Two- Edgedby SomeAssembleRequired
Chapters
- Horsegard
- Alliance
- First Lessons
- Decoy
- The Story of the Destroyer
- Ambush!
- Sunny day...
- Trick and treat!
- Rehearsal
- Dark End
Horsegard
In the golden observatory of Horsegard, a brown pegasus in a golden armour stood, with his sword stuck in the summon hole. It was this sword, which opened the Bifrost. Only it and Odin's spear had this ability. Nopony else could open the Bifrost. The pony was Heimdal.
Heimdal's eyes see everything anywhere in this dimension, no matter in which of the 9 realms. His eyes even see the distant realm of Equestria. So it wasn't trouble for the gatekeeper of Horsegard to see and hear Thor and Sif and open the Bifrost, the Rainbow bridge, that allowed the gods of Horsegard to travel to each of the other 8 realms in this dimension. To travel in other dimensions, however, they needed the Tesseract. The last time they saw it was before Loky left Horsegard with a plan to take over the dimension of New Equestria. He must of failed, after he returned here with it. It wasn't going to be a warm welcome in Horsegard. Almost everypony thought Loky for the greatest enemy of Horsegard.
But this obviously wasn't true, because now Thor was protecting him, and he'd never do this if he had no reason. So Heimdal didn't pounce at Loky and cut him to pieces, after the sword went out of the hole and levitated back to him. Instead, he jumped at an unknown pony, who resembled the one, who was the reason the Allfather was worried.
" Hase! " Twilight was worried about the bleeding wound, that Heimdal had opened in the shoulder of the pegasus.
" Argh! " his mane shone in bright red. He was angry.
" Surrender, Vortex. Your plan is insane. " the brown pegasus spoke calm. Heimdal was never reckless.
" Heimdal, that isn't Vortex, it's Hase, my friend and a friend of Horsegard too. " Thor spoke and stopped Heimdal from attacking for the second time.
" Arya OK ? " Applejack asked.
The stalion smiled. This wound would of been nothing for the Extremis to heal. But, strange, he couldn't revert to his earth pony form. What the hay happened here? it turned out, that twilight knew the answer:
" The Princesses said, that a Chaotic would lose all of his other powers, that he got after he was born, after he uses the power of the Void. "
" Does that mean... "
" You can't heal or throw fireballs, or breathe fire. " Wanda finished his profound " Luckily, we don't need it so much. "
' I do. ' Hase thought. This wound was bleeding as hay. Aches got through his whole body and he remembered what it feels like to be wounded again.
" Take him to the healing room! " Sif commanded to the guards, that stood on both sides of the door. They grabbed hase, put him on their backs and walked to the Hornburg.
Twilight had no words . This world... it was amazing! The observatory was made out of pure gold, as all buildings in Horsegard. It had the form of a sphere with a beak in it's end, that faced space. The sky... amazing. Sunset, clouds and stars over them. A multicoloured pathway, that changed in a different colour under the hooves of the different ponies, led to " the Hornburg " as Thor said. This was the stronghold of Horsegard and the alicorn mare had enough time to look at it while they were slowly getting away from the teleportation room and coming closer to the golden miracle. It looked like thousands of golden horns were brought togehter and formed a castle, which was beautiful.
" It's not made for the eyes of the mortals. " Sif murmuled, after she saw Twilight staring at the Hornburg.
" Well, good. Because we aren't mortals. " Pony replied
Sif looked confused. Thor had to tell her the whole story: from how he found them near the lair of the two lords ( hellios and Dusk silencely laughed) of Light and darkness, untill how they found out the origins of his friend, who was currently in the healing room.
" That's an interesting story. " the lady warrior noted, after she had heard it all " It kind of explains your colourful gang. And why Heimdal thought your friend for Vortex. "
" But why is father bringing me back ? " Thor wondered
" You'll have to ask him for the details. I said you everything I know. " Sif replied
" Hey, what happened with " thou arst foul " ? " Pinkie remembered, that when they first met them, Thor spoke with the Royal Canterlot Voice. And now neither he, neither Sif spoke like that. It was confusing.
" Don't wonder, Ms. Pie. As myself, Sif had been sent many times to Midgard... "
" Midgard? " Pinkie had never heard of it. Was it a kind of cake? Maybe a smoothie?
" Midgard is how we call your world. " Sif ended her hopes of Midgard being something to eat.
They were now in front of the huge gates of the Hornburg. Two guards stood on each side. When they saw Thor and Sif coming, they yelled:
" Welcome, Thor Odinson! " and opened the gates.
This hall... was mindblowingly big. 10, 20 or perhaps even 25 trees like the Golden Oak library could easily fit in. The hall was full. When they saw Thor, the ponies greated him with triumphant yelling. In reply he lifted his hammer and Sif lifted her sword. Loky was surrounded by Applejack and the rest of the Mane 6, so he hid succesfully.
Finally, they reached a throne in the end of the room. A pony with a helmet, that resembled Loky's, stood on it. But unlike Loky's armour, which was in bronze colour, and the one of Thor, which had silver colour, this armour was golden. There was also a golden eyepatch on his right eye. And... was that Loky's spear? The one he lost after the commercials, when fighting Landrock? It surely looked the same. And when he hit the floor with it, the hall went silent. Apparently that was Odin.
" Thor. " he spoke " Odinson.
You have spent enough years from your exile in the dimension I sent you to, but you even chose to continue your exile in another one for more than a year. It appears, that you now have new friends, new allies. From now on, they should also be the allies of Horsegard! "
The ponies yelled again and triumphed. But only untill Loky appeared. the hall went silent again, Odin stood up from the throne. some of the guards even got their swords out. Loky spoke:
" Father, I have made a mistake. My new friends... " he turned to Pinkie, who smiled in response. " ... your new allies, had thought me what's right and what's wrong. So now I give away what I've stolen. " he let the Tesseract on the floor and hid behind Pinkie again.
Now Odin smiled.
" I am glad, that you have finally learned your lesson, tough not from me. We welcome you back among us, Loky. "
That's what Loky craved to hear. He was a real Horsegardian again. The ponies triumphed and he lifted his scepter in the air.
But suddenly all the guards took a battle stance. Twilight soon knew why did they do that. A small portal, who emitted dark lightnings in all direction, had open in front of the group. it's inside was completely dark. Something got out of it and it closed. It was Hase, of course.
" Those guards are amateurs. " he said. But when he heard the sound of swords, he raised his head and saw where he was. It was awkward.
' Darn it. Wrong room. ' he thought.
' I thought you couldn't control your powers. ' he heard Emma in his head. She had connected them all together, so that they could think together how to react, without the ponies hearing them.
' After I did it for the first time by instinct, now I can. But I've misread the map. ' he replied.
' Are you insane? ' he heard Wanda yell in his mind. He had to do something. Quickly. So he bowed down and spoke:
" Your highness, forgive me for being late, but your guards didn't let me leave the healing room, altough I am completely alright. My name is Hase, your highness, son of Vortex. "
This would of worked, if he hadn't said the last three words. The ponies started whispered and disscusing, untill Odin hit the floor with the spear again.
" We welcome you, Hase Vortexson. As we've learnt from my son, you are the one, who brought this group togehter. So you would also be our ally. "
This was obviously the end. The ponies went away and the hall was suddenly empty. Only Odin and the group remained.
" So father, what's our mission? " Thor asked
" As you know, there are many dimensions. In some of them there is a realm, that keeps the other realms from falling, because there should be a balance: there shouldn't be two realms with a single ruler. There shouldn't be slavery. And the realms of Horsegard in the different dimensions make sure this never happens. But in Pre- Equestria, once Horsegard fell. There was complete chaos. It rose again. But the skilled spellcasters of the ruler swordspony, called Sabredance, blocked the Horsegardians' access to their Midgard. And now the peaceful land is under his tyranic rule. That should end, because sooner or later, he'll be able to rule the whole dimension. They've stopped him twice, but now... " he turned to Hase " ... he is reinforced by your father. Trying to make allies in case the princesses try to turn him to statue like the last time, he gave some of the wizards chaotic powers. Of course, Sabredance abandoned him after getting what he wanted. And altough your father is strong, he won't be enough. he and the other Horsegardians need you! So go! " the ruler of Horsegard commanded.
The group stood in circle. Thor and Loky put the Tesseract in some weird device. They grabbed a handle from each side and turned them around. the group turned to blue light and went up.
" And good luck. " Odin spoke.
Alliance
This dimension looked exactly like they have expected.Cloudy skies without a sign of sun, big fires, mad thieves and drunk ponies. The usual suspects.
The group was standing on a top of a hill. Nearby there was a little village and a forest on fire. On the horizon, 7 high peaks could be seen. This was a valley, where the tyrans and the evil ruled and there was no such thing as order.
" That's a deeeep hole. " Pinkie spoke
" Huh? " the group went to Pinkie. There was really a deep hole in the hill. It's bottom couldn't be seen.
