”

The voice, dark and mysterious yet still undeniably his brother’s, spoke louder with more authority.

“Into the light brother. Show the world who you are, who you are meant to be”

Instead of questioning once more, Rameses peered back at the brightened rip with wonder. He was to go in there? But why? The voice did not answer his thoughts, so instead he walked towards the otherworldly crack, hand extending towards it. It was spell bounding. He peaked at the mountainous terrain around him, snowy peaks in the far horizon barely visible through the clouds.

Yes, something inside him told his brain, do it. he looked back to the crack and his expression turned to one of resolve. Very well then.

Huffing in a great deal of air, the Cyclops opened his mouth with a mighty roar and barraged into the rift, the source tearing open on command as he ran through.

“Go brother, go.”

The voice whispered faded as the frozen winds of the mountains washed away to a bright sun-kissed area, nearly blinding him once again. However his momentary blindness was interrupted when something hard smashed directly into his forearm, causing him to roar out in frustration as what appeared similar to be an odd shaped wagon flew away from his great strength and into a row of other wagons, followed by fire and shattered metal.

Blinking in confusion he stumbled as plenty more of the odd shaped wagon-like things zoomed by and across his legs or stopping to a halt. What gave him more confusion was when many of the small wagons’ doors opened and strange creatures jumped out to gawk at him. They looked like no other creature he’d seen throughout his entire life, their upright statures and lack of any accessories besides that of skin and cloth.

Some of them raised their hands with tiny devices while others simply fled in terror. Snorting Rameses looked away from the smaller life forms and towards his surroundings. Towering structures of hardened rock and glass lined both sides of each pathway he saw, as he was currently standing in some sort of middle square connecting the smooth pathways. The air reeked with gas and other unsatisfactory smells making him snarl aloud, causing a few of the meager beings below to panic, though he paid them no mind.

However, something else caught his attention. A whiff in the wind familiar and enticing. He gazed back down at the beings at his feet, and he felt a mixture of pleasure and pure excitement grow within his heart.

He understood now, either Arimaspi or perhaps another force saw the true potential in him and thus has brought him here, to this new and unexplored world, for him to gather prizes and prove his brother right: That Cyclops could and would conquer or take whatever they pleased! Now it was solely up to him to find out just where his righteous trophy was in this pathetic little city of ugly creatures. He would make his brother proud.

A grin split across Rameses face and brought up his giant arms over his head and let out the most powerful roar he possibly could, echoing throughout each and every building as the petrified weaklings watched.

This city and all its treasures belonged to Rameses now.

---

Canterlot City, earlier.

“And you’re absolutely sure of what you saw?”

Amongst all of the many parks within Canterlot, Wind Whistler was undoubtedly one of the smallest and equally quietest, its body sandwiched in-between two massive office towers. It also was well known to be unoccupied most days.

Therefore, if you were to go deep enough into the park’s solitary trail you’d find an unexpected sight. Seated on a bench underneath a giant maple tree was Canterlot’s current terrorist in hiding, Cole Macgrath himself, sitting comfortably next to an elderly woman, who in turn expressed no signs of fear.

“Ah’m as sure as Mr. Buttercream when he spots a good place to hide away all my sowing yarn, sonny!” The elderly woman looking up at him, Goldie Delicious, responded right away with a knowing smirk.

Nodding silently Cole pressed a finger to his chin, deep in thought. The new article discussing the power outage alongside other various strange occurrences happening throughout the city could only provide so much, thus Cole eventually found himself doing the second-best thing, contacting witnesses reported in said articles.

Trouble was, people often weren’t too keen on having a one-on-one interview with a “terrorist”, following up with an unsurprising amount of doors slammed in his face and cop calls. He was nearly about to declare it quits and find another solution until he finally found someone who’d either not read the news or was too focused on other issues to realize who he was and accepted an invited meeting.

That said witness being the woman beside him, playfully massaging a golden tabby in her hands.

“Ah usually never venture to that mall in particular when Ah can. Its bit too noisy and energetic for little ol’ me.” She continued not taking her eyes off the pet laying in her lap. “But Ah was desperate for finding the right kind of food for Lemon Squeezy. And like just Ah said, Ah was headed out the front door before seeing none other than Granny Smith’s girl over to the side talking with her friends. Such a fine group of youngsters those girls, did Ah ever tell you about the time their band played at-“

Cole sucked in a breath while pinching the bridge of his nose as the lady continued. Nobody said first time journalism was going to be easy.

“You started off earlier with one of the girl’s friends acting strange right? could you please tell me more about that.” He interrupted, causing her to pause for a moment mid-sentence before brightening up.

“Oh yes! one of Applejack’s friends, uh, Rainbow-something was arguing with this boy, feisty one that girl Ah tell ya, then next thing Ah know she’s actin like a wound-up sprinter preppin’ to take off. That’s when Ah new flew off my feet when she burst off down the road faster than my poor soul could catch. Ah thought Ah was near hallucinating when Ah saw just how fast she was going. But turns out other people saw it too, so there went my fears of another session with the doctor.”

“Okay…” he began, lost in thought. “…And you said one of them was a granddaughter of a friend of yours, Granny Smith was it?”

“That’d be correct.” She spoke jovially. “But Ah’d be cautious around Granny, she’s not always open about family with young journalists like yourself.”

Clearing his throat Cole hopped off the bench’s head rest, now standing as he pocketed the small notepad.

“Don’t be worried about me miss, I’ll be careful with my words. Sweet Apple Acres right?”

“Right again.” She smiled as he walked turning to the opposite direction.

“Alright.” He hummed, waving to her. “Thanks for your help, I’m sure everything’ll turn out just fine.”

Barely glancing at her fading form as he trudged down the trail towards the park’s exit, he fished his hands into his pockets with a sigh. Alright, that went far better than he’d expected. Journalry was far from something he’d ever so much as attempted to pursue career-wise, therefore he’d proudly say this was pretty much his first and last exercise of the practice for the entirety of his life.

The rumors were becoming more and more true. Whatever was causing havoc in this city wasn’t some supernatural force, it was a person, multiple persons at that. Conduits, and pretty damn powerful ones too.

He kicked a stray rock while exiting the outer gate of the park, resting a palm on his face. God, situations like this never dragged this long back home, at least Zeke or Kuo, hell even Moya had his back picking out the right clues on where to go and who to approach.

A sour feeling dulled into his chest. He’d find them, he’d find them and end this nightmare.

Suddenly he stopped, body freezing like a statue. It was quiet. The city block before him was empty, save for a couple birds flocking away overhead in a hurry. Something was wrong.

Summoning the untold power inside of him, his brain gave out an invisible pulse through the air, when catching nothing of interest he began sprinting forward further down the road, sending out another radar pulse which echoed across miles of buildings. Lifting his arm up to tether the top of the highest building he could find, Cole was lifted off his feet as the grapple pulled him up five full stories until he was close enough to grab the edge of the rooftop with his hand.

Clambering to his feet, he could now see the miles of rooftops etching across the city for a much better view. Finally something prodded at his Radar pulse this time, causing him to hop towards the direction he felt it was coming from. Although the signal was faint, it was undoubtedly familiar to him. As if his conduit abilities were picking up on…

A deafening explosion followed by what looked to be a small car currently on fire sailing in the air from a hidden block two streets away was plenty to confirm his suspicions.

Danger.

And not just any danger if the agitation his conduit senses were telling him were anything to go by, this was a certain type. Another sound of crushing concrete and an ear-piercing roar boomed towards the heavens immediately causing him to approach further. Through the heavy amount of concrete buildings blocking his path, one object underneath his radar plipped so to speak, demanding his attention with reddened fury.

Enemy.

By the time he stepped onto one of the rooftops overlooking the street below evoking with chaos, he jerked back in surprise as a police officer flew over the opposite edge of his current rooftop screaming in terror. Reacting quick Cole whipped around and aimed his hand towards the flying officer as gravity began to take him back towards earth, a thinner version of his tether leaping out to wrap over the officer’s torso before yanking him off course and sending him to Cole’s direction instead.

Opening his arms the conduit struggled from tripping as he caught the oncoming officer in his arms stumbling back a little before settling the petrified cop down to the floor before returning his attention back to the street. Running to the edge Cole looked down to see many things he’d seen a million times.

Cars lay strewn about in every corner, (that being literally considering most of them were shredded or torn to pieces), terrified citizens scurrying away the best they could as police desperately multitasked with keeping said civilians safe as well as rapid firing at the enemy. That’s when Cole shifted his gaze and nearly choked.

With its body halfway inside a store, a massive frame covered in thick blue fur stood midway through the street as police continued to open fire. Whatever it was seemed to have had enough of the interruptions and finally stuck its massive head out from the store’s destroyed entrance. Massive, curved horns erupted from its goat shaped skull as it glared down at the humans with undignified disgust, more interesting was the litter of gold piercings and blindly bright gemmed necklaces wrapped around its throat. Within its beefy hands Cole could see costume jewelry and broken mannequins, recognizing that the creature had currently been shuffling through a jewelry store.

