C̸h̷a̵p̶t̸e̷r̵ ̵2̶4̶:̷ ̵H̶y̸b̸r̶i̴d̵s̴
(Warning: A slight description of impalement later in the chapter. Discretion advised)
Upon the sight of the gargantuan behemoth, Pinkie trembled. Starlight stood in shock. And Spike was a simultaneous mix of the two.
The being that they faced was yet again Chrysalis herself. But her appearance was a far cry from how she was when she was last seen not even a few minutes ago. She had grown to a massive size, around as big as Twilight when she was encountered. It didn't stop there, however. The darkness was spread all throughout her body like a web, with massive globs of it here and there. Six faces sprouted out throughout her body, doing nothing more than aimlessly staring with their blank white eyes, grinning widely without reason other than to be sinister, and corruption oozing out of each and every face through the mouths and eyes. Four of those faces were instantly recognized as Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack. The two other faces took the survivors by surprise, being identified as Tirek and Cozy Glow. No explanation was needed... all six of them were assimilated and fused with Chrysalis, having turned her into a horrendous centaur-like hybrid, the entire body continuing to be horrifically deformed and shriveled. The top half of Chrysalis' body was still more like hers, and she retained one of her arms with the creepily long claws at the end, only now the end of the arm was maroon like Tirek's skin. Her other arm had distorted into a massive tentacle with a mashup of colors from everyone she fused with, along with four curved nails poking out of the end. The bottom half of her body had six twisted legs instead of four like the average centaur, and like the tentacle, had different colors all throughout her body. Smaller details persisted throughout her body... one of her changeling wings was instead a wing that was a mix of the cyan and butterscotch colors. Tirek's massive horns grew from Chrysalis' head, and Rarity's unicorn horn could be seen on one of those horns. Out of the mouth of Applejack's face came three tendrils that kept moving impatiently, just desperately wanting to grab something.
The survivors couldn't help but stare at Chrysalis' lifeless face. The magenta and cyan eyes were gone, only one white iris staring at them with an unbreaking gaze. Spike glanced into Chrysalis' agape mouth... three rows of teeth were seen as clear as day.
Spike began whispering the names of the assimilated ones under her breath as the realization crept. "Fluttershy... Rarity... Cozy Glow?..."
“What did Chrysalis do?…” Pinkie squeaked.
"She fused... with our friends... with Tirek and Cozy Glow... all of them..." Starlight muttered.
A slithering laughter came from all the agape mouths, the eruption most prominent from Chrysalis.
“̴W̵e̴ ̶a̶r̴e̵ ̴t̶h̶e̸ ̸H̷y̶b̶r̵i̸d̶…̴”̶ they all hissed. “̴W̶h̴y̸ ̷n̵o̶t̸ ̴j̵o̷i̶n̸ ̶u̶s̷ ̷a̵n̸d̵ ̶l̵e̷t̷ ̷t̷h̵e̸ ̵d̵a̶r̶k̴n̷e̵s̷s̶ ̸c̸o̸n̵s̵u̵m̵e̴ ̵y̷o̷u̸ ̶a̴n̸d̷ ̴y̴o̵u̵r̷ ̵w̴o̵r̶l̷d̴?̴…̶”̷
Starlight pushed forward with an immediate attack, shooting a beam straight for the Hybrid's chest. It instantly vaporized the beam with its own magic and proceeded with an attack of its own. It sent multiple targeted beams for each member of the group, prompting Starlight to quickly summon a protective dome. With no way to hit the target, the beams all crashed into the dome, shattering the dome instantly and causing a force that pushed back the survivors. Both Pinkie and Spike toppled over, but Starlight remained standing.
The Hybrid's horn remained lit, and a tree was quickly uprooted out of the ground and thrown at the group like a javelin. Starlight held it off with telekinesis just in time, the weight of the tree taking a great toll on her weakening strength. She shoved it off to the side, recovering from the strain quickly, and teleported behind the Hybrid, instantly shooting it to the back of the head to get its attention. Her efforts worked, and the Hybrid turned around to again face her.
Starlight's horn shone brightly as she gritted her teeth in both the slight pain coming from her horn, and the determination she refused to let go. She wasted no time, and neither did the Hybrid... both began to attack, magic beams colliding, though the Hybrid's was far stronger, overpowering Starlight's, pushing her beam right back to her. In one final attempt to fight back and avoid losing, Starlight gave it her all, sending the largest surge of magic she could. Although it pushed back the Hybrid’s attack, it persisted and proceeded to approach closer to them. Even with Starlight having used massive amounts of power with no issue at all before, the pain and struggle that she’d experienced the entire night made her magic more susceptible to being overwhelmed and giving out. It did just that, with her beam weakening and the Hybrid’s once again getting closer. Starlight tried again to push it back, but the moment her horn expelled a massive amount of magic yet again, it became too much and exploded in her face, sending her down the trail before the Hybrid’s beam struck her spot, leaving a small hole in the ground.