" I got this. " Hawk fired a flaming arrow in the pit. Everypony looked down. The arrow went further,and further, and further.
" There is no bottom? " Twilight was confused
" Guys, please step away from the pit, Djarvis detected movement. " Stark spoke. The Iron Patriot and the Mark XLII's masks went down. Everypony took a batle position. Something hidious got out of the hole.
" Celestia, what is that? " Dash spoke.
" Fire! " Thor commanded
Everypony attacked the thing. But it was immune to everything - from arrows and punches to lightnings and unbeams. It roared.
" We're doomed. " Stark spoke
Hase stood in front of everypony. The beast was angry at him. The stalion laughed at it and threw rocks at the monster. he taunted. And the monster attacked. But he was quick. Before the monster ever reached it, it turned to shadows and vanished.
" Mind over matter! " he spoke
" Impressive. Few could handle such a beast. " a voice spoke behind them.
When they turned around, there was another group of ponies. A big pony with a red mane and beard, with a sledgehammer, which levitated around him, a smaller pony, again with a red mane, with a little flame on the top of his horn, a black maned unicorn mare, holding blades with her magic, a blonde stalion with clever eyes, holding a sword, and the last mare, which looked very much like Twilight. She neared Twilight. Twilight neared her. They were like twins, the only difference was, that the other mare had an auburn coat.
" Interesting, Mayday. " the smaller red- maned spoke. " She looks like your twin. "
" She's probably just my other dimensional self. " the mare replied " So let's meet. I am May Day. "
" Twilight Sparkle. " Twilight replied
" Vocal Resemblance Detected. Have you been cloning yourself, young heroine? " the smaller red- haired spoke again, this time with a robotic voice.
" Oh, shut up, Loky! " the mare with the blades replied.
" I didn't say anything! " Loky wondered why did they mention his name.
" Oh, so they brought another Loky. Perfect. " the black haired mare said ironically. The bigger red- haired laughed.
" Forge. Just Forge. " he introduced himself
" Forge... a good hammer you have there. " Thor was interrested by the sledgehammer.
" It's Mjolnir! " the red- haired raised it and yelled.
" My hammer? " Thor still didn't believe his eyes. The Mjolnir didn't belong to the Pre- Equestrian Thor?
" Perhaps you're confused. I need to explain. When the skies closed... " he began.
" Ah... rewind that a second back and say it again! " the Equestrian god of mischief interrupted him.
" By " the skies closed " I mean those clouds, " the smith nodded at the clouds " , they aren't just clouds. They are magically enhanced clouds, that block the Horsegardians from aiding us in any way. Back than, the only Horsegardians, that were still here, were Thorse and Loky. They helped us fight the forces of Sabredance, but we were still outnumbered. We lost and Thor got killed. The last thing he did was to entrust me his hammer Mjolnir and to advise me to use it well. "
Soon the groups knew each other. The black maned unicorn mare with the grey coat and the blades was Crescent. Her parents were the greatest fighters in the valley, but they died by the hoof of Sabredance. So she was orphaned when she was only five. She was raised up by a mysterious monk. The next year, when Sabredance striked again, the monk went back to his monastery, together with Crescent. This monastery wasn't just a normal monastery, it's monks worshiped the spirits of the nature. They protected several mysterious magic relics from being stolen and used unproperly. Thus they were masters in unarmed and armed close quarters combat.
Though the monastery was only for stalions, the monks let Crescent among them and trained her to become a guardian. She certainly had a gift, at the end she was better than anypony else in the monastery. But once, an old friend of hers tried to sneak in the monastery and steal the locked relics. At first she was with him, but than she realized, that by betraying the monks she's betraying her family, and than the mare tried to stop him. The stalion tried to fool her by telling how good they could live together, after they give the relics to Sabredance. The fact, that her friend works for the killer of her parents ended her doubting and she fought him, leaving a deep scar on his left cheek. He didn't return anymore. But for her loyalty she was awarded with one of the relics, that her friend tried to steal: the Crescent Moon Amulet.
" It is a mysterious object. " Crescent's melodical voice described the necklace.
" A small crescent moon on the end of a silver chain. Ordinary at first sight, but really powerful. And it's legend is my favourite story... I always went asleep after the monk told it to me. All the relics in the monastery had their stories.
The brothers, spirits of the Sun and the Moon, took turns on the sky for decades. But once, out of the complete darkness, a dark cloud emerged. It covered the sun during the day and the moon during the night. No sun fed the plants and joyed the ponies. And no moon lit up the way of the strangers or revealed the horrible crimes with it's weak light. It was catastrophic. The two brothers fought the cloud, but they didn't achieve anything, the cloud just became bigger and bigger. They went all the way up to the stars to ask the Horsegardians, protectors of peace and order in all of the 9 realms. They knew nothing. Luckily, when they returned, a small snake told them, that they should look for help in the mortal world. Because the same way a snake can sometimes give them a better advice than the Horsegardians, the same way a mortal can help them with their problem.
And so, disguised, the brothers entered the village. Back than, before the rebellion fight, ponies were more hostile and lacked faith. Only two orphan sisters gave them shelter. Days after days, they lived together. Eventually the cloud covered the whole sky. They revealed who they really are to the village, but the village ponies didn't believe it and threw rotten tomatoes at the spirits. But again the two orphan mares trusted them and together with them went to the cloud. With their faith they kicked away the cloud. And they were awarded: the brothers entrusted them two mystical amulets. They didn't make them powerful as the spirits themselves, but still had magic in them: the elder sister received the Sundisk amulet.
Since the sun knows everything, the bearer of the Amulet, if the mare is worthy, can see what bothers the ponies, what they feel, and lighten up the way back . I forgot to mention, but only mares can use this amulet. Mares with faith, that they can change the world. Except this it also boosts the bearer's strength. It gifts both physical and mental powers. Sadly, this amulet is lost from generations and it won't probably be found again.
The younger mare wasn't as confident as her sister, but stll believed, that she can change the world. So she received the Crescent Amulet. Since the Moon doesn't leave darkness hide the villains, that attack at night, the mare, that carries the medalion around her neck, can feel when anything bad or evil nearby, and she can also say when somepony lies. The physical part... it boosts the mare's agility.
But there are also differences between the both Amulets. They both make the mares more powerful, when the symbol of the Amulet is on the sky. So there isn't any way to defeat two bearers together during the day or the night, they can only be defeated during sunrise and sunset. But the younger brother, responcible for the moon, made the medalion adjusted to the younger sister. It takes great controll to learn to use that amulet. As the moon grows, the medalion's powers also grow. It isn't wise to keep the Crescent Amulet on my neck after the moon reaches half of it's size. Not one or two mares went insane from such power. But I am trained for it by the monks. That medalion is stranger than the Sundisk Amulet, because it was also ment to stop the original unsure sister from holding back her powers. Altough it looks weaker, the Crescent Amulet can still be as powerful as the Sundisk Amulet, but requires great controll. One, that even I haven't achieved yet.
Because... we were interrupted. During the last attack, I was in the village together with Forge to protect it. But after the battle ended, there was no home to return to. " the mare wipped off a tear, that ran down her cheek " The soldiers had incinerated the monastery . Sabredance left me an orphan... again. But this time I swore I would have my vengeance. " the black maned finished the story by throwing a small blade at a nearby tree.
" I warn you, my origin story isn't half as thrilling as Crescent's. It is also not that long. " the stalion with the coat, the clever eyes and the sword looked at the two Lokys and Pinkie, who were eating popcorn.
" Go... on. " Pinkie replied between two popcorns.
" My name... is Twister. Perhaps you'll think I summon tornadoes? No. My name comes from that, that when I was young, I enjoyed spinning on the roundabouts. " Spinner " didn't sound well to my father, who was one of Sabredance' generals, so he chose Twister. He thought I'd eventually stop spinning. I did. But I still am pretty nimble in battles. So now comes the story: it was the last attack. I had excellent fencing skills, because I was trained by the best since I could carry a sword. Untill than I didn't want to participate in battles and wasn't old enough anyways. But when I grew, my father insisted, that I will take part in this battle, " the last stand of the rebellion " .
It really was their last stand and no villager, armed whatever with a sword, axe or shield, was match for my jumping and spinning technnique. How could it be that easy? And than I saw, that nopony had it hard. And I also saw the wizard.
That made me mad. My father sometimes called me " the young Sabredance " and planned to ask him for a second sword, a privillege, that only few had, only the ponies, proven themselves excellent in one sword combats. But my dignity told me to make the fight fair. I went to the magician, a short and ugly pony with a hood and slew him as he stood. The battle was now far more interesting, because the ponies proved a real challenge, if not for me, at least for the soldiers.
The night, when we were in the camp, my father was furious. He swore to destroy the whole village, because they have slain his most skillful wizard. But one soldier, fearing the general's rage, told him who really killed the wizard. My dad " went nuts " , as some might say. He challenged me to a fight. I accepted.