The whole ordeal of a massive hulking beast committing robbery was almost enough to make him chuckle until the thing roared in fury when one of the officers brought out a shotgun. When it seemed to actually hurt the creature it practically dropped its stolen prize and raised a fist in the officer’s direction.

Electricity sprouted from his arms as he thrust a hand forward shooting forth a pure stream of blue lightning that slammed into the creature’s face fully catching it off guard. The creature stumbled backward and fell into the side of another building which caused it to drop most of the stolen jewelry. The cops seemed to be caught by surprise too because the sounds of gunfire ceased as the beast shook its head and gazed up to locate its new offender. Once finding the source it glared threateningly at him.

Waves of electricity surged throughout his body as excitement grew in the form of a wicked smile. Finally, after weeks of stumbling around blindfolded, looped back to dead ends, and overall painstaking disappointment kicking him in the balls again and again.

…….Finally, he had something to let his frustrations out on and what better than the blue furry gigantic one-eyed monster standing before him.

Smirking he eagerly jumped from his vantage point and slammed to the ground with electricity exploding from underneath his heels and pushing away everything near him. Standing to his full height Cole still had to crane his head all the way back to see the face of the approaching monster. It was also grinning as it dropped its treasure to square off with the much smaller challenger with a heated glare and bared teeth.

“Alright you ugly ass yeti…” Cole chuckled darkly, singlehandedly taking out his amp. “…let’s do this.”

___________

Rameses snarled at the puny being gazing up at him with a challenging aura. So this must be this city’s guardian. It was speaking to him in an odd language that he could not understand. A different type of power he had never seen before radiated from the lower being. A power foreign from the likes of Equestrian magic, how intriguing.

It mattered not, if this puny creature dared to attempt to challenge him, then he’d in return accept with pride. With a roar Rameses brought a fist up and swung it towards the small being who moved quicker then he’d expected dodging the punch and returning fire with a barrage of lightning bolts striking the cyclops in his temple. With a grunt Rameses yanked the hand he had attempted to punch the small being with out of the hard rock ground thrusting it out and raining a hailstorm of debris and dirt onto the puny challenger.

The challenger was slightly caught off guard as he deflected the debris. Rameses attempted to slam his other palm down on the challenger. But he caught on too quickly as he dodged and rolled sending a large ball of fiery electricity into the cyclops’ shoulder. A surge of anger ignited in his chest as Rameses held both his hands high in the air before crashing them down on the guardian’s location, who dodged from the brunt of the attack yet flew backwards due to the sheer force. Regaining his footing the small creature added another barrage of attacks, this time in the form of larger balls of lightning.

Bringing forth an arm to shield his face and solitary eye the cyclops growled in fury before charging forward ignoring the pain each time the electricity singed his fur and skin. With a sweeping blow he finally managed to backhand the insect sending him sailing.

His glee was short lived however, as the small creature appeared to recuperate from the attack mid-air and thrust out both hands. Blue energy sprouted from his palms keeping him afloat above the ground. Unfortunately that was not all that the small guardian could do. He quickly brought a hand up to unleash a sprinkle of small pellets. Dodging the pellets as best as he could some of them still landed on Rameses fur and exploded, causing him even more pain.

In a fury Rameses charged once more, witnessing that the guardian’s abilities did not allow him to exactly fly as much as float ever so slowly to the ground. When close enough he jumped outstretching both arm and palm to grab his enemy. However, with one outstretched hand of his own a string of blue was flung from the guardian’s hand to tether him to another building. He pulled away just milliseconds before Rameses could grab his racing feet. Rolling to the floor Rameses gazed back up to see the creature climb swiftly onto the rooftops and send a glare his way while waving a single arm as if beckoning him.

That worthless little imp dared to mock him! Bringing his hands up Rameses pounded his chest with a fierce roar and picked up a particularly hefty wagon and tossed it towards the guardian. While the guardian was distracted, Rameses jumped high to grab onto the roof. His torso and shoulders were over the roof as his claws dug deep visible marks into the surface. Dangling over the side of the building his legs were scrambling to catch hold of the side of the building so he could pull himself over the edge. Once his was finally pulling his frame up onto the roof he looked out to see the guardian meters away on a separate roof standing next to a metallic box thrusting his small arms towards it.

As if on command, streams of blue electricity exploded from the metal box and into the being’s hands until he apparently supposedly depleted it of energy as the streams dispersed. An unwelcomed feeling of fear stirred in the cyclops’ chest. By his ancestor’s names, this creature fed his power through the very veins of this city!

Another earth-shattering roar and Rameses took off like a rocket, full speed towards his fleeing enemy.

______

So far things had been going surprisingly well. At least the massive creature appeared to be harmed by his attacks as opposed to Bertrand’s mole things back in New Marias with their thick shells. Although those didn’t seem to share the concerning amount of intelligence hiding behind this particular monster’s eyes. The monster radiated an energy source familiar to the one in the city, yet obviously more stronger. Meaning it wasn’t this place’s average pest problem.

However the main thing Cole found concerning was the amount of people still on the streets, and if that thing’s powerful blows were anything to go by, a lot of people would eventually end up injured or killed if caught in the crossfire. Enough playing around! He needed a tight and secluded space to trap this thing and end this. The cyclops’ eye was obviously the most vulnerable spot on its body, but it seemed pretty used to others aiming for that spot as evidenced by its well-aimed defensive blockage of Cole’s strikes. So, if not the eye then maybe aiming for the neck would help, if he were to get close enough.

And as luck would have it, a couple of yards before him the road split leaving a horizontal gap far too thin for a normal street. An alleyway, perfect! And a closed in one too.

He jumped just in time to avoid three nine-inch claws from shredding him to pieces as the cyclops/goat/gorilla thing roared from behind. He prayed there weren’t any homeless people in this alleyway ‘cause their small space is about to get way tighter than usual.

________

Bashing a thin brick chimney out of his way Rameses howled as his quarry continuously evaded his grasp. The large gaps in-between the buildings surely didn’t help either, as they drove them further and further apart from one street to the next.

Suddenly the guardian halted his cowardly running in favor of dropping down to a smaller street where the buildings blocked it off. Ah, he’d sealed his fate now!

Scampering to a stop Rameses dove in after the smaller being feet first as his shoulders followed, their massive girth scraping against the walls making it hard for him to inch downwards. Inside the narrow path it was dark and full of trashy debris, the guardian having no trouble though hopping over the small metal bins and litter while turning to face him. Narrowing his one eye Rameses reached for the smaller foe, only finding himself attempting to do so as the concrete walls sandwiching him disallowed and further movement.

He growled and shoved his arm once more shredding some of the rocky wall yet not enough to move his appendage from beside his hip. He tried again, this time with the other arm. Same result. He attempted to lean his entire torso forward, opening his jaws to snap at the miniature figure below only to move mere inches.

He was stuck!

His foe seemed to have taken notice and raised a glowing arm, to the beast’s horror he noticed the guardian was aiming straight for his eye. Closing it Rameses panicked began swinging his head side-to-side while desperately attempting to force his arms free. Slurs of ancient equestrian cursing the shrimpy little insect were exploding from his tongue. The guardian appeared to have predicted this outcome as he maneuvered his glowing arm towards the left and blasted the wall next to Rameses. A shower of rocks and dust hit him in the face. Before the cyclops could spit out the grinding sand in his mouth another blast of power connected with the wall on the opposite side further spraying him with debris.

Eye and mouth full of grime Rameses could only sputter a roar as he continued to struggle free. This could not happen, he would not fail, especially to such a cowardly, pitiful being such as this. Speaking of, once noticing no more balls or rockets of electricity had yet to be fired upon him Rameses paused only slightly to peer at the ground below.

It was gone! Only an empty path lay in front of him, with no traces of life to be seen. Though his movement was stunted, he could still crane his neck up to gaze at the sky above, almost beckoning him to rise. Whatever made the guardian disappear he’d figure it out later. As for now he needed out of this damn trap!

Rameses felt a new sensation, not a whisper in the wind nor the dark sounds of his brother’s calling, but a physical sensation of something on his back.

His curiosity was interrupted by two pinpricks poking into the back of his neck, until the next thing he knew scorching lightning seeped through skin and into thick neck muscle. In a flash he once again started to panic despite the pain, bucking his head back and shouldering his way into the concrete walls. A particularly powerful buck finally managed to release the two pinpricks as his foe stumbled down his angled back.

With every ounce of strength he had, Rameses flung his arms up, releasing him from his prison and allowing him to twist towards the fallen guardian on the ground. Instantly he slammed his palm down on the smaller figure’s frame, supposedly knocking the wind out of him as Rameses brought him towards his mouth. A quick shock into his exposed gums halted him from placing the imp in-between his teeth and instead sent him hurdling down the narrow path with a powerful throw. The guardian slammed like a ragdoll into a building in front of the alley’s exit.

