Sweet Pink Sunset

by Annon56

Ability and Identity

Boa struggled to catch her breath as the Crow stood on top of and erupted piece of earth above her, some trees behind her have been sliced and severely cut up, she had dodged the crows combos of steel wing attacks.

'Its wings can cut down trees... what s up with this burst of power?' Boa mused as she entered another staring contest with the Crow.

Jokey breathed heavily as he backed away a small distance from the Hydra, still being controlled by Kanthon.

"Okay buddy, what's the deal here? I understand you having the time to tame that messed up crow over there, but you just got that Hydra of yours... how come it's so easy going with you?" Jokey began.

"Humph, so you haven't figured it out yet have you? Well, not like I expected more from you anyway," Kanthon replied with a smirk, "You see, because of the earth pony blood which runs through my veins, I have the ability to control earth based creatures... it's my own unique power. The grass on the ground would have been painted with your blood if I had had the time to tame this Hydra properly."

"Well if that s so true, how come you can control this Crow?" Boa questioned, recollecting some knowledge of wild creatures, "Overgrown Crows are considered mountain type creatures..."

Kanthon cocked an eyebrow with a slightly pleased smile, "a wise observation, yes, although mountains are large emerged pieces of earth, the category of creature type is quite strict to my abilities. Seeing as though you've failed to notice, there is no such thing as an Overgrown Steel Winged Crow, the steel counts as a ground type element, one of my companions has the ability to genetically fuse things into other beings. Through absorption. Basically, the steel acts as a ground type attribute for the Crow, granting me control over it."

x

"Did you hear that?" Pinkie Pie questioned openly while looking around, "sounded like a Hydra!" she added as she stood up straight placing her hooves close together in one spot.

"Oh right, the Hydra! Boa, Jokey, and Big Mac are still dukin' it out with that zebra dude," Forest complied as he turned around to face Pinkie Pie, "Okay!" he blurted as he stood on his hind legs and pointed his hoof to a border of trees, "let's set out to help them!"

Silence overthrew the terrain as the chirping of a cricket emphasized the emptiness of the situation.

"Ehh... which part of Froggy Bottom Bog are we in again, Pinkie?" Forest turned to Pinkie Pie in confusion with a cheesy grin.

"Beats me," she shrugged happily, "shouldn't you know how you got here yourself?"

"Wha- no, that thing swallowed me whole and brought me here, I had no idea where it was taking me," Forest pointed at the unconscious Giant Salamander.

"Oh! that's why you smell kinda funky!"

"Uh... yeah, hehe, anyway, how did you get here?"

"Well, I used the same path I did last time I was in Froggy Bottom Bog, but that was a while ago and so there was this fork in the road and I pretty much guessed which way to go and by pure luck, poof, we're here."

"Guessed they way? Pinkie, we're in the Everfree, you could have ended up near giant snakes!"

"As long as I've got my Pinkie sense we'll be fine, do I really have to tell you about the branch that fell on the guards head again?"

"That was... mainly his fault... whatever, we're here now! Ellllet's get a move on!" Forest beckoned with enthusiasm as he turned around facing the trees once more.

"Woohoo! Adventure mode engaged!" Pinkie Pie jumped on to Forest with three legs on his back and her right front leg pointing out to the trees, "cotton candy!"

"Orange sherbet!" Forest added.

"And together we are... the Sugar Dynamo!" they exclaimed in unison, and soon enough, galloped into to the forest to find their companions.

x

The enemy troops backed away as Big Macintosh stepped forward, the guards of North Charlie moved with him at his pace, both sides bruised and cut, but Big Macintosh had the least injuries. The odds have now been lowered leaving the four guards and Big Macintosh eleven more enemy troops to fight off.

The Hydra attempted to tail whip Jokey once more; Jokey jumped up and landed on the beasts tail, he quickly ran up its back jumped on to one of the Hydra's heads that tried to bite him off, it lifted him up bringing him close to Kanthon, Jokey leaped to the head which Kanthon occupied who stood up on his hind legs in reaction.

'If I can get him off the Hydra, then he won't be able to control it!' Jokey thought in a rush. The zebra and the unicorn placed their front hooves against each other trying to push one another of the Hydra, their eyes narrowed at each other, Jokey began to push harder making Kanthon shift to the edge of the Hydra's second middle head.