I have defeated numerous fencing teachers, so this should of been easy. But it wasn't. My father didn't ever study fencing. And they say " the master doesn't fear the other masters, he fears the beginner, because he'll do something unexpected and the master will fall " . The same case. My father played dirty. It was easy to dodge his swiping sword attacks, but he also used his hooves to make me fall on the ground. I was unprepared for such a dirty duel and I lost.
" Battles aren't fought by rules, son. " he told me, after he made me that scar. Twister lifted his mane. Two long scars, on the two sides of his horn, went all the way down to his eyebrows, crossing like the letter " v " .
It is the stamp of the losers in the army. I was kicked out of the camp. The losers didn't deserve to sleep in there. So I chose a place to sleep. The pain from my scar didn't let me sleep, so I instead took a walk. There was still light, so the view shook me. Hundreds of bodies, just scattered all over the field. Hundreds of vultures were making circles in the sky. I went across the field, horrified. On the end next to the village, there was a pony I recognized. I thought I had killed him. But he was still alive.
" I wont let you to the vultures, pal. " I got him over my shoulder and walked to the village. There were still many ponies on the street. When they saw me, they rushed at me and took both me and the pony to the local healing room. There weren't many injured ponies in there - mostly because most of the injured were also killed. Just Forge and Crescent, who I didn't know yet. Forge had a large wound on his hindleg and Crescent was stabbed by a spear in the left shoulder. I didn't have any injuries, but the nurse insisted, that I stay there, at least so that she could call the relatives of the pony I brought.
" Sol..dier. " I heard a whisper. I turned around. The stalion was making signs. I came to his bed and heared more carefully. The stalion had found energy somewhere in his multiply stabbed body and this time spoke normally:
" Thank you, soldier. Now the last thing I see will be my wife and kids, instead of the vultures, feeding of my body. "
" Don't speak like that, you'll live. "
The pony smiled. He replied:
" I saw you in the battle. You are a good warrior. Do you really believe, that I can live? "
He was stabbed in the chest, in the hooves, in the shoulders, he only wasn't stabbed in the head, The chances weren't big. So I lied:
" I have seen ponies, stabbed twice as much as you. You will live to tell the tale. "
The stalion smiled again. A mare with dark mane ran into the room and hugged the pony. Two small fillies and a colt, a little bit older than his sisters, stood next to her.
This made me think. How many families like this have I left without a father? The mare and the stallion spoke for a minute, but than his eyes closed. Forever. The fillies cried, but the colt and the mare suceeded to hold in their tears. The mare looked at me. She took of her beaver furr coat and put it on me. It suited me perfectly and it was a little big for her. I tried to protest, but the mare put a hoof on my mouth.
" You deserve it... hero. "
This coat proved useful, because it hid my armour, that revealed, that I am a soldier of Sabredance. Forge, Crescent and the other ponies in the healing room have ignored it, but the others may of not.
I decided to end this massacre. I grabbed several viper venom beakers from the shelf of the healing room and took Forge together with me to his smithery. There he heated up the blade untill it went white and I poured the venom in it. It mixed with the metal and now I don't have to kill ponies - I can just hurt them and avoid their attacks untill they get paralyzed.
On the second day I fought on the side of the villagers. Most of the ponies were surprised to see me battle. But eventually, I faced my father again.
" Traitor! Though my son, you shall pay for your betrayal! "
And we dueled for the second time. This time I played dirty too. My sword bounced off his armour, but eventually, I hurt him
.
" What did you put in this? " he asked, while his hind hooves were paralyzed.
After they saw their leader fall, the army fled. But on the next day he avoided me and the army took over the last stronghold of the rebellion. Now Sabredance rules whole of Prequestria. And he is also aiming for Horsegard. " the blonde stalion finished his story.
" And what about you? " Twilight asked May Day.
" Me? I am a daughter of Loky. I realized that, after Loky stopped me from joining the battle, in which Thor died. he trains me magic. He's the best in Prequestria. "
Wanda lifted an eyebrow.
" Perhaps you'll also want to learn from the Scarlet Witchmare? " she asked.
" I'll learn from anypony, as long as he is with me. " May Day replied, which left Wanda glad.
" OK, that's enough flattering and stories. It's getting dark. We need shelter. " Hase spoke " If you want to know our stories, we'll tell them to you. "
" Are you afraid of the dark? " a stalion with dark coat and multicoloured mane got out of the shadows.
" Father. " the pegasus stalion leader nodded.
" It's time to become worthy of your name . Use it or lose it, as your friend says. " the Emperor looked at the War Marechine. " Tommorrow, your lessons begin. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, I'll need your help. "
Both the alicorn princess and the armoured pegasus nodded.
First Lessons
" Time to fly! " Dash spoke and Loky made an electric guitar appear, play one awesome solo, and than dissapear.
" It's a great place to learn how to fly up here. If you fall, and believe me, you will fall, you'll either fall in the forest, or on the grass. So don't worry! Besides your wings are bigger than mine, it should be easy! " Dash tried to calm Hase down, but he was still nevous. He spread his wings, as Dash told him, and waited for instructions.
" That's right, now move them up and down... great, you're doing a great job... " Dash saw, that Hase lifted in the air with the first swing of his wings. But in the air something must of gone wrong, because he fell on the ground. She figured out what's wrong immeadietly.
" You use your right wing more than your left one. Don't do that. Leave the wings do their job. It's in your genes, you'll make it. Remember - don't think! Fly! "
This time Hase did better. He lifted in the sky again and flew 20 feet. But when he tried to turn around, the stalion fell again.
" See? You are getting the basics right! Now, turning around may be tricky. Try something easier, like flying upwards and downwards... " Dash figured out, that she had made a mistake, and turned around to tell him, but it was late, he'd already fly upwards with a great speed.
" Oh boy! Falling from that height can be bad! " Dash prepared to follow him. Tough she wasn't currently wearing the Iron Patriot, she easily caught up with Hase.
" Maybe we shoud try lower for your first time, cowcolt! " she spoke . The pegasus immeadietly stopped and hovered in the air, slowly flapping with his wings for a few seconds.
" What? " the wind had prevented him from hearing the first time
" Well, we should fly a little lower for the f... " she didn't finish her words and he flew downwards, spread his wings, pointing a bit backwards with them, so he'd improve the aerodynamic of his body, and flew downwards with an incredible speed. Before he crushed the ground, he spread his wings and waved them to the front, making him to stop and land smoothly. Dash was surprised.
" That was one hay of a swoop, partner. And it appears you know a thing or two about landing. " she smiled
" I learn from the best. " the pegasi stalion replied.
" Now let's try that turning, that troubled you earlier! " Rainbow lifted in the sky again and was followed by Hase.
" It will be better to do it fast. The faster you fly, the easier is turning around, to left or to right. So build up some momentum... " she said before she flew incredibly fast. The stalion followed her again, and even reached her. But he couldn't fly faster. And she could.
" Now! " Dash yelled, so he'd hear her " Tilt your body to the side you want to turn to! "
Hase suddenly tilted his body sharply to the left and turned . Rainbow was faster than Hase, but this manouver proved to be challenging for her smaller wings, because Hase' big wings balanced him better than hers. So after she felt challenged and tried to turn this way too, she fell in the forest.
" Alright? " he hovered over her and stretched his front hooves to her. But she could get up herself too. She smiled:
" Alright. " Dash nodded " You won't get away that easily! "
After half an hour Hase and Dash were still flying, and the cyan pegasus was explaining how to deal with currents. The stalion was listening carefuly. So carefuly, that he didn't notice the flock of pigeons, that flew directly towards him and Dash, building up speed because of the current Dash and Hase were currently fluing against. Dash dodged them, but they striked upon Hase with great speed and knocked him out. He fell.
" Hase! " the pegasus mare yelled and flew after him. He was heavier and fell down pretty fast.
' There's not enough time! ' she thought.
30 feet, 20 feet, 10 feet... the land was coming closer. Even tough bellow there was grass, falling from that height could of been fatal. Dash wished, that she had asked Stark to put one of the awesome remote- controls in her suit, but sadly it wasn't so. She had said, that she wanted the suit only for herself.
Than something strange accured. 3 feet over the ground Hase' eyes opened, revealing, that the circles around his eyes flickered in different colours, like his mane and tail. He suddenly stopped and levitated 2 feet over the ground, with his mane and tail floating like there's no gravity. It didn't last for long- after two seconds the stalion fell on the ground, not having any injuries.
" Well, that's strange. According to my scanning magic, altough you don't have a horn, the energy of the magic still flows through you." Twilight spoke as she finished scanning the son of Vortex
" That's unusual. There are only three cases of ponies being able to use magic without horns, but they had their horn absorbed by their skulls. Usually these ponies weren't able to use any magic, and if they used, which happened sometimes, there was a large chance for it to backfire. But a pony being able to use magic with his whole body.. I have never heard of such thing. Even if something like this had existed earlier, it does not explain how it triggered while you were unconcious, without Vortex or me interrupting. The only explanation to it, is that unlike in most of the unicorns and alicorns, in fact in all of them, the magic is bond not only to your conciousness, but also to your unconciousness.