Using his horns, Rameses flew headfirst into the building crushing the rock and glass with ease due to his incredibly thick skull. His horns did not touch however as the small being immediately dropped from his position before he could receive such a blow, stepping onto the ground safety and aiming for another blow. That’s when one of the insect’s rockets slammed into his exposed yak-induced injured pit, causing a new surge of aching pain through his body. Without even thinking about it, Rameses swung his injured arm around backhanding his foe and sending him far into the front of a parked wagon before grasping his already bloodied injury roaring in agony.

_____

So the big guy had an extra weak point.

After being slammed into the concrete floor by a palm his body length, then immediately tossed into a building structure with his lungs already regenerating, he began to think this might’ve been a much bigger problem then he’d originally anticipated.

His powers were obviously hurting the monster, with its roars of rage and smell of singed fur enough of a clue, but it was a far cry from fully stopping it. This thing just kept coming no matter what! His neck idea had flunked terribly, in fact it only seemed to make the creature more pissed off than ever before.

He narrowly avoided becoming paste when it charged, dropping from his vantage point as fast as he could when his blurry vision saw the thing charging. It was then underneath the asshole his vision glanced by a certain crimson red spot in the monster’s armpit and damn it all if it wasn’t worth a shot.

The fact it resulted in him flying, (Again for the third time), straight into a vehicle proved his point. The ugly bastard seemed to recuperate from his initial shock and turned with a seething look of hate. Yeah, right back at you freak.

Ultimately noticing the car he was currently sitting on, Cole made a quick glance inside for passengers. When seeing none he gleefully held out both his hands as a burst of electricity surged through the vehicle, both the car and him atop floating a couple feet in the air until he thrust his hands forwards sending the car flying towards the cyclops like a bullet.

Screeching in fury the creature swatted it away, until an idea seemed to form in its head and dug his claws into the hard earth beneath. Cole barely had time to stop it before the monster hoisted a mini house-sized chunk of broken street and pipes above its head.

Screams could be heard from behind, causing him to peer back and see a couple dozen petrified citizens meters away and scared stiff. Were he alone he’d dodge the rock no problem, hell even tank it if he had to. But with citizens this close, the damage would be deadly.

“Get out of here or get to cover, now!” he ordered not taking a second look as the monster hurled the twenty-ton rock at breakneck speed towards the man.

Searching every corner of his body, Cole sucked in a breath as electricity burned brightly across his body, the streams trailing up into his palms which were placed against his chest. Closer and closer the body of rock came, until it overshadowed both him and everyone else.

With a growl Cole unleashed both his forward sending out a massive shockwave that instantly sent the oncoming boulder away in the opposite direction, straight back to its original thrower. The cyclops attempted to catch it, but it seemed as though the amount of power he’d put in his shockwave must’ve internally shredded the rock to pieces. Because when the monster got its hands on it, the boulder immediately broke down into scattered pieces of road, dirt, pipes, and debris.

A dull headache nagged in his head. He was drained, he needed a new power conduit and quick. Seeing a stoplight a few feet away, Cole instantly ran over to wrap a hand around it, feeling the sweet tingles of electricity replacing all he’d previously spent.

His current sparing buddy hasn’t having any of that unfortunately, as it began charging again. Bringing up a free hand he blasted the creature only to have little effect. The civilians were still here dammit, he needed to find a solution.

Letting go of the pole and fully recharged Cole found himself sprinting head on to his foe, until they were close enough for the cyclops to raise an arm for an oncoming blow as Cole raised his own. When the monster threw his fist down Cole instantly shot another rocket at the arm, only instead of it bursting with electricity, once connecting with the giant’s fist it exploded into a massive trail of ice, freezing the monsters entire forearm in seconds.

While the cyclops bewildered at the sight of its frozen hand, luckily Cole notices it was the same arm as his bloodied underarm injury to which he promptly threw a grenade at, this one also exploding into ice on contact.

Howling in fury the cyclops brought its frozen fist down towards Cole, who expertly dodged with ease as the ice shattered to free its hand. However the creature immediately started to pull at the ice stuck to both its wound and fur, screeching in pain. See, the catch was, it was truly ice but also still had multiple currents of painful electricity surging through it. With the cyclops distracted he tethered at its exposed shoulder, climbing onto the bucking beast who in turn was trying to multitask in getting both him and the ice off it.

Shimmying across its back until reaching the place in-between its shoulders, Cole stopped by gripping on tightly to the thickened fur and stopped. He couldn’t reach the head, it was too easy for him to get grabbed. This would have to do.

Using his amp to pierce the monsters back, therefore helping him balance, Cole dug his hands deep into the shaggy fur until feeling its skin. From there he could feel the inner waves of neuro electricity settled within, although not as strong or plentiful compared to the creature’s brain, of which he’d have no chance of reaching considering the cyclops’ rather fast recovery.

“Refreshing as this was, I think it’s time we end this.” He muttered.

Digging his fingers into the monster’s body, like a vacuum his body began to attract the neuro electrons from inside massive nerves and drain into Cole’s very hands. This particular technique could be surprisingly quick if he’d grab a hold of an enemy’s head, sucking out electricity from the brain which held the most neurons meant a quick end to the fight. Although that certainly didn’t mean the process wasn’t painful to said victim.

Therefore it didn’t take long for the cyclops to pause from ripping the burning icicles from its fur first in confusion, then changed to anger, and ending in a screech of pain as it bucked and thrusted with furious desperation. Swinging its arms out the monster tried to reach behind its back and grab the smaller human, but its efforts were betrayed by its own physically curved body structure.

When it eventually figured it couldn’t grab Cole, it stood up and back peddled into a nearby building at full speed. The connection hurt like a bitch, but the conduit simply shrugged it off and continued draining. Seething in agony the cyclops rammed its back into the building again and again to no avail.

By this time it was truly panicking, abandoning the now crushed apartment and reeled its clawed arms to and fro punching and slashing everything it could see while its roars reverberated throughout the city street, slamming, and bumping as Cole held strong.

He couldn’t blame the poor bastard. Draining neuro electricity from the brain was a type of pain none ever dared to consider, at least it lasted only seconds followed instantly by sweet demise. This however, he was being forced to drain the creature’s body of electricity from a place which required time to gather all neurons. Strictly speaking, the cyclops was currently enduring an awfully slow, excruciating death.

Soon its movements became sluggish and from what little skin he’d seen was paling, its enraged roars developed into choked, breathless groans as it kept thrashing and refusing to give in. From up high he could sense the uneven and wobbly steps it was taking, just a little more time.

He nearly fell off the beast’s back when an unseen force in the air abruptly slammed into him, resulting in blue electricity unconsciously dancing all over his entire body. It was one of those signals again, the ones he’d been chasing, only this time it was stronger, and much, much more powerful than before. Ignoring his insides curdling in agitation he narrowed his eyes as the cyclops ceased its thrashing to become still as well. apparently he wasn’t the only one who sensed it.

Something different followed seconds after, however his concerned interest in the second sensation was immediately replaced with a feeling of intensified fear. Unlike everything he’d experienced or felt thus far, said sensation being either an arguably playful punch to the gut or a soft gust blowing by his face, what he was currently sensing was a presence of pure ice-cold bloodlust. As though it were clawing through the atmosphere with a razor leaking a poisonous trail behind.

It was enough to make Cole Macgrath shiver slightly when it fazed through his body, a feeling of loathing emitting from it, and he had a sneaking suspicion it was for him specifically.

He must’ve been so distracted he’d lost grip with the amp, the metal weapon dropping from the cyclops’ back and drooping to his side. Shaking his head to regain focus, Cole was about to return to his original task when he was suddenly flung off the monster’s back with an unprecedented amount of strength, hovering high in the air till gravity took hold.

Nearly hitting the ground Cole was swiftly nabbed and brought to the creature’s face, its one eye was glassy and bloodshot, as if zombified compared to its previously lively appearance. He didn’t get the chance to mull it over however because the monster casually flung him up in the air like a baseball, before he could use his thrusters to guide him though the creature had already brought its hand back to punch him midair with the strength of a full train, of course flying him across the street and bashing into a construction building.

Watching the distraction disappear inside the newly built hobble, the cyclops paid no second glance as he huffed out a growl and climbed the nearest building, gazing at a certain area in the distant horizon with determination while letting out a roar of anger. Hopping down back to the street he brushed aside another oncoming vehicle and started charging towards it intended destination, apathetically leaving a broken, destroyed city block behind.

…

Groaning Cole pushed a wooden beam off his shoulder, brushing his now insulated/wood splintered clothes while settling to one knee. Punching his chest to cough out sawdust and blood he ignored the dumbfounded construction workers in favor of glaring out at his fading enemy.

“Okay, that was a dick move.”