"You've really gotten on my nerves lately, but your luck ends here!" Kanthon stated, ending with a grunt as he dropped down on his back, causing Jokey to fall over. Kanthon kicked Jokey off with his hind legs and immediately got back up, the splash of the swamp water alerted the Hydra having it look down to find Jokey at the surface.

"And so the story ends! Die!" Kanthon exclaimed as the Hydra rose a leg above Jokey and stomped on him, submerging him into the swamp water, Boa screamed out his name in anguish. Jokey was pushed into a trench in the water where he grabbed a root to keep himself from floating upwards. The Hydra's foot blocked any escape.

Jokey's heartbeat raced, the moment where his life could have ended in an instant was avoided due to a hole within the bottom of the swamp water. Pure luck.

'This is bad,' Jokey thought as he began to feel a blockage pain his ears due to the pressurised water particles around him, 'if I stay in too long I'm gonna run out of air... If I try to climb out, the Hydra will feel it and will most probably try to squash me again...' Jokey was running out of breath, he could feel his lungs and his throat contracting as a drowning sensation rose up, 'not much time left... I'm gonna have to use that.'

Kanthon grinned with the taste of victory, "Perhaps if he hadn't been so full of himself he would not have died a foal."

Boa's anger shot up, "don't you dare... take us lightly... you bastard!"

"Your still alive?" Kanthon uttered to himself, he calmly spoke in his mother tounge, without even shedding a glimpse to Boa, "finish her off."

The Overgrown Crow then flew to Boa at amazing speed once more, she erupted another earthy cylinder beneath her, propelling her upwards at an alarming rate, the Crow saw past this trick and flew upwards as it got close to the erupted piece of land, but only to be deceived once more. Boa looked down past the edge to see how close the Crow was, and by the time it got to the required distance, she jumped off which left the Crow to be between her and the emerged piece of land.

"Take this!" Boa exclaimed as she then gave a brave shout while kicking the centre of the Crow's head with her hind legs with all her strength.

The Crow stopped dead in its tracks in mid-air, its eyes went clear white from shock and began falling to the ground, Boa held on to the steel spikes around its neck with her front hooves and lied down against the Crows back to make a safe landing.

Kanthon took notice to Boa as she got off the unconscious giant bird, "So you've managed to handle the Steel Winged Crow, but look at you, your a mess... give up now and I'll spare your life, unless you want to end up like-"

The swamp water began to bubble and boil frantically, steam quickly gushed out of the bursting bubbles, the Hydra whimpered and roared in pain as it struggled to climb out of the swamp water, Kanthon had almost lost balance and fallen off, but as the Hydra stood on solid ground once more he maintained balance. The skin around the Hydra's legs was badly burned with a nasty crimson colour, Jokey soon crawled out of the swamp water on the other side next to Boa; Jokey went out with his entire body resembling red-hot metal, he was glowing radiantly with heat, the grass around his hooves slowly changed from light green to deep brown and then burned away. The glow of Jokey's new aura slowly began to dim, and soon enough, reverted back to his normal form.

Kanthon looked down at the two in anger, 'you little foals... looks like I've underestimated you, unicorn...'

"Jokey, thank Celestia your okay..." Boa began.

Jokey coughed as Boa and himself made eye contact, "Uh... y- yeah, I am..." he uttered. They exchanged smiles as the looked into each others eyes, Jokey quickly looked away as he began to blush, "You handled the crow... knew you could do it."

"Y- yeah, th- thanks..." she replied, her smile fading away as both their expressions changed to fit the situation.

Boa and Jokey eyed Kanthon as he stood on top of the Hydra. Jokey and Kanthon once again giving each other hateful looks.

"What's with the long face olives eyes... the fun has just begun, your quick to underestimate your opponents aren't you?" Jokey stated.

Kanthon grunted silently, "looks like you've got some fight in you after all."

The tension broke as a hologram formed in the air space next to Kanthon; the unknown unicorn Surgio, wearing a black full body suit stood proudly, the same red symbol on the side as Kanthon had.

Big Macintosh and the troops from both sides immediately halted combat as soon as he appeared, everypony now turned their attention to Surgio.

"Leader?" Kanthon started, "what's the problem?"

"It is time to end the scavenge party. I need you to take what you have and return to the main base, we have gathered what we need so far."

Kanthon nodded, "Very well."

"Here we come!" a light pitched and slightly squeaky voice exclaimed from over the trees, Pinkie Pie and Forest jumped back to the ring of action.

"Sorry we're late guys! We-" Forest looked up as he took notice to the hologram which stood near Kanthon, "you..."