If that's really so, than magic will prevent you from getting killed while unconcious. You may not have an idea how to use normal magic, which I'll learn you if you wish, but while you're unconcious your body will protect itself from getting destroyed. I highly doubt it would protect you from any harm, but you won't die, while you can't protect yourself. "
" Than I wish to learn magic. " Hase replied
" Alright. " Twilight smiled " Lift that feather. "
There were enough of feathers around, aftter Hase had bumped into the pigeon flock, so the stalion closed his eyes and concentrated. Surrounded by a multicoloured oreol, the feather slowly lifted an inch over the ground, but than fell again. The pegasus looked sad, but Twilight encouraged him, so he tried again. This time the pegasus suceeded to lift it to the level of his eyes, but something unexpected happened. The feather dissapeared and a horrible sound, that sounded like the scream of a banshee, made Twilight, Dash and Vortex cover their ears. There was also a small shockwave. But the feather had dissapeared.
" Errr, don't try this with me, okay? " Dash asked. The pegasi stalion nodded.
" OK, let's first try to teleportate, and than we'll try the trick with the feather again.
Hase dissapeared in shadows and appeared behind Twilight.
" No,no, no, that are your Chaotic skills, don't mix the two things up. Try to imagine how you dissapear and re- appear without entering the Void. " Twilight said
The pegasus closed his eyes again. The second before he vanished the air shook. Than strong light appeared on the other side of the lawn, emitting the distinctive teleport sound. The shockwave broke the nearby rock.
" I figured out your problem - you use too much energy! Use less and stuff won't blow up! " Twilight recommended.
Hase took that advice. This time he didn't close his eyes, but just looked at a feather, which immeadietly lifted to the level of his eyes. This time it didn't blow up and the stalion succesfully put it down.
" That's it for today. " the purpe alicorn proclaimed.
It was time for Vortex to go take the role of a teacher. He spoke :
" The Void gives the Chaotics amazing powers, as you already know. It can overwhelm any magic. If you are tired while using normal magic, the energy of the Void may fuel you up again. You can form this energy in all kinds of different attacks. Because the Void is everything, it's potential has no limits. With it you'll be able to heal way faster than with a normal healing magic. With it you can attack more deadly than with any normal attack spell. The shield made out of it won't be breached, unless if there is a pony, who is even more trained in the powers of the Void. You can use it's power for basically everything, but you should never underestimate it's powers. You should never try to consume the whole power of the Void, because a single pony body would never hold such huge power. You should also be careful for what and to what or whom do you use it, because unlike with magic, there's no counter spell. Now show me what you've got. "
Hase showed his only Chaotic skill to his father: he dissapeared in shadows and re- appeared two feet further.
" It's a useful skill, called " a primal portal " . " Vortex commented " It's a more primitive version of the other portals, because there are no walls. You walk through the Void and than exit it. This kind of portal should never be used for a long distance travel, because there is a chance, that the Voidians take you off your way and you'll remain in the Void.
Luckily, somehow we don't summon Voidians all the time. I bet it's a work of Celestia. She had probably enchanted my crown and it's an artefact, is that right? Of course, that it is. I guess i'll still have to live in hatred, after all. But while in the Void, the voididans will still find you, so don't use this spel for travelling more than a few feet. This spell can also be used as an attack spell, called " Dark Void " . Use it. "
Vortex brought together a pile of rocks to a pony, made out of rock. It rushed at Hase, but he knew what he had to do. The rock pony dissapeared in shadows. The rock creature struggled to get out and was obviously in strong pain, but finally the Voididans dragged him in and Hase closed the portal.
" Brilliant! " Vortex was happy. " Now we're playing! "
Vortex continued creating ponies of rocks and Hase either breaked them appart with Shadow Bolts, Balls or Blasts, or made them sink into the Void. Once he even enchanted a rock pony's front hoof, it punched itself in the face and turned to pieces.
" Improvising, that's good! " Vortex said on the end of the training. " But you need to rest, my son. And remember, imagination and improvisation are the key! "
Meanwhile Dash and Twilight were speaking on the other side of the lawn, so that the father and the son wouldn't hear them.
" Wait, what do you mean? " Dash asked
" The potential of his body is somehow... amplified. According to some of my books, the unicorns can only wield 40% of the magic, that their body can fuel, and the beginner alicorns - 60%, and eventually bringing it up to 100% with hundreds of years of experience . With Hase it is different. It is like somepony had already modified him to be able to use the full potential of his body. If you need an example, it's like an alicorn being born with 500 years of experience. Of course, experience isn't only power, power is only one part of it, but ... "
" You mean, that Hase currently has the same power potential as, for an example , Luna? "
" No, of course! Luna has 2000 years of experience, and Celestia has 3000, but he's about the power level of Cadence, without counting the power of Love. He would lose the battle against her, but this battle would leave her weak. And let's also not forget the power of the Void. With it... if I learn Hase how to perform magic, after probably a month he might become my teacher, instead of the opposite. And except that magic follows his will surprisingly easy. His magic potential isn't like anything I've seen. "
" So... who do you suspect? Is it Vortex? " Dash looked at the dark emperor.
" I doubt it. Such thing must be done while the pony isn't yet born. We know, that Vortex had only arrived to see his son right after he was born. And also amplifying the power of a pony might prove fatal for that pony and Vortex wouldn't risk losing his only foal. I am still riddled. "
Dash looked at Hase. The ponies of stone had no chance against him.
" Hase... what have they done to you? "
Decoy
Hase could of trained forever, he craved to finally be able to fully use the potential of his new body, but the intelligence brought bad news.
" We've got trouble. " May Day spoke " Sabredance' soldiers are coming this way. They were alarmed from that blue beam of light. Among them there are wizards, armed with dangerous enchantments "
" What do you mean ? " Twilight had heard from Twister, that all of the villagers are earth ponies or pegasi. What did she mean? " Enchantments "? Peraphs those were some relics or something.
" They are armed with the Word. " the Pre- Equestrian Loky answered.
Word? A word wasn't able to stop them. They were just going to stun those, who tried to attack, and go on, Twilight thought. But according to May, it wasn't going to be so simple:
" Not a word, the Word. It is a force, mainly used by the servants of Sabredance. Three years ago Sabredance' wizards revealed, that if you say all the names of a pony and power those words with magic, the pony's energy would be drained and the pony would remain weak and vulnerable. "
The Equestrian Thor laughed at her :
" Than thou should depend on us, he couldn't possibly know our names. "
And he was right. How could he know the names of the Equestrians, after they weren't from that dimension?
" Their ability to haunt ponies' minds had probably already allowed the magicians to study us from miles away. They aren't able to get in our heads, but they probably already know your names and have added them to their Enchantment books. " May Day answered Thorse and left the group wondering what to do now. The group's members had many different powers, but if they weren't able to use them, they were going to lose.
" We'll strike fast before they have the chance to use it! " Rarity suggested.
It wasn't a very good plan, but they had no choice. Nopony else had a better one. It was time to move.
" The demons will arrive soon. Be ready to use the Word. " Dark Oreol commanded.
The soldiers were always afraid of the demons, those, who wielded magic. Before Dark Oreol was a pawn of Sabredance, he was the mightiest free spellcaster in whole of Prequestria, but the united strength of 10 wizards had forced him to give up.This was actually good, because Sabredance made him the commander . Even if he died in this battle, which wasn't going to happen, because they would catch the demons and their back - up before they even saw them, the others were going to ressurect him again.
The group of soldiers was hiding in the bushes next to the road, that was near the forest. He knew the demons would probably set up an ambush in there, waiting for them to come from the village. But they didn't know, that those ponies, each one with an Enchantments Book, opened on a different page, each one containing different names of a pony from the group, waited in the bushes. And finally, as Sabredance had predicted, the demons went out of the forest.
" Where are they? " the Equestrian Thor was confused.
" I don't get it.... they should of been here! " May Day was even more confused. But the Pre- Equestrian Loky saw something move in the bushes, threw a fireball at it, and yelled:
" It's a trap! "
The soldiers jumped on the road and read from the books. The group agonyzed. Each pony heard only the spell, that was ment for him or her. Twilight heard:
" I name you Twilight Sparkle, Daughter of Magic, Trinity Stars, Master of Books, Owner of Dragons... "
The equestrian Thor heard:
" I name you Thor Odinson, Son of Odin, God of Thunder, Wielder of Mjolnir, Brother of the Traitor... "
And Pony Stark heard:
" I name you Pony Stark, the Iron Stalion, Visionaire, Playboy, Fillanthropist, Billionaire.. "
' At least it's accurate. ' he always succeeded to find the good side of the things.