_________

CHS, Present time.

Rainbow Dash had a split second to dodge the tossed hotdog sausage, zipping out of the way as it bashed into the brick side of CHS, scraping it with little damage. Afterwards taking a step back she narrowly avoided a massive sweeping palm twice her size skidding across the dirt in effort to grab her. Standing on its four legs the beast, almost three full stories, let out an ear shattering roar both she and everyone left on the ruined field winced at.

Growling she shook off the pain in her ears and instead rushed forward, zooming towards the monster who went for a palm slam only to miss as she swept underneath its belly. While it was distracted Dash witnessed Applejack come from the right to slam shoulder first into the monster’s lower side leg, causing it to buckle off balance.

Mouth open to congratulate the farmgirl, she was cut mid-sentence when the monster quickly recuperated and swung a clawed hand at her slower friend. Picking up speed Rainbow felt the gigantic palm brush the back of her ponytail as she hoisted Applejack to safety before skidding to a stop next to one of the furthest bleachers. Placing the heavier teen down they both leaned in to catch their breath

“So...” Applejack spoke breathlessly. “…What exactly is our plan here again? Cuz so far all we’ve been doing is angering him more!”

Bringing her hands to her knees Dash huffed. “No idea, guess just keep distracting him until Sunset and the others get everyone out of here. Then we try wearing him out.”

Beside her Applejack hummed in agreement. “Ah agree, fella already looks like he’s about to keel over any minute, wonder what’s got him so injured.” Casually as it could be told, the farmer glanced at the wreckage once being CHS property laying around them. “What a mess.”

Dash could only grunt in response. Faust she was so tired, he whole body was threatening to give any minute. The monster’s infuriated roar grasped both girl’s attention. It was true, the big guy had scratches and fresh burn marks littering his entire body, yet somehow his determined bloodlust kept him from slowing down.

Then dammit all, neither was she. Truth be told, she wasn’t in the happiest of moods right now so an ugly monster face begging for a nice clean punch was just what she needed.

“You keep it busy, and Ah’ll try and-“

AJ was interrupted as another cart sailing sky high began to fall towards them. Dash grabbed her friend’s shirt and prepared to dodge them both to safety when the cart stopped midair, covered in a purplish aura.

Yards away was Twilight Sparkle, sweating bullets with her hands out as purple magic glowed from both gemstone and palms. With a yelp she swung her hands back, sending the cart off to the sidelines away from her very thankful friends, although her victory was stumped when the cyclops then turned its stare towards her instead. Angered he ran over and swung a closed fist down towards her, yet was suddenly met by a crystal-shaped shield forming out of thin air and protecting the young teen overhead with a resonating thud.

Snarling his teeth the cyclops grabbed the shield with both hands and yanked it out of the way only for the small prey beneath him to disappear in the form of a rainbow blur.

Another girl in white raised her hands to form two massive crystal shields sending them barreling towards the massive monster who in turn gratefully took the attack head on, shattering the pieces of magic with its horns and charged towards the three.

Rarity huffed indignantly, brushing a few strands of hair off her shoulder as her necklace glowed bright. Thrusting out her hands multiple small crystals sprouted from under the soil, placed in-between them and the rampaging creature. To their horror the cyclops merely shattered through them with his shoulders and horns, continuing his assault. With Rarity busy Rainbow quickly turned to Twight gesturing wildly.

“Can’t you…I dunno…lift this guy up in the air or hold him still!?”

Her friend turned away from the advancing creature and gave Dash a heated glare.

“Oh sure Rainbow~” Twilight smiled through a faux grin. “Why didn’t I think of that sooner, gosh your such a genius! After all it’s not like I haven’t lifted a building before, much less a bloodthirsty yeti-thing trying to rip off my head every five seconds!”

“Um darlings, perhaps we can discuss this some other time?” Rarity interrupted, gaining both their attention. The fashionista had begun sweating while continuing to propel her magic at their enemy, who hardly seemed fazed by the assault.

Rainbow Dash grinded her teeth together, returning her narrowed eyes at Twilight.

“Oh, forget it!”

That said she took off headfirst with the world going in slow motion, making it far too easy in dodging an oncoming swipe as she took a risk, jumping until the bottom of her shoes pressed against the cyclops’ oversized forearm and leaping again towards its face, bringing a leg up to plant a heel into the jerk’s eyeball.

Her plan worked, because the monster immediately screeched in pain, placing one palm on his eye while the other appendage swung violently.

All over her she could see nothing but wreckage and destruction of what once was a sports arena. For weeks she’d planned for this day in particular, to show CHS, the world, and her friends what she was capable of without magic. Then Gilda and her posse of cheating showoffs just had to come back, bring past memories up best left far behind. And before they could finally settle whatever issue they had with each other this freak came in, completely thrashing everything in sight not opposed to an overdosed monkey. When Fluttershy desperately attempted to talk it out of its tantrum the creature in return almost bit off her old friend’s upper body if it weren’t for Dash yanking Flutters away.

Rarity’s shields had proven ineffective earlier when attempting to contain it, both through its animalistic frenzy and Rarity’s struggle keeping the magical containment from collapsing. Sunset, Pinkie, and Fluttershy were currently busy making sure both students and staff evacuated the area to safety. There were still a whole lot of trapped bystanders, therefore it was up to her, AJ, Rarity, and Twilight to keep it at bay until a plan was thought out.

Drastic measures needed to be taken, and despite its injuries this thing sustained it made quick work in taking each opportunity to maim or otherwise kill them. She couldn’t lie to herself, the paled look on its face sent shivers through her very core. Behind the bloodlust, a feeling of emptiness and helplessness crept through its feature every now and then, as if it wasn’t fully in control of its own body.

Unfortunately they didn’t have time to inspect the weird monster, on account of it constantly reaching for any chance to get its claws around them. whatever it was, whatever it wanted, it was dangerous, obviously had a killing intent, and ruined an already terrible day. It needed to be stopped one way or another.

Watching it take its palm away from its eye to glance downward, Dash grinned. Using the same technique she bounced one leg off its furry body and this time slammed a shoulder into the cyclops’ cheek. Despite the dull pain in her shoulder from hitting a bone twice her size, it was surprisingly effective as he yelped and stumbled off balance.

Rolling onto the grass, she steadied herself for another go when the cyclops fell to his stomach in surprise. Confused as well, Dash looked to see none other than Applejack easily holding a huge hooved leg tightly in her arms giving the athlete a thumbs up.

“What are ya waiting for Dash!? Get him!”

Smirking RD nodded before cupping her mouth towards the right side of the field.

“Rarity! I’m gonna need a ramp!”

Not waiting for affirmation Dash rushed towards the captive, happy to see bright flat crystals rip from the ground in an angle elevating her trajectory. Jumping she braced her muscles for the impact as the smaller teen bashed into the monsters lower hanging jaw shoulder first with all the power she had as a loud POP reverberated through the air. A gnarly howl followed where she watched her enemy hold his awkwardly hanging chin, telling her she’d basically dislocated it. Sparks of sick enjoyment arose in her chest seeing its painful expression when a whistle shouted out.

“Atta girl! Come on, give it to him one more, you’ve got this Dash!” AJ hollered once more while yanking the beast’s leg back. Mixtures of emotions flowed within her, mainly excitement coupled with burning rage. Placing her knuckles on the grass colorful rivers of magic licked at her heels and hands, and in that moment her pendant glowed brighter than that of a star as she sped like lightning back into the battle, closing a glowing fist while zooming up a make-shift ramp of other magical property.

What she didn’t expect was for the cyclops to pop its jaw back into place, pulling its hooved foot free from AJ’s grasp then slamming it back into the farmer’s small frame therefore kicking her out of sight, then using its hand to block her path. she was too late to stop and crashed helplessly into a wide-open palm which instantly gripped tightly around her body. Squeezing her like a hollow dog toy he never broke contact with her newly terrified expression before thrusting her away, where she felt her body connect with the brick wall of CHS with gravity dragging her back down to the ground.

Soon as she hit the grass her entire frame went limp with her vision snuffing like candlelight.

_____________

Fluttershy had a lot of things on her plate right now. First she had to deal with a handful of people she’d wished none of them would ever see again all day, only to eventually end up desperately pulling Rainbow Dash towards her in order to keep as much distance as possible between her friend and Gilda’s murderous rampage. That was until the school was met with yet another Equestrian issue in the form of a massive goat-like creature with one eye appearing from out of nowhere, instantly attracted to said friend.

Luckily most people dodged the creature’s initial lunge for Dash, however when it began to go crazy destroying property and still struggling to get its jaws specifically around either of the seven girls, including herself, that’s when things began to get serious.

Ignoring the nauseating fear boiling in her stomach, she’d attempted to gain it, or rather his, attention, desperately trying to calm him down and ask what the matter was. All over him she could see burn marks and bloody spots, which alone somewhat helped calm her nerves into that of saddened horror.