Surgio gave a grin as he made eye contact with Forest, "Forest... we meet again... tell me, how was your training so far?"

"Wha?" Forest muttered under his breath in surprise.

"How many things have you learned now?" Surgio continued.

Forest's narrowed his eyes at the unicorn, taking notice to the scar on his right eye, "maybe I'll show you when your actually in front of me next time," he replied in all seriousness.

"Hah, soon young Thundertred... soon." The hologram transmission ended.

Kanthon pulled out a blue orb similar to the one Sargent Razorsharp used to teleport away, it began to glow vividly, linking to all his troops, the Overgrown Steel Winged Crow and even the Giant Cloaking Salamander all the way in the outskirts.

"Hey, you.. zebra," Jokey said, grabbing Kanthon's attention, "my name is Jokey Bizarre... the second defender of Ponyville."

"Why are you telling me your name, Jokey?" Kanthon replied malevolently.

"Well, I got a feeling you and I are gonna be meeting again soon... and you should at least know the name of the one that defeats you."

Kanthon grinned at Jokey's remark, "my name is Kanthon, Kanthon Cave. I look forward to crushing you to dust."

Jokey smiled confidently, his eyebrows lowered at the zebra, "the stage light won't be shinnin' on ya buddy."

"We shall see about that Jokey, we shall see about that." And with that, the orb zapped its blue magical particles to all of Kanthon's troops, the Hydra, and his creatures, teleporting them all out of sight and leaving the fighters of Ponyville behind.

They all went silent, no sound but the flow of the wind against the leaves of the trees and the swift compilation of insects chirping.

"Hey guys! I found her! And the rest of 'em to." A familiar voice from above stated, grabbing the attention of all guards, Big Macintosh and the three defenders. Rainbow Dash flew down from the sky as Arrow soon followed her lead, Applejack soon joined them as she arrived through the dirt pathway.

Applejack hugged her brother after the relief of seeing him in one piece, "Ya' look like a bruised apple, Macintosh."

"I'll shake it off," Big Macintosh replied, giving her a smile.

"You all look like bruised apples if you ask me!" Rainbow Dash started, then glared at Pinkie Pie, "do you have any idea, just the slightest hint of what you've done?"

"She saved my life," Forest answered Rainbow's rhetorical question, Pinkie Pie smiled widely and bopped her eyebrows at Rainbow Dash.

"Well, didn't I say I could help?" Pinkie Pie added.

"How did she save your life?" Rainbow Dash asked Forest in a tone of annoyance, ignoring Pinkie Pie.

Forest looked over at the Pink mare as they held hooves, "That candy bar..." he intoned.

Rainbow Dash lowered her eyelids in annoyance once again, "Whatever! Twilight's better at talking sense into you guys than I am, I'll let her handle this when we get back."

"Well at least we're all safe... we managed to hold back the enemy, they retreated via teleportation... with an orb of some sort," Boa added openly.

"So they have used the same technique?" Arrow questioned, remembering his short battle with Razorsharp, "the enemy I had fought had done the very same thing, I have managed to save Rarity and Sweetie Belle to."

"Haha! I knew you could do it!" Forest exclaimed happily as he placed his hoof around Arrow, giving him a friendly nudge.

"Well, we got names now," Jokey remarked, "turns out that zebra guy is half earth pony, his name is Kanthon Cave and he can control land creatures..."

"I also have a name, the stallion I fought was a unicorn, he seemed quite amused by sharp objects and happens to be a Sargent... his name is Razorsharp." Arrow complied.

"That unicorn with the scar on his right eye, he seems to be the leader... that's how Kanthon addressed him anyway." Boa added.

"You mean the one who knows me?" Forest asked Boa who nodded him to certify her comment.

"Oh yeah," Jokey recalled another fact, "It looks like they're called The Metamor Legion..."

"Eeyup," Big Macintosh added.

"Metamor Legion?" Forest pondered upon the title, he turned to his squad North Charlie, "are any of you familiar with this name? Have you heard anything of it while you were in Canterlot?"

The guards shook their heads, some shrugged, "no sir."

"Well, we best be headin' back to town," Applejack stated.

"Fluttershy!" Big Macintosh exclaimed, he galloped away back to Ponyville not bothering to move with the others, his lover was worried sick and he needs to let her know he's okay.

"Don't you just run off like that, Big Macintosh!" Applejack followed him immediately after he left the area, giving everypony else no choice but to do the same.