Interviews With Equestrians

by Jmaster49

Subject 280: Round 1

“Wait a second!” Cozy called out, “There might be a way we can make this work so that we can allow you to live alongside us.”

“As wonderful as that sounds…” Grogar glanced downwards once more, “That is impossible. And you know it.”

“No it’s not! If I managed to break free of my curse thanks to the love of others, then I can do the same for you!”

THUD!

The ram stomped his hoof. It was hard enough to make the castle walls disappear and allow us to view what had happened outside. Since our battle began, everyone else that had been fighting outside of the castle had turned to stone and fallen victim to the same curse that affected my friends.

“Think about what you’re saying,” Grogar snarled, “Even if you could break me free, my crimes are too great to be ignored. That alone is wishful thinking, since I don’t intend to submit!”

“But...but--!”

I put a hoof on Cozy’s shoulder, and looked at her with a pained set of eyes. “...The least we can do for him now is give him an honorable exit.”

The kid let out an annoyed sigh, and continued. “Alright...fine. But how do we do that? Isn’t he nigh-unkillable?”

“Not quite…” I took a look at the Tree of Harmony, “Maybe we can make this right, and correct the exact thing that Gusty failed to do.”

“What do you…?” Cozy started to question what I meant, then looked up at the tree also. “Oh...I see now. Do you think it’ll be safe?”

I had to hold myself back from chuckling. “...Well, I can say for certain that we’ll survive. Painless, though? That’s unlikely.”

At last, Grogar had had enough of our chatter, and interrupted us. “What are you both muttering about? Face me if you want to change your world so dearly.”

I took one final look at Cozy, and we both exchanged a nod. For the sake of the entire world, we wouldn’t fall here. There was too much for us to live for and return to. After all, when the chips are down, you can’t rely on beings of higher powers to save you. I could already venture a guess that if Discord had been defeated earlier, then Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and even Twilight Sparkle were probably all incapacitated thanks to Grogar’s manipulation of time.

So in the end, it was all up to us. Against the Apex of the world.

I leapt into action, and charged forward. Grogar, while still powerful, had lost most of his strength over the course of the millennia. As a result, the playing field was mostly evened out.

Mostly.

My first strike was evaded. The ram leaned backwards and shoved his horns towards my abdominal region to headbutt me. With a loud crack! I could have sworn that I heard a fractured rib or two. This guy was no joke.

With the wind knocked out of me, I flew backwards, and skidded to a stop. After that, I felt the air around me condense and slowly collapse in on my body. Grogar had started to pour all of his magic into an attempt to suffocate or squish me out. I couldn’t tell which was worse, but I wasn’t about to find out.

“NGH! DAGH!”

I grit my teeth, and did my best to ignore the pain. My adrenaline kept me high on my sense of power so that I could focus on the battle. In return, I forced all of my own magic into resisting the control of the air around me. As an earth pony, I was still in control of nature itself, so I wasn’t going down so easily.

POW!

After a while, I was able to break free of the magical grip, but was given no time to react. In those few seconds of relief, Grogar had rushed me, and swiftly pinned me to the ground with his hooves firmly planted on my own limbs.

There was nothing to say as I stared into those demonic pools of yellow acid that were his eyes. The pressure was immense. My own hooves felt like they were about to split themselves apart right down the middle from how hard he pressed down. While I did my best to push back, it was far from enough to outmatch his sheer power.

I had to think fast. My eyes darted around for an answer, and that’s when I found it.

With a quick shift, I reeled one of my legs back, and piledrived my hoof directly into his kneecap.

CRUNCH!

From the sound alone, I knew it would have been more than enough to completely destroy a normal pony’s leg for life. As it turned out, it was just enough to force a reactive grunt from the ram.

“Tch!”

In that split-second he lost focus away from trying to break my arms--upper hooves, I took advantage of it, and delivered another powerful kick to his solar plexus which wsas just enough to throw him off of me.

From there, I got up from where I was on the floor, and jumped to send an uppercut right to his chin which was enough to send him backwards a few steps.

“GAH!”

That got a proper reaction out of him. Now I could tell that I actually was able to deal some damage.

So much in fact, that Grogar had to stop and rub his hoof against his chin. He gave a light scoff, “...hm,” which I guess could be interpreted as the fact that he was surprised that he could even be damaged. His face said it all. He glared at me with a neutral expression--one that I could only read as ‘not bad.’

Meanwhile, I simply had an internal riot since I knew Cozy was actively at work to disable the tree. Grogar was none the wiser...

Comments

[Neo4K]

😁 Pale vs. Grogar? A spectacle for the ages. And it looks like Pale is holding his own in spite of the ram's power. To quote Han Solo, 'Never tell me the odds.'

[Frazikar]

Pale must also remember that if the enemy is doing what you want, he may another trick up his sleeve to deliver ...