But Vortex was in much greater pain than anypony else, because he had many names. Dark Oreol smiled, as he read the Summoning Spell, personally designed for him:
" I name you Vortex, the Dark Emperor, Father of Horror, Destroyer of Worlds, Ruler of Darkness, Creater of Chaos, Constructor of Havock, the Mad King, Horror of Stone... "
The wizard smiled. The spell worked. All of the ponies fell on the ground. Except one.
Hase was still standing. The pony, who read his spell, wasnt the best reader, which allowed him to fuel himself with energy from the Void. He even managed to knock out some of the soldiers. But after the others were knocked out, all of the ponies read his spell. The pegasus was still feeding the spell with energy from the Void, but too much energy went through his body. It was going to rip it appart and open a huge hole in this dimension, that led to the Void.
He couldn't let that happen. Nopony, innocent or guilty, should die only because he wasn't able to deal with some soldiers. The stalion stopped the transfer and immeadietly felt how the Word consumed his vital energy. But Hase had something crazy in mind. Instead of just shutting the prtal, he used his body as a container for the power of the Void, but prevented the Word from consuming it by protecting it with his personal energy. Luckily for him, soon his body was filled up with that energy. If he held it inside, the stalion would fall apart. So Hase released it.
He was never good at reading. Dark Oreol cursed himself for taking him. Now the son of Vortex was somehow withstanding the power of the Word. Oreol really felt how the Word was consuming some kind of energy, but it wasn't the energy of his victim. That made him angry. If the pony hads some kind of an energy reserves, this would of lasted forever. But luckily, soon the Word started feeding of his personal energy. The unicorn smiled. Nothing can withstand the Word. But something wasn't right. The pony's body emitted darkness. He realized what's wrong too late.
Hase released the energy. A huge shockwave blasted the ponies away. The dark wave produced a horrible sound when it was released. At first the pegasus thought, that he failed, and that this was the sound of a dimension tearing appart. But he had succeeded. It surely was risky and he'd never repeat it. But this energy transfer he used to remain concious gave him an idea how to fuel his friends up. He touched them one by one and let the energy of the Void flow through him and rip them off their unconciousness.
Vortex needed to know how Hase had done it. When his son reached the part with the shockwave, he went cross and spoke:
" You have saved us, I admire. But this was a very foolish way to do it. This spell is called " The Void's materia " and it should be your last resort. As you know, energy can convert to matter and vice versa. When you fill up your whole body with the energy of the Void, if you don't release it fast enough, you risk to fall in the Void and an equal amount of it's materia to replace you and open a hole in the dimension. Before you release it, all of the energy nearly becomes matter inside you. After you release it, that energy, which was very dense before that, in order to materialize, spreads in a powerful shockwave. It's a very efficient way to knock out your enemies, but I wouldn't suggest using it again, unless it's a very tough situation. "
After that they went to the soldiers. All of them were knocked out, only Oreol was still concious. When he saw the group, he smiled. Though the Iron Stalion engaged his missile system and both Thor and Forge threathened him with their hammers, he still smiled. He spoke:
" Go ahead, kill me. My wizards will ressurect me again and I'll be stronger than ever! " than he spat at the Equestrian Thor.
The others let Hase go to the pony. He deserved it. The mad earth pony smiled again. Everypony could see, that Hase' mane was glowing in gushing red. They haven't seen anything so red before. Even than Dark Oreol smiled and said:
" Oh, are you angry? Kill me than! "
" You don't deserve such mercy. " Hase replied. That made everypony shivver.
" You'll slowly sink into the Void, feeling inpony pain every second of it, untill your whole body is fed to the Voidians. "
Now the Mane 6, the Avengers, the Lords and everypony else were shocked. Hase was trying to redeem himself ever since he knew, that he was the son of Vortex. They didn't even suspect, that he was able to do such horrible thing. But he did it in front of their eyes. Oreol slowly sinked into the Void, screaming and yelling like an animal. Fluttershy covered her eyes and cried, Applejack put the shield in front her eyes and try to ignore the horrible screams. Everypony else also covered their eyes. Bone hands, horrible claws and all other kinds of horrible things held Oreol and slowly dragged him. After whole 5 minutes Oreol's head finally sunk into the portal and Hase closed it. Twilight neared him and spoke:
" Hase... it was .... wrong what you did. Why did you do it? "
After the stalion turned around, for a second Twilight thought, that it wasn't Hase. With his red mane waving behind him and his eye rings in the same colour, reflecting his euphoria, Hase didn't look like himself. He spoke:
" He deserved it. It was a bit extreme, I know, but it was the only way to take him off our way. "
" You... did it because of us? " Twilight was confused. The stalion nodded.
" I did what was necessary. And I also repaid him. Vengeance. " he looked at the Ghost Biker.
" What's that? " the mask of the Iron Patriot, that came down, so that Dash couldn't see the horrible murder, lifted again. And there was really something next to Hase. A weird object, that looked like a snake, that had curled up, , levitated next to him. Vortex looked at it for a second. It appeared, that he knew what it was, because his mane showed, that he was very worried. He neared the object and looked at it's handle. It had a handle, because it was... a whip. Nopony had seen that whip coming, it had just materialized. After he looked at the handle for a second, he stepped back. His worst nightmares were real.
" Emma told me, that during that horrible thing you did, your mind looked like it was on fire and she couldn't stay in for more than a second. Tell me, son, does this whip feel like a part of your mind? " Vortex asked Hase.
The young pegasus closed his eyes. The whip uncurled and slashed through the air. But instead of sound of a whip slashing the air, the ponies heard something, that sounded like thousands of ponies were screaming. If it was loouder, it was going to sound like if there was a great battle nearby, but the sound was still horrible. After that Hase opened his eyes and continued slashing.
" Y... yes. " he replied.
" Tell me, does it fell like when you are angry, when you use that whip? Each time you slash through the air with it? "
" Y... yes. "
" You have brutally slain an enemy. Perhaps it was necessary and I would of done the same. But guided by your rage, this had found you. It should of never existed and it was thrown to the Void. But we must never forget, nothing bond with the Void gets lost in it. We just hoped it would never find it's way back. We didn't think somepony can be so angry, that it would shine like a beacon even through the Void. But you were so angry. And it had found it's new Master. " Vortex spoke. His mane was dark, it reflected his grief.
" What's "it " ? " Twilight looked at the whip. It looked way more sisnister than any other weapon she had seen. It wasn't completely dark, weak shades of light ran across it. And it's handle... this was a very weird spell, that had crafted it. Battle scenes of a monster- like pony brutally slaying whole armies of other ponies, as Hase did a minute ago, were projected in her mind. This wasn't an ordinary whip.
" And now you are the new Master ... of the Whip of Rage! "
The Story of the Destroyer
This weapon had appeared out of nowhere, after Hase... well, let out his anger and made Dark Oreol, the leader of the soldiers, slowly and painfully sink into the Void. Vortex told them, that it's name was the Whip of Rage. it surely sounded sinister, and it looked sinister too. The fact, that it was connected to Hase, was the only thing, that stopped the Avengers and the Elemental Lords from trying to destroy it. They blamed it for Hase' behaviour. But Vortex replied, that his behaviour summonned it, it wasn't caused by it, and the whip was indestructible for some reason. He said, that he will explain later, when they set up a camp.
Meanwhile Hase was studying the whip. No matter, that it's appearance " wasn't good " according to Vortex, the yet unexperiened pegasus still trained on the way to the camp. While the magic drained his strength, and you had to be very careful when using the Void, using this whip was easy. he just controlled it with his mind. Each time when it slashed and touched something, that thing dissapeared in black mist. That was a powerful weapon and Hase thought, that it may become his personal weapon, like Thor's Mjolnir and Loky's scepter. But Vortex said, that it was " way more mysterious" than them. So finally they reached a place, which was perfect for a camp.
There was a hotel in the nearby passage, but it was going to be strange for such a colourful group to enter the hotel and the owner would probably call the soldiers. Loky suggested to set up " Lucky's circus for freaks and incredible ponies " to excuse the behaviour of some of the gods and the Avengers. They didn't want to participate in a circus ( but still the Pre- Equestrian and the Equestrian Loky worked together and made a slogan : " Circus Lucky is here with all of your favourites, like Mr. Muscle and the Queen of Knives, but that isn't all! Meet Electro, the thunder bender, Tin Stalion, the half - pony with the sence of humor, The Chill - Hot brothers and Whiplash! " ) .
After they set up the camp, all got around the fire and looked at Vortex. Hase was even staring, his future depended on that story.
" Equestria is one of the few dimensions, that have existed twice. " the Dark Emperor began
" Me and my brother lived in those days. It's us who re- created it after our dimension was destroyed. This story is mainly about the pony, that began as a normal unicorn, slowly rose up and brought Equestria to it's doom. Nopony knows how he was named before he turned evil. Well, except me and Primal Shine. So let's start from the beggining.