Was he scared, perhaps being hunted by someone. The thought alone made her heart drop for the poor creature, obviously coming from the magical land Equestria into an unknown world chocked full of people who’d want to either sell his living body/remains or kill him off for safety.

However her initial feelings of sympathy and remorse were hitched once looking into his eye. Though he for some reason refused to speak, what she saw through his gaze told her everything she needed to know, and it was enough to feel as though her soul had just been ripped out. Otherworldly or not, Fluttershy knew animals, a trait Pinkie Pie called her “Flutter sense” long before superpowers ever came into the picture. The prospect and attention made her blush every time, but Pinkie did have a point. Since she was a little girl her every desire was to make friends with each woodland creature she came across.

Volunteer work at the animal shelter and special visits to zoos further enhanced her line of communication with furry creatures. Harry the bear from the zoo across town always perked up more whenever they saw each other.

This creature, however, was a completely different story. He wasn’t a nice one, she could tell by his prideful garbs and initial haughty stature. But in her effort to soothe the maddened creature, once they locked eyes she found no prideful glee or snide remarks to be said, no, all she saw in that lone, paled, and bloodshot iris was an unfamiliar and unrelenting darkness yearning with hunger. Hunger for death, her death.

For a split millisecond she began to believe she was going crazy after all there was no way on earth any creature could hold such evil intent, and it was then she witnessed it, the soul beyond what appeared to be a shell of a body pulsed. It screamed for help, for control, a body being puppeteered by a force so powerful the soul inside could do nothing but play along.

She could count herself lucky Rainbow was able to yank her away from an incoming bite she’d yet to notice through her frozen state.

Even still, the hole within her heart grew the more she witnessed the girls attempts at stalling it while she, Sunset, and Pinkie quickly scrambled to action, pushing, and shoving the already petrified crowd away from the scene.

The whole ordeal had only taken close to thirty minutes and even now she could see the obvious exhaustion plaguing most of her friends opposed to the increasing anger of the cyclops. Rainbow Dash looked worn to the knub, no doubt partially due to her extreme lack of self-care during the Sports Event, Rarity and Twilight had done everything they could to hold him back from gaining attention on fellow classmates, teachers, as well as other innocents. They’d fought magical villains before, but nothing could compare to this moment.

Sunset seemed to be taking it the hardest, her expressions and movements solemn as she rushed the people away. It was as if a part of the otherwise strong-willed ex-Equestrian had been swallowed whole, ultimately leaving a guilt ridden, broken girl holding herself together by thinning strings of self-hope. She was blaming herself for this whole ordeal, and it in turn was killing Fluttershy that she couldn’t reach out to the girl.

Pinkie was arguably better fortunately, anxiously forcing a consoling smile while the party planner spouted words of optimism to her friends in-between the screaming and crying crowd. Left and right injuries were getting worse the longer the cyclops continued his rampage. Equipment and many other heavy object were constantly being tossed and thrown about, causing both her and her friends to shove people out of the way more than once. One glance at the ‘fight’ was enough to tell thew girls were struggling severely to keep the beast from tearing them apart, much less focusing on saving anyone caught in the crossfire.

As the crowd thinned, Fluttershy let herself breathe deeply knowing close to all civilians were safe when Trixie tripped, falling to the ground while the crowd rolled over her huddled body. Without an alternative, forcing herself through the many people Fluttershy managed to grab her fallen classmate, dragging her out from the trampling stampede holding her by the underarms. Gently helping Trixie back to her shaking feet, Fluttershy attempted to brush the dust of the other’s jacket when the magician slapped her offering hand away, the glare on her classmate’s face piercing through her soul.

“You guys just have to ruin everything, don’t you.” Trixie seethed.

Unable to come up with a response, Fluttershy was silent as Trixie shoved by to join the escaping people. Not keeping her eyes off Trixie, the young teen paused, taking a moment to regrettably look around at the mayhem. Was this really their fault? True in their past experience with magic they’ve always managed to defeat it together, but it did happen rather often didn’t it? Everywhere they went, bad magic followed always resulting in awful consequences.

Were they ever helping the situation, or unknowingly always somehow tacking on additional issues to deal with immediately after?

Small claws gently wrapped over her shoulder, causing the young caretaker to turn over and see a small red bird gazing at her with excitement written in his beady eyes.

“Hello there Hubert.” Fluttershy murmured weakly, tensing a little once seeing a hint of worry in his expression as well. “Is something wrong?”

The small bird began chirping in response, each otherwise indescribable sound causing Fluttershy to widen her eyes in horror. Glancing at the fight undergoing the school’s lawn she trailed her vision to where Hubert was motioning for, far to the right where a few surviving bleachers remained from the crossfire. Underneath the lower deck of the metal steps a small, grey jacketed frame could be seen clinging tightly to both a grassy ground and under metal seats.

An entirely new sensation of fear grew in her stomach when noticing the fighting between Rarity/Twilight and the cyclops was getting closer to the specific bleacher, that including the trapped little girl in hiding.

With a thankful smile Fluttershy patted Hubert away and made for the bleacher. Sunset and Pinkie appeared to have the civilians handled for now, she could do this.

Careful to avoid any detection, (either from their enemy or risking being a moment’s distraction for her already stressed girls dealing with a rampaging behemoth on their literal tail’s), she snuck around the courtyard to make her way towards the bleacher, the small frame of the child squeezed tightly under where Fluttershy herself couldn’t reach was too familiar to not recognize.

“Scootaloo? Is that you?”

A twitch, whether out of fear or something else was uncertain, but nonetheless stayed still. She tried again, louder this time cupping her mouth over the noises of the battle mere yards away.

“Scootaloo, it’s me, Fluttershy.”

Finally the younger freshman jolted in response, twisting her torso best she could to glance up at the older teen. From here Fluttershy could see the tear stained look on the tween’s face, grass and mud covering both the smaller female’s pinkish hair and jacket. When seeing her, Scootaloo’s petrified face widened in a mixture of surprise and happiness, her voice croaked out as she unfurled her arms.

“F-Fluttershy?”

Nodding gently the caretaker knelt further under the bleachers extending an offering hand to who she could’ve considered a younger sister regarding a long, affectionate history shared throughout most of Scoot’s life. Despite the fear still current on her face, Scootaloo reached out her own hand grasping Shy’s as the older girl carefully pulled her out. Upon doing so, the younger rushed in for a bear hug, of which Fluttershy recuperated as the freshman began to cry softly in her arms.

“I-I fell under the bl-eachers when everyone ran down, I wasn’t w-with Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle at the time. where are they? Are they okay?!”

Scoot’s tone quickly changed, no longer fearful for her own life but instead of her friends. Releasing her grip Fluttershy looked down with a soothing voice, holding her younger friend close.

“I’m sure they’re okay, right now we need to get you out of here.”

A roar interrupted them both, causing them both to watch from a distance Rainbow Dash begin hopping off the creature’s forearm and slamming into his face, making him stagger in anger. Applejack was holding one of his lower legs captive, allowing Dash to recuperate with yet another powerful knock into the cyclops’ jaw.

She didn’t to be facing Scootaloo to notice the younger girl’s sparkling eyes, watching her hero continue punch after punch.

“She’s so cool.” Scoots gawked. That she is. Fluttershy mentally agreed as her old friend went in for another powerful strike.

Awe transformed into horror when the beast appeared to slam his foot into AJ’s stomach, discarding her and swinging his hand up over a crystal ramp to nab Dash mid-hit. Without a spare of pity he swung his hand back and tossed the helpless athlete away, far too fast and close for either Twilight or Rarity to catch the sports captain as she slammed like a rock into CHS’ brick side.

Falling limp to the floor, a shared sensation of frozen shock flowed through everyone watching. Twilight and Rarity ceased their own attacks while Sunset and Pinkie gaped numbly at the fallen girl. Fluttershy’s mind went blank, no movement at all from Dash as she laid in the grass, back turned to everyone else.

Seeing this, the cyclops lifted his head high and bellowed, banging his chest in gleeful victory as Sunset and Pinkie ran over to the downed teen. In his victory, the monster slammed the ground akin to a gorilla, barreling towards a distracted Twilight and Rarity, who dodged just in time. Realizing too late he’d missed his prey after slamming into the bleacher, he gruffly pushed it off its anchored hinges devoid of effort, leading the entire thing to topside. Right over Fluttershy and Scootaloo.

The child in her arms screamed in fear, and in a split second of thought Fluttershy grabbed the younger by the torso and hoisted her far away, (stronger and farther than she ever thought she could phisically manage), tossing the freshman to safety before a roof of metal plating fell atop the caretaker’s head.

She resisted the urge to cry in agony as one of the lower benches crushed into her exposed calf and thigh, its force digging her body further into the ground. clenching her teeth Fluttershy got on her elbows to lift herself up, but it was no use, the heavy weight pressed down on her lower half was far too powerful compared to her meager strength. Nerves inside her body screamed as an aching pain delve into her calf, oh Faust she hoped her leg wasn’t broken.

