Marshmallow Dreams

by Halira

Chapter 107: Battle Against the Shadow

What is chaos? I suppose most Equestrians would point their hooves at Discord and say, 'that's chaos'. If you had asked me three weeks ago, I'd have said that it was me flying in a storm– which is unhealthy for me and any bystanders who might get a giant cream puff to the face. I suppose that scientists could come up with some logical definition of chaos, even though that seems like a contradiction in itself, but who am I to disagree with people way more intelligent than I am?

No, chaos was what was currently happening in the chamber.

It was dark, but there were enough light sources to mostly see what was going on. Bursa was firing red beams of light at the shadow monster in what had to be a direct violation of the order not to strike her, but it didn't seem to be doing much. The shadow monster was lashing out, primarily at Bursa but also on and off at Wild Growth. The mighty earth pony was bucking broken bits of granite and marble at the monster. This, too, seemed to have little impact other than annoying it and drawing its attention. Blanche had made a round shield that seemed to be made of light and a long spear made of the same. It made her look like a Tolkien-like hero. She was standing defensively between Roger and the shadow monster. Roger was shouting to his mother, pleading, but the sounds of explosions and other shouts drowned out his cries.

It took me a few seconds to notice Jonathan. He was not with Roger as he had been instructed to be. He was running to different spots of the wall, dangerously close to where Wild Growth and Bursa were drawing the shadow monster's attention. He would stop for a moment and place his hands together on the wall, then begin moving again, dodging attacks aimed at our distractions. I could see what he was doing, but I had no clue why he was doing it.

I felt a gentle nudge and turned to see Sunflower beside me. She didn't say anything– there'd be no way to hear her over this racket, but she gestured with her muzzle that we needed to take to the air and get in position– so we were out of the way, protected, and better able to dodge if it came up. Right, I could do that…probably. Maybe I should have stressed to Twilight that I couldn't fly very well. If I tried to dodge while in the air, there was no telling who or what I would end up crashing into. Nothing to do but try and hope there was no need to dodge.

I took to the air alongside Sunflower, and we quickly got into position behind the element bearers. I wondered how long it would take for them to-

A rainbow blasted out from the bearers and struck the Pony of Shadows, making her wail, answering my question before I could finish thinking it. It wouldn't take them long at all.

Bursa and Wild Growth stopped moving around, and the Pony of Shadows seemed to yank and pull against the rainbow that was hitting it dead center. It wasn't going down or disintegrating or whatever it was supposed to do. It was not happy, but I was unsure if the rainbow would be enough. How long could they keep that beam going? If the beam gave out before the Pony of Shadows did, we might be in trouble.

The Pony of Shadows, still struggling, fixed its gaze on the element bearers. "Fools! You cannot beat me! I will slay you Equestrians and have justice!"

"Mom! Fight the shadows! Come back to me!" Roger shouted out, finally able to be heard now that the Pony of Shadows was no longer assaulting Wild Growth and Bursa

The monster turned its head towards Roger and spoke as if the rainbow beam was merely a temporary inconvenience. "Don't worry. This is a good thing. I'm getting you the justice we deserve too."

Roger seemed taken aback. "What? What justice?"

The thing's gaze hardened. "These Equestrians are responsible for us being ponies, for me never being able to spend the time with you that you deserved while you were growing up. They made it so I missed almost every important moment of your life. I never wanted to be an absentee mother. It is their fault!"

"That's not true! That was one lone pony acting on her own! The rest of the Equestrians had nothing to do with it!" Roger replied.

"No! They are guilty! Sunset Shimmer wasn't some outlier. They seek to dominate everything," the Pony of Shadows yelled-hissed. "Look around you! See all the death they bring! An entire civilization was exterminated in a genocide! They regulate other peoples on their world to the outskirts and name the world after themselves. They're the evil ones, hiding behind a veil of false smiles. They must be exterminated!"

Hypocrite much?

Jonathan had briefly paused while running around the room when the rainbow first hit the Pony of Shadows, but he was now at it again—running along the wall, focusing his hands on specific spots. The Pony of Shadows took notice of him for the first time.

"No! I see what you are trying to do!" the monster roared as it yanked harder against the rainbow.

Several insignias on the wall started to glow, laid out in a partial circle around the room. The missing part of the circle was the area Jonathan had already traveled. The Pony of Shadows seemed to get stronger, strong enough that its yanks at the beam staggered the element bearers. They didn't go down, but the thing was putting up a bigger fight now, and it seemed all the more likely it would break free soon.

"Jonathan! Keep disabling those matrices. They're what are filling her with additional power," Twilight commanded as she firmed up her footing. Disable matrices? How could Jonathan…oh! I remember– he said he could short out artifacts with his magic, just like he shorted out computers when he was younger. There must be some artifacts in the walls. Those artifacts must be why the shadow monster chose this room to gather power. I could possibly be the least intelligent of the candidates, but I understood now what was going on.