Spike didn't want to fight. Not just because his friends were practically blended with the Hybrid, but also because in spite of the hybrid being the size of Twilight, it was four ponies, a changeling queen, and a centaur morphed into one, and it gave him a really terrible feeling about fighting it, like he felt it would wipe the floor with him.
His mind was instantly changed when the Hybrid turned back around and stormed close enough to where it could attack Pinkie with its claws, which were raised to swipe. He mustered up the strength to attack the Hybrd with flames, which caused it to back down, but only for a brief moment. Its gaze shifted to Spike, and the dragon suddenly found himself shoved hard up into a tree via magic, pain rippling from his back all throughout his body, especially in the bad wing. He was lucky to have avoided being impaled by any branches, though he felt a scrape having been received from one.
Pinkie scooted back as the Hybrid glanced at her once more. Completely defenseless and without a forearm, all she could do was pick up a small rock and throw it, which she knew wouldn't help her in the slightest.
The Hybrid’s neck snapped to the left, and then the other way, before raising her tentacle and whipping it Pinkie’s way. Pinkie tucked and rolled, avoiding the tentacle as it lashed the ground. Pinkie felt the slightest tinge of something graze the skin on her flank, though it wasn’t far worse than that.
Spike stood up once more. As beaten and weakened as he was, he wasn’t going to leave Pinkie behind. He couldn’t, because she had the gems, nor he wouldn’t, because she was his friend. He scanned down the trail to see if he could see Starlight anywhere. He couldn't see her anywhere, causing his concern to skyrocket.
He wasn't sure on whether or not Starlight was conscious or even okay in general. But he knew there wasn't enough time to wait. In spite of the wing problem, Spike felt like it was up to him to buy time if he was lucky. He couldn’t beat the beast, but maybe he could distract it. He snapped off a piece of branch and chucked it at the Hybrid. As he thought, it didn’t do much, but it did give him its attention as he wanted.
Pinkie took no time to quickly scuttle away. To prevent the Hybrid from going after her, Spike threw another branch, followed by the last of the fire that he could muster up, before only coughing up smoke.
That got her attention, and what she did next made Spike realize that he didn't entirely think things through. Using magic, with the changeling and pony horns igniting their broken fizzling magic and causing an orb of green, blue, and orange to form between the centaur horns, the tree Spike stood on was instantly uprooted. The Hybrid slammed the tree down Pinkie's way, and Spike quickly dove off as it hit. Snaps and crackles were heard as branches were heard breaking.
Spike leaned up. His heartbeat raced, fearing that the worst had happened.
But when the Hybrid raised the tree back up, no sign of Pinkie could be seen. Hope fluttered in Spike's chest as from the corner of his eye, he saw Pinkie pop out from the bushes and quickly limp away.
Relief washed over. Even in the most severe and painful of moments, there would always be a time where Pinkie would just be… well… Pinkie! Even if her jolly personality was gone due to the situation.
But then the Hybrid’s ears twitched like it heard something. Its head snapped to where it heard Pinkie stumbling away. Spike’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks and the relief he felt for Pinkie’s safety was gone in an instant. Its tentacle extended right towards Pinkie, the darkness spreading around it until it was completely covered. It wrapped around her neck, and in the blink of an eye, threw her with massive might. Pinkie's screams grew faint. And then they disappeared.
"PINKIE!"
Like an instant reaction, Spike gave himself away as he reached out and cried Pinkie's name, watching as his friend disappeared among the floating islands. Did she land on one? Did she plummet to the ground below? He had no idea.
But it didn't matter now. He was all alone. Pinkie was gone, and Starlight still hasn't come back.
And now the Hybrid's focus turned to him. Spike couldn't wait any longer. He took off and ran without looking back.
But then a massive roar erupted and something massive landed in his path, a couple of trees in the narrower path instantly crushed. It was the Hydra from above, and Spike finally got a good look at who it was. He shrank as he saw.
The Hydra consisted of the other four Alicorns that weren't Twilight... Celestia, Cadance, Luna... even Flurry Heart. Their wrinkled heads were attached to a singular body by long necks, and the body looked no better.
All four heads roared, and Spike again had to run away. Drops of corruption leaked from the mouths of the Hydra as it stalked closer to Spike, gurgling sounds coming from the throat of Celestia as if she was going to spew corruption from out of her throat. With the size that it was, all it took was one step to get closer.
He had no choice but to turn into the woods, but even that option was instantly taken away from him when another familiar face manifested from out of the blue.
Discord.
A question Spike never knew he had until now was where Discord exactly was the entire time. After all, knowing the danger that surrounded his friends, especially Fluttershy, surely he would have done something about it.
But he should have known that even the Master of Chaos was susceptible to the darkness.
Discord wasn't shriveled, and seemed to be more generic out of the other corrupted ones. However, there seemed to be an odd bulge of the darkness on his back, as if it were hiding something.