Azure Spark was a normal unicorn. He was even afraid from magic, so he instead learned the art of the blacksmiths. he was good and soon was as good as his master. Back in those days, Equestria was a completely different land. if you ever end up there, which is now impossible, you won't find anything in common with the existing Equestria, because we re- created it without so many complicate things, as the Oracles, for an example. If there weren't oracles, this story would of never happened.
But in our village, and in every other one, there was a tradition: when the foals become teens, when they become older, each pony should go to the Oracle and ask for its fate. And so did Azure Spark. When he saw him, the Oracle nearly fell off his throne. I have forgotten his rhymes, but the Prophecy said, that he shall be the greatest sorcerer of them all, greater even than the king, but he shall fall from his own sword. he, of course, got scared and melted all of his swords.
Except one. One of them his master kept as a memory from his best student. But the colt didn't know that. Now he wasn't afraid of magic and went to the local sorcerer, who was my brother, accidentally, " Vortex smiled " , and he learned magic. He studied for years, and years, untill when he was 20 he left to the palace in ... "
" Canterlot ? " Rarity interrupted him
" No, the capital city's name was Banastor. There he continued to study at the Royal Magic Academy. And... the Prophecy became true: in a magical duel between the king and Azure, who had became his personal advisor, Azure won. Nopony else had defeated the ruler before. The king was also surprised. So when he passed away, 2 years ago, he left the kingdom to him. But one day the royal duties proved too challenging for him and he went out for a walk in the forest, where he was suddenly attacked by a dragon. He repelled it with his magic, but on the next day Azure made an audition and told the ponies of Equestria to kill all of the dragons.
The unicorn was impulsive and volatile. The ponies refused and some of them even tried to attack the king and get him off the throne. That was it. He hired mercenaries and sent them to kill all the dragons and their supporters. When the ponies knew, that he slayed his folk, the ponies stood up against him, led by the son of the king, the rightful heir of the throne. All races : unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, dragons, gryphons and crystal ponies united against him. Even the changelings came from an another dimension and took the side of the rebellion. The only race, that was on the side of the king, were the minothaurs, because Azure had promised them land. The unicorn knew, that even his guards were on the side of the rebells and feared for his life every night. So he did the only thing he could do: he became a Chaotic.
Because he was a powerful wizard, he was also a powerful Chaotic. The rebells had surrounded the castle. He killed the guards. And than in a single battle, reinforced by Voidians and minothaurs, he killed, no, he destroyed all of the rebells. that's the scene on the handle of the whip. Because he was the first Chaotic in this dimension, nopony had an idea how to stop him.
The army of the Void was infinite. The rebellion had no chance. They say, that in this battle Azure himself had slain thousands of ponies with his new powers. And than something unseen happened. After he defeated them all, Azure changed. No bath could wash away the stains of blood, which covered almost his whole skin. And his cutie mark... changed. Now it was a pony skull with a rusty sword and a broken spear crossed behind it. Nopony called him Azure Spark anymore. Now he was the Destroyer.
But you can never break the rebellion spirit, and he knew that well. So he did something even more horrible in the days after that . He forged... the Weapons of Devastation. Each weapon or piece of equpment was bont to a deep feeling, granting tremendous power, and thus the Destroyer was able to controll everypony and everything with these deadly weapons, bont to his mind.
First there was... the Whip of Rage. The Destroyer removed all of the memories of the screams of his victims during the battle, with the help of the power of the Void, turned them to real. The screams echoed through his forge room, which was inside the highest tower and in it's bottom there was an opening to the Void. Again, using the Void's materia, he closed those screams and a huge amount of dark energy, in a normal whip. It became dark, it linked to his mind and weak shines of light, the screams, caught inside, ran across it's surface. There are rumours, that inside the whip the souls of the earth ponies, who the Destroyer killed, are closed forever. And sadly, those rumours are true. If there were only screams in there, this weapon wouldn't be so deadly. No, his pony victims are still in there and look for revenge. But the whip is built this way, that the angry souls would never see the Master of the Whip. With the decades and centuries, the dark energy soaked them and unified with the Void, they are now equally evil with their previous Master. A perfect weapon for a dark ruler, but if it comes to you, my son, it isn't a good sign. "
Vortex looked at Hase. He was horrified from the whip he held. he tried to throwp it, but it was impossible. The weapon, soaked in thousands of ponies' blood, was now part of him.
" He used a different feeling for every weapon. The pegasi never liked him, even before. Some of them even bullied him, and most of them were always his horrible boss. But now he had his revenge. The Bow of Vengeance was a broken bow that he found after the battle. He ripped off every feather of every pegasus wing he found. With the power of the Void, he turned the feathers to an unbreakable rope, which replaced the bow's lost string. The angry souls, that ran across the bow, made the wood turn to a black metal, again unbreakable. And soon the power of the Void corrupted these souls too, This is how all of the weapons, except maybe for the spear, look like: they are dark with weak light ranning across them.
The most powerful of the four weapons of the Weapons of Devastation, because in this list there are also a robe, a shield, and an armour, is the Spear of Hatred.
The Destroyer felt betrayed from his own race, the unicorns, so he punished them more cruel than any other race: he cut off the horns of all of the fallen unicorns as battle trophies. this is forbidden in any civilized dimension since than. they say, that the unicorn will awake from his death only to feel how his horn is being cut off and than die in pain.
But this was welcome for the dark ruler, he wanted them to see who is killing them. Again in his forge tower, he united all of the horns in a single 5 feet long horn. With the help of the forging magic of the Void he put 3 sharp spikes on the top and on the bottom part a single spike, full with the poison of the Void. The Void corrupted these souls too, because they were helpless, but the horn kept it's original colours and has all the colours of the rainbow. There is always a ball of magic on the top, where the end of the horn and the three spikes' tips nearly touch each other, ready to launch a deadly spell, or form into a magical spear top when you throw it.
But the most combat- efficient weapon is the Berserker Mace. Originally a normal spiked mace, after it was fueled up with the souls of the defeated gryphons, it grew in size , it's spikes covered in poison and it held the Art of War... "
" Art of War ? " Twilight was confused.
" Yes... the Destroyer harnessed the hunter's feeling, when he hits the prey, the soldier's triumph, when he slays the enemy, the primal bloodlust, without which a being, who fought in numerous battles, can't live. It is... the Art of War. Anypony, who uses this mace in combat, will be led by his blind bloodlust, like the ancient warriors, called berserkers. The reaction is even stronger than the one of the Whip of Rage. The warrior will just rush through the enemy's army and kill anything he sees. "
The fire went out. Blaze lit it up again, but it was weak. The fear from this story affected even the Lords.
" And those are only the weapons, altough these relics are called the Weapons of Devastation, only half of them are actual weapons. There is an Armour, a Robe, a Shield and... a Helmet. "
" Wait a second, that makes 8 Weapons of Destruction in total. And the races, who fought against him, are Earth Ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi, Gryphons, Dragons, Changelings and Crystal Ponies. Totally 7. What does the last weapon stand for? " Dash asked. The ponies thought for a second. Dash's math was right. There was an extra weapon, that wasn't created by any race.
" You'll see... " Vortex frowned " I'll start with the armour, the Armour of Extinction. After the battle, the Destroyer forfilled his dream - he hunted the dragons untill the last one. They went extinct and never appeared untill me and my brother re- created Equestria. From each killed dragon he took the most thick scale. The last dragon scale was bloody red. And that was the colour of the Armour. Dragon scales cannot be breached by no arrow or sword and combined with power from the Void, the Armour could also not be pierced by no magic. The perfect armour for a dark lord. Now he would walk across his kingdom without fearing hidden archers or armed bandits. "
' Spike won't like this story. ' Twilight thought
' Absolutely ' Emma replied in her mind.
" The Changelings... their fate wasn't better. After ripping off all of their wings, he threw their bodies in the Void and fed the Voididans. He summonned all of the kingdom's best weavers and forced them to weave his new robe from the wings. Millions of innocent ponies' tears fell in the robe, untill it was finally ready. It looked scruffy, but with the power of the Void the Emperor gave it a new design: now it had the perfect length, the nearly- transparent robe with a dark colour and colours runnning across it like a soap bubble.
And when somepony, that didn't deserve to die, tried to kill the Destroyer, the ruler just smiled and the robe magically went in front of him. In there, because of the tears, that fell in during the weaving, the pony only saw his bad sides, multiplied million times and showing the pony as a cold- blooded assasin, if he hunted to feed his family, a shameless whorse, if she had the most pure love for her husband, a master thief, if he had chopped wood from the forest and many other things, which power didn't came from darkness, but from the very soul of the pony, who faced the wicked Robe of Illusions. The good things reflected as bad, and were than multiplied million times. The pony fell on it's knees and begged the Destroyer to kill him or her and save the world from such a villain. A wish the ruler gladly forfilled.