Wild Growth and Bursa resumed their efforts. The things Wild Growth bucked as well as Bursa's blasts, all seemed to connect when they hit the Pony of Shadows, but they didn't seem to do any damage. At best, they were an annoyance to the monster, and at this point, not enough of a hassle to make it lose interest in Jonathan.

They needed to be more annoying. If there was something I could do well, it was be annoying. The problem was I was not currently projecting, which meant I could be squished, or burnt, or impaled, but if the Pony of Shadows hit Jonathan, it might end up smooshing all of us.

Hoping that my erratic flight paths would make me harder to hit, I left my safe area and flew near the shadow monster.

"Hey! Look at me! Remember me? You knocked me through a wall, but I'm like a roach. I just keep coming back. Yoohoo!"

"Rebecca, what are you doing!?" Sunflower shouted in alarm.

"Rebecca, you idiot!" Blanche yelled.

Despite them being concerned about me, the Pony of Shadows seemed to be ignoring me. She was utterly focused on Jonathan. She was jabbing at him with long spearlike projections that jutted out of her body. Jonathan was much more agile than you would expect a geeky science nerd to be. He probably picked up some skills in that other universe. The latest strike barely missed him, and he practically did the limbo at a full run under the thing before slamming his hands on a spot in the wall, and another crystal went out.

"Wild, Bursa, help him take those crystals out!" Twilight ordered.

Wild Growth changed direction and headed towards the wall where another crystal was glowing. "Demolition, I can do that."

The mighty green earth pony didn't stop to buck the wall. She just ran straight into it, leaving a gaping crater that the edges of quickly started to crumble around. The entire thing caved-in on her, taking the crystal down.

"Wild Growth!" Blanche shouted in dismay.

Her concern was short-lived as the earth pony emerged, pushing through the rubble like she was walking through water. It took a lot to hurt Wild Growth. She might have been a shadow of her heyday, but she was still the strongest earth pony alive.

Bursa, trying not to be outdone, shot a blast at the nearest crystal to her. The blast connected, but all it seemed to do was glow brighter. She stared at it in consternation for a moment before one of the Pony of Shadow's appendages smacked her from the side, knocking her hard against a wall.

"Bursa!" Wild shouted and was immediately struck by another shadowy appendage that sent her straight back through the wall she'd just climbed out of and brought more stone rubble down on her head. While all that was going on, Jonathan managed to play Simon with the crystal Bursa tried to destroy. Two crystals were left.

Getting hit by that shadow must have been worse than having a wall collapse on Wild Growth because she was slower getting up this time. How hard did that thing hit? I looked over at Bursa and gasped. She wasn't moving, and she was leaking red goo all over the place. Was she dead? No, she just twitched. That meant she was alive, right? Although, bugs could twitch while dead. I hoped she wasn't dead. With that in mind, I gulped and resumed my annoying buzzing about the monster's head.

"I'll avenge you, Bursa!" I shouted. "Hey, look at me!"

The Pony of Shadows shook its head. "I'm not falling for your tricks again. When I'm at full power, I'll destroy you, but I'm not wasting energy on a shadow."

Did she think I was still projecting? She must have been really distracted not to notice I was physically present. Was there some way I could use that to my advantage?

Jonathan moved towards the next crystal, but the Pony of Shadows sent all its extra appendages at him. He managed to jump backward in time, but the limbs formed an almost perfect wall blocking him from reaching the next crystal. That was bad.

Okay, there was a crystal in the wall with my name on it. Scratch that; it better not have my name on it because that would be weird, and I would have so many existential questions about my life. Anyway, there was a crystal that the monster wasn't paying attention to, and it thought I was a projection, so it would consider me dashing at the crystal as an attempt to distract it. Magic blasts might not work on it, but ancient night ponies weren't prepared for my flab! I just had to hit it really hard, and it would break. Good plan!

My path was clear; my target was in sight, and I even was facing it. Facing it was great; it meant I didn't have to do something complicated like try to change direction. I didn't have room to build up to full speed, but I was maybe a tiny bit heavier than the average pony. That should make up for the lack of full momentum, I hoped. I got as high as I could and began my dive bomb. I should hit it-

SLAM!!

"Hahaha! That was sad. I'll kill you last."

Ouchie. I fought the wall, and the wall won.

I was dazed, but I could tell the crystal was still intact. So much for me being-

There was suddenly a lot of crashing, and something picked me up. I was moving. Wweeeeee!

I might have hit my head a little too hard.

NNOOOOOO!!!

"The crystals are down, now's our chance! Let's take her down, girls!"

This all sounded very interesting, and I wondered how I was moving, but at that moment, I needed a nap.

Comments

[PiMan]

dominate everything,"/b] the Pony

Your bold closure is broken.

[Halira]

11451629
Thank you..

[badninja]

I see Rebecca pulled a Derpy. Still let’s see how this helped and how the rest of this trip goes.

[Numinos]

Nice chapter, glad to see this story back : )