Thinking about it didn't matter anyhow. Discord's talons raised up to snap. And both the Hybrid and Hydra were about to attack as well.
Spike braced himself. This was it.
But then he vanished, being teleported away in a blue spark.
Discord, the Hydra, and the Hybrid at first looked around, wondering where Spike had gone, or who was responsible for his sudden disappearance. It didn't take long for them to find the culprit responsible.
Starlight was found hiding nearby.
She teleported Spike away, intending on getting him somewhere very far from where they were. Though with how she felt that her magic’s strength was on its last hooves, she wasn’t sure if he even made it far. She hoped that she could teleport herself away, though when she tried, her horn fully gave out, refusing to glisten even a little. Her head rippled with soreness, her vision blurring. She never thought that she’d get this drained of magic, but the power the Hybrid exerted against her really took its toll on her.
The Hydra and Discord did nothing. The Hybrid on the other hoof took instant action upon seeing Starlight. It reached out to her with its tentacle, and using magic, forced her to fly right into its grasp, two of the tentacle’s barbed nails breaking through her skin. Darkness seeped around her neck, and into the wounds. Starlight felt herself fading.
The Hybrid wasn’t done though. When it saw an exposed tree branch nearby, a sinister idea sparked in its head. In one swift motion, it impaled Starlight on the branch. All Starlight felt was the branch going through her back and severing her spine in two.
And then she blacked out.
***
Spike reappeared on another floating island, one that seemed to have just broke free from the ground and began ascension.
He instantly resorted to panic, looking around, trying to find anyone that was a friend, or even foe… at least so he could know if he had to run.
There was nothing. Just the echo of the rift above and the sound of soil breaking.
He called out Pinkie’s name. Starlight’s too. But again there were no responses.
Spike had nothing to do. He was all alone. He breathed heavy. All of that time breathing fire and using it to fight had caught up to him and his injuries. His throat felt sore and his chest felt empty.
With nothing left now, all Spike could do now was sit at the foot of a tree, curl up, and cry. He lost.
“Spike?”
Spike stopped crying and perked up at the familiar voice. “Pinkie?”
A familiar pink face poked out from behind the bushes.
Spike sprung up onto his feet. “Pinkie!”
He ran to hug her, ecstatic that his friend had returned.
But upon seeing her completely, he stopped.
She was completely fine compared to when he just last saw her. No bruises. No bandages. No scrapes or cuts. No messy mane. And all four of her legs were intact.
“P-Pinkie?” Spike took a step back. He started to grow from confused to concerned.
Pinkie giggled.
“Oh Spike, don’t you recognize little ol’ m̸e̸?̴“
The story’s not over yet.
Also, thanks to this being suggested a couple times, I’m gonna share designs of corrupted characters in the author’s notes. I’ll be updating posted chapters with the designs, but for now, I’ll be showing the Hybrid design here.
Sorry for the wait on this one, but things are gonna keep up the higher pace for the rest of the story. If you have anything to point out for me to edit or correct, then feel free to do so.
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Was really hoping Luna avoided corruption too though..
I am sorry to say this, but the being in constant danger is kinda starting to drag on at this point. It seems like they can't get a break, nor are they any closer to actually beating the Corruption. With all these odds against them, it seems rather hopeless. Still I hope that they can manage to save everyone.
well... Spike's in trouble...
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I think I may be able to get everything else I wanted to include in a singular chapter (the next one). It’ll make it the longest chapter, though I suppose it’s fitting for a finale chapter. Heads-up, a lot is going to go on, but it’s going to be the end of the finale (not the final chapter, but it will be the chapter that shows whether they win or lose).
I’m assuming it’ll feel less dragged on if it’s all in one chapter instead of spread out for another two or three.
11663736
Thanks for the heads up. Also yes, having it in one chapter will make it feel less drag. In any case thank you for making this interesting story.
Starlight's gonna end up corrupted, I wanna assume that the real Pinkie is still around and uncorrupted, and Spike just now encountered what I like to call, Glitchamena, after Starlight teleported him away.
I'm curious as to what will happen next in the finale, the darkness has done all it could, and far more to stop them from stopping its on-going onslaught of corruption from spreading, and might actually win.
It has assimilated the legion of doom, five Alicorns, the elements of harmony, the god of chaos, I would be both surprised, and not surprised if it had resurrected Sombra again, or even got its grasp on the original Grogar, or at least, the magic from his bell.
If there's even anyone else in Equestria, or outside of Equestria even, who isn't corrupted, and think they can stop it, I doubt they stand a ghost of a chance in Tartarus against the Hybrid.
Come on Spike! Fight! You're literally the last hope for the mlp universe!
11663715
11663772
If you know the Darkness from Come and Learn with Pibby, it makes sense that there's no hope for the MLP characters. They shouldn't make it out actually.
Mierda, no quiero que Spike se corrompa, pero ya estoy casi en el final y no creo que sea un final bueno