Scrambling feet caught her attention as Scootaloo appeared back into frame, maneuvering under the tight spaces to get a good look at Fluttershy. Grunting, the caretaker waved the younger girl off frantically as the roars of battle and fury became louder.

“No Scootaloo!” She gasped through the pain. “You-*ugh!*-you need to get out of here!”

Upon being told so, the freshman gaped at her as if she was crazy. Maybe she was, thinking such a introverted, closed off wallflower like herself could make anything good come out of unstoppable situations like these, with or without powers.

“No way!” Scootaloo all but shouted defiantly, brushing by to grip her fingers under the overturned metal seat, grunting while attempting to lift it by herself.

Fluttershy couldn’t ignore the swell of pride that huddled next to the overbearing fear inside her. Rainbow Dash was right, Scootaloo had an unbreakable determination. With her smaller friend busy, she urgently began moving her thigh upwards, hoping to help lift what felt like ten solid tons of pressure moving against them.

More earthshattering howls of fury. She hoped the others could stop that that thing without any further loss.

And by Faust’s name did she pray Rainbow was okay.

_________

Twilight hardly had time to recognize the oncoming monster just in time, yanking both her and Rarity to the side as it slammed into an unfortunate bleacher while sending it topside in anger. She did however manage to see the thing throw one of her best friends into a wall, as well as the snidely pride it took in everyone’s utter horror. Sunset and Pinkie had abandoned their post, although their job was pretty much already done with, to check up on Dash. she couldn’t catch a glance because of the hulking goat-thing still trying to rip her in two.

Flinging her hands, a spray of debris flew into the monster’s eye by her command, as she turned to Rarity.

“Go help them check up on Rainbow dash!” She found herself commanding, nudging towards the others. “Let me and Applejack take care of this thing while you get her out of here!”

Rarity looked as though she wanted to argue but nodded nevertheless and retreated back to join the other three. With her gone Twilight glared at the beast towering over her, its expression unnaturally furious. A spike of anxiety raced across her nerves, the sudden realization that she was as of now currently alone weighing down on her. Applejack was out of sight, so it was up to her to hold this monster back from the rest of the group.

Hand glowing brightly with powerful magic, she thrusted her arm in a swinging motion as pieces of dirt ripped from the ground by her will, spraying straight into the cyclops’ eye who growled in surprise while holding its face in pain. Now that it was distracted she moved to the right, waving her arms as the creature rubbed the debris from his blurred vision.

“Hey! This way stupid!”

A rumble of fury signified she’d gotten her wish, dodging a row of mangled teeth as she continued to uproot soil, aiming it at the cyclops’ exposed face. Another direct hit!

Although it wasn’t as distracting the second time, evidence by him merely shaking his burly head and chucking its left open palm to grab her. Luckily for Twilight, Applejack leapt in from behind to release her own closed fisted punch at the mass of calloused muscle intended for the other. The shockingly stronger force of Applejack’s hit easily swung the offending palm back, although considering the ferocity in the farmer’s eyes told Twilight she was far from finished.

Stetson hat missing, AJ screamed as she charged onward, utilizing all her strength to jump and slam into its opposite arm, a painful crack emitting from unnaturally thick bone structure. Shrieking in agony, it scrapped its claws through the dirt, sharp edges missing AJ, yet the force alone was plenty to send her airborne.

“NO!” Twilight yelled, instinctively concentrating all the magic she had on stopping the older female from another grueling knockout. She did manage to catch her friend mid-air, both to said friend’s safety but at a cost to her own. Now preoccupied, she was defenseless as the cyclops raised both fists high and brought them down in a thunderous crash onto the earth, creating a shockwave knocking Twilight off her feet thus dropping her hold on AJ.

Hitting her back hard, Twilight gasped as the air escaped her lungs causing her vision to dim. Propping up on her elbows she blinked once noticing her overturned glasses, lifting up a hand to right them and almost fainting when seeing her enemy slowly making his way towards her.

Scuttling back she desperately began to look around for help. There was nothing of use beside her, and Applejack appeared motionless. As the creature advanced she tried once more throwing chunks of dirt at him, to which he simply pawed away in annoyance. Fear gaining her composure, she shuffled across her elbows and feet as he limped closer, each weakened attempt at catching him off guard failing both due to a lack of strong equipment and a newly thick weight of exhaustion suddenly holding down on her power. Even the glowing coming from within her geode was sufficiently dimmed.

“Twilight!”

She felt herself being yanked backwards just in time for a palm to slam the area she’d previously been sitting. Noticing the arms wrapped around her own, Twilight lifted her head up to see Sunset grasping her by the underarms and proceeding to shuffle the both of them away from another missed strike. At one point Twilight noticed an overturned food truck with one of its oil canisters sprawled out from its truck, oil ruining the soil. Right as an idea struck her, Sunset had tripped resulting in Twilight falling in the other girl’s lap under their enemy’s looming shadow.

Lifting her gaze as best she could to Sunset, she directed her palm at the canister before speaking.

“Better cover your face.” She warned.

“What-” Sunset questioned questioningly until the younger girl in her lap grunted while motioning her hand forward. Sunset’s answer came in the shape of a metal barrel flying through the sky straight towards the cyclops.

Of which he caught with his good arm, unfazed. A shared feeling of horror was etched across the two fallen teens’ faces as the cyclops brought forth his broken arm, regardless of pain, and stood to his full height heaving the flammable container over his, as well as their heads.

Neither of them found any words to say, instead, Twilight felt Sunset curl her arms and to some extent a part of her body further around Twi’s torso, as if preparing to cover her from most of the oncoming damage. As for the younger, she simply gripped onto her best friend tightly, choosing to hold her hands up in hopes of holding him back somehow. His roar hurt her ears.

Suddenly he paused, more like flinched. Something had hit his back, something blue and fizzling with power. She loosened her hands slightly, had Rainbow Dash recovered. Something in the creature’s eye sparked with anger at the interruption, a glare of familiarity.

“Behind you, dipshit!”

Twilight could see the cyclops’ glare harden downward at her before (reluctantly?) turning around, canister still above his head. At their current angle, both Twilight and Sunset had the opportunity to glance around the monster’s side to see a man a mere couple yards away from the three, hands down by his sides while fixating on the creature in front of him.

“Hey there shithead, forget about me?” the man sneered, and she swore the cyclops began to visibly shake with indignation. “Because I sure as hell don’t recall us being finished.”

For a brief minute, the newcomer seemed to finally notice the two, narrowing his eyes even further before beckoning his enemy. Surprisingly, the cyclops began to take a couple steps towards the man, seemingly forgetting about the girls now far behind him and rather growling a warning. Was this guy suicidal?! She wanted to yell or scream out to him, beg him to run before it was too late, however something held her tongue

“That’s right, get your wimpy ass back over here ugly.”

Raising his burly hands the cyclops was ready to finally toss his stolen weapon, but the man was faster. Her mind went blank as an array of bright blue magic, electricity it appeared in the form of, sprouted from the stranger’s open palm followed by a ball of solid blue power rocketed towards the monster. Supposedly hitting him square in the chest, the cyclops could only howl in pain only to be interrupted as the barrel bonked him on the head spraying oil all over his fur.

The blue electricity still evident on his chest eventually made contact, and it was only a matter of time until orange and yellow flames engulfed the beast’s body, first climbing up his neck and face, then trailing down his arms and chest.

Inhuman sounds erupted from the monster’s throat as it thrashed and flung aimlessly, pounding his fists helplessly onto the ground which caused the already oily ground to gush into flames as well. Trails of it went everywhere, burning chairs, flags, into bleachers, and…

She gulped, noticing a particular tail of fire had started heading their way, no doubt towards the broken truck right next to them. There might’ve been more of those canisters in the truck, if the flames reached it, they wouldn’t need a monster to end their lives.

Sunset should’ve started pulling them further back by now, except one glimpse at the older girl’s expression told Twilight she was tranced or captivated by what was happening. shifting herself from her friend’s hold Twilight nudged with urgency.

“Sunset, we need to get out of here, quick!”

No response. Sunset just continued to gape, watching the shrieking aflame creature and the man who’d temporarily saved their skins, his body still glowing with electricity. Moving an elbow, she prodded the other girl in the stomach, causing her to snap out of whatever charm she’d been under and stared at Twi with curiosity.

“The truck Sunset!” Twilight insisted, pointing outward. “The truck!”

Following her indention, Sunset’s eyes widened in realization, scampering back to her feet and lacing the fallen girl’s arm around her shoulders as they simultaneously headed for the exit. The others with RD were missing, and the smoke was climbing higher, they might have gotten to safety.

“Let’s grab Applejack and then get out from the other side” She insisted. Sunset merely hummed in response, ever so often shifting her gaze back at the scene slowly being covered by the smoke.