But... if the pony was bad, really bad, the robe reflected him as a national hero, an owner of a house, that keeps the homeless ponies off the streets, slayer of monsters, threathening the village, generally, a great person. The person keeps his twisted view of things and joins the Royal Guard, believing, that he is saving his homeland. That is the most treatorous of the Weapons, because it's twisted mind won't kill you, but simply show you the path to your doom, convincing you, that it's the right way. Only the closest friends of the Destroyer weren't affected by this. Luckily, this means, that if you, my son, somehow find that Robe, it won't affect us. But we'll still see what the pony, that faces the robe, sees, in this cloak.
The Shield of Horror isn't so evil as the Cloak of Illusions, but still can be deadly. It reflects all of the fears of the ponies, who stare at it. It was first created by an old, rusty shield, but in his tower the Destroyer filled it up with the fear of the weak crystal ponies, who even these days are extremely vulnerable to the fear. That's why King Sombra suceeded to rule them. They are peaceful and the horror of the war was too much for them. And when the tyran let the cloud, which reflected everypony's worst fear, this broke them. And this cloud was later put into this shield, turning it's colour to pitch black. It's the one of two weapons from the pack, that doesn't have sparkles running across it's surface. It's completely dark and leaves a shadow as big as a tree. The more gentle and kind ponies will always fell threathened around it, even if they are the wielder's closest friends. "
Fluttershy shivvered. Dash went closer and told her something. She smiled and green sparkles appeared in her eyes for a second.
" And now we reached the answer to Dash's question: why is there a weapon extra? It wasn't part of the original Weapons. It was created years later: the Destroyer had this beatiful dimension only for himself. But soon holes appeared in this dimension and ruined the walks of the tyran, expecting to see beatiful nature, instead seeing holes in his dimension. Holes that led to the Void. He knew whose fault it was: the Voidians. Since the victory they fed off his dimension. He gathered all of them and commanded them to leave. Of course, the last thing a Voidian in a dimension would do, is to return to the Void. The Voidians laughed at him. They were an entire army, a single Chaotic couldn't force them return to the Void.
But this made the Desroyer angry. With his weapons he attacked the Voididans, slaying all of them, who didn't retreat to the Void. Luckily, he had also slain his own Voidian, and lost his chaotic powers. But he still wielded the Void, because the Weapons of Devastation are all Chaotic Artefacts, that however kill a pony, who holds them, but hasn't been a Chaotic. The Voidians cursed him and reminded him, that he shall fall under his own sword. But he wasn't listening. He was rushing to the forging tower to create a new weapon from the bodies of the Voidians, before they dissapear. At first he wanted something big, but the quickly dissolving matter was only enough for a helmet, the Helmet of Supremacy!
The last piece of the puzzle. Once it was forged, it stopped dissolving, but it is still unclear to see. Dark smoke surrounds it and falls from it,. You can see, that it reaches a pony's nose in the center and even guards his neck. There are spikes, also covered in dark mist, on it's top, but nopony can see through this fog. It will only be visible on the head of the greatest villain of them all. This helmet makes the ponies, that aren't close to the wielder, think how tiny they are, how weak are they, it hides their potential from them and makes them believe, that they are born to serve the great and powerful ruler, so much more powerful than them. The wielder can also perform a very different form of primal portal spel, called " Shadow Whisper "
Only the name of the spell made the fire grow weaker. The darkness became more dense and the ponies could swear, that they heard an old voice, whispering on an unknown language.
" The pony turns into Chaos and can travel fast like a Voidian. When it looks at himself, he or she will look like a Voidian and other Voidians will just pass by. He or she can stay as long as he/she wishes, but the pony also feels where it is in the dimension. The Chaotics, who had seen it, describe it as a pony- like Voidian, surrounded by black smoke, who moves with an incredible speed, like all Voidians. Whoever is near it, hears a horrible voice whispering. It tells them how small they are, how weak they are. If the bearer is interested, he can stop there and continue to whisper, untill he loses her or his will to live, because it's convinced, that a pony's life is such small and inimportrant thing, that it's death won't change anything. Actually if used, the helmet makes the pony a hybrid of a Voidian and a pony, while in use: it becomes fast as a Voidian, but it doesn't need to feed off the dimension, but it will still feel good, when he or she unleashes the Shadow Whisper upon somepony. It has the instincts of the Voidian, the pony can feel the life in his victims. This pony can even travel through the Void for a very long time, but unlike the Voidians, can enter the dimensions. To non- chaotic ponies the bearer is invisible, they just feel small like an ant when the pony passes by. This was surely the most dangerous weapon in the Destroyer' s arsenal.
You probably wonder, how have I and my brother defeated him? Well, it isn't impossible. If the pony is smart and uses more tactics, like Hase, he would surely be invincible, but if it's like the Destroyer, hungry for blood and running to every possible fight, it is possible, that he loses.
The blacksmith, who once taught Azure Spark how to forge weapons, was almost dead. Before he died the smith cursed himself for teaching the colt how to forge and the Oracle for his prophecy. If only those things didn't happen, Azure Spark would remain a normal unicorn, instead of becoming evil and forging those evil Weapons. We were the only ponies, that were there: me and my brother. the last thing the blacksmith did was to give us the sword, that he kept as a memory from the kid, so that the Prophecy would come true. It was with the perfect size for my brother, because it was forged as a gift to him from his youngest student Azure Spark.
Primal Shine cried. he knew, that the way to defeat the Destroyer, isn't through rage or any of the other feelings, because every time the enemy of the tyran used this feelings to help him in battle, he or she instead grew weaker and was defeated. No, he filled the sword with another feeling. The sword shone like gold and emitted light, that made the whole room light. The blacksmith died with a smile on his mouth. And the weapon was named... the Blade of Absolution. " Vortex stopped for a second and wiped out a tear out of his eyes " Now let me tell you about the battle. The Destroyer smiled, when he saw his old teacher. He said, that there are no lessons left and he needed his teacher no longer. He got the shield and revealed it's surface to my brother... "
The fire suddenly grew in size and a memory was projected at it. Vortex smiled at emma and Blaze.
Two ponies. One of them with bloody red skin, and the other - a white unicorn, with a sword levitating around him as all of the magical weapons did. The bloody pony guarded himself with a black shield, that also magically levitated. It's edge was with the colour of blood. But the Shield of Horror didn't reflect anything.
" WHY ISN'T IT WORKING!? " the Destroyer yelled
" Because I am looking at my greatest horror right now. And i am not afraid. " Primal Shine replied.
The tyran smiled and put the shield back in it's bag. It was the perfect size. It was obviously the original bag, that always was on the bearer of the shield. Just like the little bag for the whip Hase couldn't get off, but somehow didn't have any weight, even with the whip in it.
" But now prepare to lose yourself! " the Destroyer yelled and the Robe of Illusions got off his back and levitated in front of him. Primal Shine immeadietly appeared ina dream, where he was studying the already adult Destroyer how to slay dragons. But he just shaked his head and lifted his sword at the sky, yelling:
" Show me the way to Absolution! "
The illusion dissapeared. The Destroyer laughed, but he also looked worried:
" So it's absolution? You think I need my sins taken away? That won't work, I guarantee... " And than he pounced at Primal Light, swiping with the Berserker Mace. Primal Shine made a quick step back and the duel began. Primal Shine was good with the sword, while the tyran wasn't very careful what he was doing, because he was guided by the Art of War.
" So that's why, Hase, you should be careful with these weapons. You should learn to controll them and supress your feelings. A coldblooded pony would be nearly invincible with these weapons. But if you rush to the fight, no matter of your weapon, you'll lose. " Vortex told his son
And as if to prove it, the white unicorn quickly made the tyran bleed. Light went through the scratch. The Destroyer fell on the ground:
" What did you do to me!!? "
" I turned your sins... against you. You had your absolution. " Primal Shine spoke, while the whole body of the Destroyer emitted light and finally blew up. But nearby immeadietly several portals opened and the unicorn ran from the coming Voidians.
" And that is the story. " Vortex said after the hollogram ended " After the ruler of Equestria died, the Voidians destroyed this dimension. We fled to another dimension together with the Equestrian Horsegardians and later, when we were Chaotics, my brother and I re- created it together with the Horsegardians. So let that be your lesson, Hase. These weapons are powerful, " awesome " as you may say, but YOU should controll them, not the opposite, or you'll end up like the Destroyer. We start the lessons of self- controll and weapon usage tomorrow. Untill than... be careful. "
Ambush!
Hase stood against the scarecrow.
' I could do it ' he thought
" Come on, use the whip, but don't kill the stone ponies. Controll your anger. " Vortex commanded.
Hase got the whip out of it's bag and attacked the scarecrow. The sound of screams shook the air. Anger flowed through him and the stalion barely managed
not to let go.
" Good, but you'll have multiple enemies in battle. Now kill the stoneponies, but don't hurt the other scarecrow. "
The black pegasus attacked again. With a strong splash he decapitated the first stonepony, cut off the leg of the second and literally destroyed the third. But now the anger was too much to controll. His mane went bright red, his eye colour also was red and the scarecrow was devastated by three strong hits. After that his mane regained it's normal colour and his eyes turned back to brown.