“Twilight…” Sunset began, her words cutting off. She could only quicken her pace, giving Sunset a poor excuse for an empathetic glimpse while the pair made their way to AJ.

“I don’t know Sunset, I really don’t.”

_____________

Having tracked the bastard for miles, Cole had to admit he was stumped. How in the hell did the cyclops manage to grow some balls and gain the energy to resist a bio leech despite obviously nearly dying was questionable enough, although he had some theories.

More importantly when it appeared to have an upper hand on him, why did it leave? All the way out of the city boarder and into neighborhood territory no less, and with a great amount of determined speed too. Nevertheless, he followed behind best he could, having never reached the neighborhood outside of Canterlot himself in the past. Fortunately the creature hadn’t harmed nor killed any civilians while train wrecking through small streets, only a hell of a lot of insurance issues and therapy requests.

To think a monster of that size would roam all this way to trash a high school was another question entirely.

Upon arrival, the place was already a mess. Looked as though they’d just been in the middle of some kind of special occasion, what with all the decorated attire and concession stands laying in a heap of rubble. So far he’d seen most of what had to be the school’s occupants forming a barely contained crowd across the street, away from their ruined courtyard.

It was then Cole understood. That sensation, that source of power, it bled all over the school like a coated blanket. He had to force his conduit senses back into focus considering just how heavy everything felt when simply standing next to the building, this wasn’t the time for another ‘stunned silence.’ People were in danger, kids no less, he needed to stop this.

CHS. A whisper here, a rumor there, considering what telltale stories he’d heard about the place, it definitely had some sort of reputation. Interviews with witnesses in the papers and previous sources argued seeing kids ‘sprouting wings’ or ‘having an odd feeling to it.’ The sole reason he’d yet to check anything out personally was due to the fact of how far outside the metroplex it was, resting deep in the neighborhoods where a person such as him would be spotted or interrupted much faster than in the city.

Was this high school really the source all along? As ridiculous as it sounded, (and for certain prideful reasons he’d inwardly begged it not to be so considering how long he’d been searching that whole city inside and out only for it to be all the way out here in a fucking high school), the evidence was staring him square in the face for now.

He could rest easy once seeing that the school itself was fundamentally untouched, allowing him easy access to climb over the roof and view the courtyard below. From up on his vantage point he could tell his former enemy was pissed about something, so when he jumped off the two-story building and landed he immediately directed another shot towards the bastard’s shoulder; Better him being the center of the monster’s rage once more rather than some helpless innocents.

As luck would have it, the idiot was currently holding a very much leaking and very much flammable canister above his head, ready and waiting to throw. With his arrival vocalized, the cyclops veered his ugly mug with an almost annoyed growl, that black aura still emitting from his body. That’s also when Cole caught a glimpse of the two girls now behind the giant, presumably his intended targets before being interrupted.

If he shot that canister there and then, chances were those two might’ve been in danger of the flames. That’s why he’d decided on goading the thing back towards him, which thankfully appeared to have worked. Soon as he felt the distance was safe enough, one easy rocket and the bastard lit up in flames like a torch with the grass burning alongside him. The cyclops was still weak from their fight earlier, making its movement sluggish even as the fire licked at its exposed skin while waving its massive arms around in an awkward motion, one swipe indenting a three fingered claw mark in the school’s side, other than that a minute and a half later the bright flames on its body subsided as smoke rose high above them both.

The overwhelming smell of burnt flesh and oil was nauseating, but it ultimately didn’t matter. Barely able to stand, the injured cyclops crumpled to the ground in a heap, pained gasps of air replacing shrieks of rage. Behind him the two teens had disappeared as well, leaving just him and the downed beast for now.

Electricity ripped through his arms as he began marching towards the fallen monster, who could only return a fearful expression behind his exhaustion. The black aura surrounding the cyclops was gone, only leaving a beaten and battered creature that attempted to desperately claw away from the stalking conduit. Cole felt a hint of pity at seeing the poor bastard’s state, and a part of him considered simply leaving his foe be, but his rational side cut that idea out. This thing had the sentience to take pleasure in killing and maiming, it was simply too dangerous to be left alive.

He stopped. What was that? Eyes still locked on target he concentrated his power to create another invisible pulse, feeling the limited resources of electricity within the area. However, two individual impressions caught his attention. His stomach turned upon realizing that both he and the cyclops were in fact not the sole beings left in the courtyard after all.

He peered to his right where an overturned bleacher was currently laying, the thin line of flames heading towards its direction followed by blackened smoke. Even still, when listening closely he could hear screaming coming from its direction, was someone trapped under the rubble, or were they simply behind the bleacher trying to hide?

A low moan garnered his attention back to the cyclops who’d gotten halfway up and was already shuffling away from the scene. Cole snarled, raising an electrified fist to stop his escaping foe. This time he for sure heard a distinct call for help from the bleachers as smoke began covering its frame, meaning the fire was gaining on whoever was shouting. The cyclops was picking up both speed and distance, gradually lifting to its full height and limping away best he could manage.

He didn’t have the power for a lightning storm, so knocking out the ugly beast while simultaneously saving whoever was under the bleachers was out of the question. Releasing a frustrated sigh he took a step forward only to have his own internal feelings chain him back.

If he let the cyclops go and freed the victims, he’d be sparing two souls for the price of multiple others. On the other hand if he ended this here and now he’d be saving future innocents, yet once again have the weight of knowing he’d let someone die for the ‘greater good.’

Which meant more, the life of one, or the lives of many?

He narrowed his eyes, decision made.
___________

Fluttershy couldn’t breathe. The fire trailing alongside the grass had finally reached the bleacher, creating a bloom of black smoke which began to coat every inch of light visible. Whether it was by pure chance or not, the fire had yet to actually reach her skin, although that didn’t mean it wasn’t about to become a possibility.

She could feel the increasing heat from burning metal breathing right behind her back, a gut-wrenching wave of incoming nausea and fearful sparks of adrenaline caused her to look back up at Scootaloo, still persistently trying to pull the overweighted metal off the older girl’s trapped form.

“Sc-scootaloo..” Fluttershy coughed, the smoke wafting through the air holding back a good portion of her cracked voice. “…pl-please, you need to run!”

The younger girl narrowed her eyes, grunting loudly as she desperately tried to lift with all the strength she had left.

“You’re crazy if you think I’m just gonna leave you like this!” the child yelled over the roaring fire and screaming of the titanic beast just out of view. She pulled her leg as best she could, but the metal beam holding her still was far too heavy, no matter how hard either oof them attempted to escape. Tears struggled to form in her eyes, as she watched the child before her stubbornly try to save her. whether it was from the equestrian powers or just her genuine knowledge, there weren’t any fellow critters or general people available to help them both. She gripped the dirt underneath her fingers, clawing holes in the soil as a sick feeling of anger burned brighter than any fire could possibly create,

Rainbow Dash was fallen, the whereabouts of her other friends was unknown, and now because of her she was about to get her childhood friend’s near adopted little sister killed. Why, why was she even given these powers to begin with? Sure she couldn’t ask for a greater gift to actually communicate with animals, but she was far from a combatant like the others.

But all that didn’t matter right now, Scootaloo’s life was at risk, and she wouldn’t let Rainbow Dash down like this. As the freshman beside her continued to push Fluttershy scrapped the ground while trying to claw her way to freedom with all the energy she could muster, despite feeling the tickle of flames now licking at her shoes.

A shape busted through the black smoke landing right next to Scootaloo, and Fluttershy widened her eyes in fear for her friend’s safety. However as the shape came closer she saw a man in white walk next to scoots who jumped in surprise at the newcomer. Fluttershy didn’t waste any time.

“Please, *Cough* h-help us! I’m trapped!”

Without a word the man gripped the bar alongside Scoots and lifted, and to both teen and preteen’s surprise the metal bleacher began to rise high from the freshman’s grasp. Amidst her shock Fluttershy felt the weight on her leg release, although that didn’t stop the numbness now clearly evident seeping through her thighs.

Holding the bleacher over his shoulder the man grunted out to her.

“What are you waiting for? Move!”

Scrambling with her arms and palms, she tried to stand only to instantly fall back down to her face. It was no use, the pain mixed with the lack blood within her lower body made it impossible to move, leaving her crawling desperately. Thankfully their savior noticed this as well, turning his head towards the young girl beside him.

“I need you to get over there and help her! Quick!”

Scootaloo shook off her own astonishment and rushed further into the fray, grasping Fluttershy’s extended hand while further dragging her out until they both passed the man, safe from the metal contraption and brimming fire.

When they settled to the ground, the man immediately shrugged off the otherwise incredibly heavy metal his shoulder and went to bend down, scooping up Shy with a squeak of embarrassment. Holding the teen bridal style he nudged at Scootaloo while picking up speed.

“We need to get out of here, come’on!”

Not waiting to argue the freshman followed suit as the three made their way across the backside of the yard until reaching the exit gate. Holding onto her savior’s neck for dear life, Fluttershy peered back to the yard now far behind them, noticing the Cyclops was nowhere to be found, as well as her friends.

Somewhere outside the exit gate, the man stopped before looking square in Fluttershy’s eyes.

“Are you okay?” He asked, this time with a much calmer tone. Slightly caught off guard by the Heightened adrenaline and tension from his peirceing gaze, she could only croak through an already dry throat.

“I-I can’t feel my legs.”

Nodding in affirmation, he bent down to drop her down the grass much to her and Scoot’s dumbfounded curiosity. Once her entire body was placed on the ground he lifted both hands, placing them together as a sudden spark of sparkling blue energy formed from his hands. Again caught off guard both students watched in amazement until he leaned said electric sparkling hands towards Fluttershy, to which Scootaloo immediately placed herself in between the two protectively.

Notably expecting this, he backed up slightly holding his hands back.

“Its okay, I’m going to heal her.” He spoke calmly. Hesitant, Scootaloo looked back at Fluttershy, as if asking for permission. Seeing this from the ground, the caretaker switched gazes from freshman to stranger, once again noting the care etched across his face she gently placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.” She coughed. Still uncertain, Scootaloo nevertheless stepped to the side as the man brought his bright blue hands to Shy’s stomach.

“Hold still, alright?” he encouraged as the sparks made contact. Rapidly a surge of electricity burned through her both, automatically causing her to clench her teeth as a wave of warm blood washed away the numbness in her lower torso, burning away the pain alongside it as well. The man grunted in surprise when a bright yellow light shone through the geode wrapped around her neck, a wave of yellow mixing with the blue and soon crawling up his hands and around his body. He stepped back in shock, holding his temple as if gaining a headache.

Scootlaloo was the first to reach her, helping the taller teen back up to her feet once the other tried. Watching them both, the stranger stepped forward offering to help, to which Shy graciously took as he placed a comforting arm around her back as they made their way to the crowd across the street.

“Fluttershy!”

Flying across the street, the form of Pinkie skidded to a stop next to her, quickly taking control of her friend’s trajectory out of Scootaloo’s and the stranger’s grasp. Wrapping a hand around her old friend, Pinkie gave the two helpers a thousand splutters of “thank you’s” to which Scoot waved off as she rejoined her own friends, while the stranger watched the pink girl warily.

As Pinkie began taking her friend over to where the rest of her friends thankfully stayed beside the hysterical crowd, Fluttershy widened her eyes when seeing the still prone form of Rainbow Dash laying underneath Rarity’s lap. An idea sprung to life as she whipped around and gasped at the stranger who was currently preoccupied glancing at a different direction. He appeared ready to leave.

“Wait!” she shouted, gaining his attention.

“Our friend, she-she’s hurt! Please help her!”

Raising an eyebrow, the stranger breathed in before eventually following her, traversing through a crowd of students and teachers until the pair reached their shared group of five teenagers. Expressions of happiness surrounded her when the rest of the girls saw them, AJ and Twilight coming over to examine Fluttershy.

Smiling at them, she walked over to Dash noticing the barely labored breathing and an ugly rip in her uniform, crimson leaking across her shoulder. A shadow cast over them, and all six gazed at the man watching them with curiosity, while Flutterhsy gestured to her fallen friend resting against Rarity with a desperate expression. Taking note of the many stares, he stepped forward until bending down to the two inspecting the blue multicolored girl before bringing his hands upward with more sparks of blue emerging from his hands.

Many gasps followed as most notably AJ, Sunset, and Twilight took a threatening step in his direction with Rarity holding the prone girl closer to her chest. Gulping Fluttershy stood in their way before things got ugly.

“I-Its okay!” She stammered. “He won’t hurt her, He healed me!”

Similar to Scoots, they all were hesitant, yet once seeing the sincerity in their shared friend’s expression the tension lifted. Noting this as his chance, he placed his hands on the rainbow-haired girl, blue lightning sparking all over her frame causing the unconscious girl to twitch. Weirdly no lights came from dash’s geode, therefore no incoming energy trailing back towards the man.

After a few seconds or so of tense waiting, they watched in astonishment as the gash across Dash’s arm closed by itself and her quiet breathing turned to hacking coughs, consciousness reawakening. Excitement got the better of her, Fluttershy sat right next to Dash, holding the back of her head as her friend’s eyelids fluttered.

Sunset watched them with a surge of happiness blossoming through her heart. The situation with Dash had been more terrifying to see from afar, so watching her from up close covered in gnarly bruises and blood was enough to make her sick. The only thing overcasting that fear being the realization Fluttershy was nowhere to be seen. Both her and Applejack were rearing to head back in the blackened smoke field when Pinkie seemed to have spotted her amongst freshman Scootaloo and…him.

Sunset found herself unable to speak her mind alongside Twilight, who turned pale at the mere sight of him.

When he headed for RD, arms burning with electricity, her initial reluctance shifted when her and a collective few others moved in for the aspect of another fight. It was only because of Fluttershy’s intervening that stopped their potential annihilation at the hands of a much more capable being, as he seemingly sparked a breath of life back into Dash’s body.

Watching one of her best friend’s slow recovery the sound of sirens burst through the air, wailing closer and closer. finally, the police. Hopefully they’d brought an ambulance as well.

She looked in his direction, only to find that he’d disappeared. Gawking Sunset jumped to glance over many heads. None of which were a shaved head coupled with a white shirt and weapon attached bag. A feeling of someone standing beside her gained her attention to see Twilight, also noticing the missing man.

Dammit, this was all her fault. All these people, her friends, the cyclops, hell maybe even that man, all on her. She couldn’t look at the scurrying people wadding for the multiple red and blue vehicles in need of help, she just couldn’t.

There was no excuse to be made, simply a single solitary facture. She needed to fix her stupid past mistakes once and for all. Too many had been hurt for too long now.

“Sunset, what do we do?”

Facing both the bespectacled teen as well as the others, Sunset frowned folding her arms with determination she spoke with certainty.

“Get ready girl’s, we’re going hunting.”

---

He examined his hands. Even now he could still feel that strange unknown power mixing within his muscles and bone, as if it were struggling to get comfortable underneath his very skin. Thank God it didn’t itch or burn, like when he attempted to use the transfer devise with Kuo which felt so long ago. Nevertheless, it was an unwelcomed sensation no matter how comfortable it was.

He’d seen the necklace on the yellow girl’s necklace burn bright as soon as his powers made contact, the explosion of non-conduit related powers spiking into his brain still made him twitch in irritation. Now that he’d thought about it, when he’d returned her to what he assumed were her friends, including that overly eccentric pink kid from the mall, each of them wore necklaces undeniably related to one another.

He expected the same effect when healing the unconscious multicolored blue girl yet was stumped when nothing happened. Although he did manage to bring her back fortunately. That good fortune took a nosedive when he heard the sirens, taking his advantage to slip away unnoticed before the cops found him.

The cyclops was obviously far gone now. No doubt skulking towards cover, more careful to not attract attention, though he shouldn’t have gone far. Had he really made the right decision.

The very question made him peer from the alley to watch the dozens of people being taken care of by medical experts. He’d saved two lives, now he’d lost the real danger.

No.

The sight of the kid stuck under the bench with a smaller girl trying to help was too much to deny. he’d made a promise, after…for her. He wouldn’t go through that again, anytime, anywhere he’d help whoever needed it no matter what. He’d find that oversized bastard, it just took time.

A pulse went out, allowing him the entirety of electrical and neuroelectric to showcase before him. Only when he did so, a new feeling rushed into his brain and before he could question it, a yellow hollow outline of what had to be the cyclops could be seen limping away from the school a couple yards until dissipating.

He stood, jaw dropped until pulsing again, getting the same reaction. His psychic vision had returned! But he’d lost that power amongst others the first time he’d battled the beast, how in the hell…

The girl. Whatever she had, it’d given it back to him. That had to be it!

He grinned ferally. Oh yeah, he’d find the bastard, no problem at all.

Author's Note:

Good Karma action: Trish's Legacy +100

Comments

[Stalin with Da Spoon]

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOG WE GOT ANOTHER CHAPTER, WOOOOOOOOOO! Congrats man.

[mlpengineer]

nioce, now all it needs is some romance and this will be one of the best books on this site

[darkstone57]

That was awesome! Great work

[An_Original Name]

Thanks for the update, so sorry I'm late to this. Also Holy Moly! Amazing update, thanks for not leaving this fic to rot. To be honest I think this is one of the few INFAMOUS stories that is still getting update still. I don't just mean on this site, like in general, so thanks and hope you have a good day.

[Carrotty]

Soooooooo, so much hype!!! Can't wait until the next one!!
Thank you for writing this, never thought I needed this but two of my favorite series colliding feels amazing.