" No, no, no! " Vortex was dissapointed " You can do it, come on! Now do the same with the other three stoneponies and the last scarecrow.
Hase neared his stone enemies. Now he used a bit more tactics and thought how and where would he hit them. This helped, but not very much. Ater the last stonepony went down, he sill felt immense rage in him. So he just yelled at the sky.
He felt rage building up, but he didn't let go. He held on, but finally managed to control the rage with the thought of his friends.
Vortex smiled and sent other stone troops towards him. The stalion attacked, slashed, ducked, attacked again, but held in his rage. The stone ponies had no chance. The pegasus continued to repell the ponies, but one of the stones from a stone pony fell on his head and Hase fell on the ground.
When he woke up, the first thing that he saw, was how Pinkie hung over his face. She smiled to the ears and went out of the tent. . A minute later she returned with all of the ponies and a huge pink cake with vowels, that couldn't be read. When she saw, that he was trying to read it, the Pre- Equestrian Loky curved his muzzle to a smile and said:
" According to your super energetic dynamite backer, it says: " Happy " welcome- back - to - the life " Party! " She was overexcited when she wrote it and nopony else except her can say what it says. "
" Happy " welcome- back- to - the life Party! Yupeeee! " Pinkie got a whistle out of somewhere, which made the sound of a duck.
" Where did you find the ingredients? " Hase asked her, after the group had finished eating.
" Oh, some friendly gryphons gave them to me. They said, that we'll pay later. "
Hase got confused :
" First, we don't have any money... "
" Ahem. " Twister opened his purse and several coins fell on the ground.
" Second, how did you assume they are friendly? "
" Oh, how couldn't they be friendly? They told me, that they sell cakes to cute ponies! They said I was very smart and would know how to bake. But they also asked me to pretend, that I haven't met them, so nopony wouldn't suspect anything! "
Pinkie said that with such a happy voice, that Hase nearly choked with the last bite of his cake:
" What ? "
" You heard her. Surrender, because you're surrounded! " a female gryphin jumped out from behind a nearby rock. 10 other gryphons also jumped out from behind the rocks and surrounded them.
" I love that Russian accent. " Pony commented.
" I don't think Pepper will like it too... " Dash brought Stark back to the reality
" It's a traaaaaap? " Pinkie's eyes grew to the size of dishes. Than those eyes filled up with tears and the party mare started crying, litterally fludding her surroundidngs.
" Ah... tell her... to ... прекращать, no, how was it in English? " the female gryphon held for a rock, but the flud was soon going to take her away, together with all others except Hydro, who just made the tears go around him.
" The word you're looking for is stop. " Rarity, who was barely holding on her hooves, told her
" Yes, exactly! Tell her to stop! "
Hydro slowly walked through the tears, untill he reached Pinkie. The party mare still cried.
" Come on, Pinkie, it was just a... mmm ... surprise! "
Pinkie immeadietly stopped crying and her muzzle formed a big smile.
" Okey - dokey - Loky! "
" I fear it's going to be a bad surprise, comrades. We were sent here by Sabredance. He sees everything. After he saw, that you, " the female gryphon stared at Hase with supremacy in her eyes " , have repelled the troops and got a new toy, he immeadietly commanded us to bring you to him. And with some of your friends he has a score to settle. " she nodded at the pre- Equestrians.
" You underestimate us, beast. Leave now and you might live ! " the Equestrian Thor taunted her.
The gryphon roared. She thought which ear of the Horsegardian exactly to tear apart. She chose the left and got ready to pounce, when suddenly she heard a scream and something burning hit her through her face.
" Oh, I'm sorry, did I break your concentration? " Hase smiled. His mane went red.
" You see, uncontrolled rage is something good... " he winked to Fluttershy " ... but controlled rage is something even better. Flut, that's your que! " the pegasus jumped at the gryphon, spinning the whip in the air, while Fluttershy's eyes became green, she roared and got 10 feet higher. The gryphon soldiers shot at her with their bows, but this only made her angrier. She jumped at the gryphons and unleashed the power of the Shyulk, stomping and smashing everything with claws on her way.
" You choose your oponents poorly, young son of Vortex. I'll be mercyfull... " the female gryphon spoke, untill she was slapped with the whip again. She got angry, but she didn't feel the usual adrenalin rush. Instead, she felt how her energy was drained. When she looked around, she saw an oreol of red light, that went to her opponent.
" I think I missed to mention, but the Whip of Rage also drains power from the rage of the opponent, not only from my own. "
" Send the others! " the gryphon yelled with her last strength left and then fell on the ground.
Another 20 gryphons showed up from behind the hill. Shyulk and the others was still dealing with the ponies, that surrounded the group, so Hase was on his own. He rushed at the soldiers, but suddenly felt something stuck in him. He looked at himself. Arrows stuck out of his body, at least twenty.
The stalion fell on his knees and another 20 arrows stuck in him. Anger flowed through his mind. He failed and his friends were going to be enslaved. No, this shouldn't happen!
Red oreol surrounded him and the stalion stood up again. Another barrage of arrows stuck in him, but they didn't matter. The iron Stalion and the iron Patriot flew towards him, but they wouldn't reach him in time. He rushed at the gryphons and slapped the first two with the whip. More and more rage built up in him, and Hase started to enjoy being struck by arrows and than slaying the monster, responcible for that. Each time the arrows decreased their numbers. He ignored the pain of the arrows, untill finally it dissapeared. On his side the oreol thickened, but the young pegasus didn't notice it either.
The last two remaining. The first one the stalion was suffocated by the Whip, and the last... first Hase hit him with the Whip, but than by his instinct he swung with something, that Celestia knows how, he was currently holding with his magic. The gryphon fell. The young pegasus put the mysterious object next to his throat.
" P...please. I've got... family... too. He... the devil keeps them... away. " the gryphon spoke
" Why do you think I care... " Hase was going to decapitate the gryphon, but than he looked around. Dash and Pony were quietly looking at him. He should of controlled his rage and not betray his friends. Those gryphons... they were just following orders. Wouldn't he do the same, if his friends were threatened? The red oreol of light vanished and the stalion suddenly felt pain in every part of his body. Perhaps because he was hit by 100 + arrows? The last thing he saw was the armoured Stark and Dash flying towards him.
" How are you,Mr. Hedgehog? " Twilight asked him, after he woke up. " Do you think removing 127 arrows from you was easy? "
Hase' mind still wasn't very clear. The stalion looked around. He was in a tent, and this tent was moving.
" That's right, we are travelling. AJ and Forge took the first shift, because it was obvious, that you wasn't going to be able to move for a while. "
" What? Argh! " the young alicorn felt a strong pain in his entire body, after he tried to get up.
" It's a bit early for that. " Twilight smiled.
" How... are... the others? "
" Well, Fluttershy had only one arrow and she's alright. You didn't beat up White Claws so hard like the others, so he also can walk. Only you were heavily injured. It was going to be good, if you got the dragon armour, instead of that club. "
It appeared, that a lot had happened since they got away from the ambush. The stalion was confused. So he asked:
" OK, break, tell me what's new ? "
Twilight replied:
" Well, lot of things happened. The gryphon, that you didn't kill, will fly away after 10 minutes, we are going through the passage and you've got a new toy. "
The stalion realized it was true. He felt something else except the Whip. He tried to lift the unknown thing and it obeyed. A strange " club ", as Twilight said, appeared in front of his eyes. It's handle was thick at the bottom, the whole weapon was like 2 feet long. It's handle was again illustrated with the horror of the battle, after which the Destroyer forged the weapons, and white sparks went across it, revealing some small details.
This was surely a Weapon of Devastation. Near the top the handle was thinner. 5 miniature gryphon heads were on the end of it. And on the end there was a ball of metal with long, sharp spikes, pointing in all directions. Probably covered with venom.
" The Bereserker Mace. " the stalion spoke
" That's what Vortex said. " the alicorn mare replied.
" Great. " Hase said and went back to sleep.
Sunny day...
' So now they are two. ' the pegasus thought. ' Celestia, if I continue this way I'll soon be carrying a whole army's arsenal.
" By the way, according to Vortex, you don't have to always carry the weapons. On your order, they'll dissappear and appear again when you need them. " Twilight spoke.
Hase tried it. The bond between him and the weapons went thinner and when he got up, the weapons left on the bed.
" On what are we travelling again? "
" I told you, a wooden cart. "
" Right. " the stalion thought. he tried to get on his hooves again and this time suceeded. The stalion looked at himself. There were no more arrow holes.
" First we had to prevent your wounds from being infected, and if they didn't, and they didn't, I was able to heal you. You can still feel pain sometimes, but basically you're OK. Dash waits for your flying lesson.
" You OK, hedgehog? " the cyan pegasus looked at her friend. Only three days ago he was lying unconcious and now he was able to fly again.
' Magic. ' Dash thought.
" When will everypony stop calling me hedgehog? " the stalion asked.
" Right now. Djarvis, please erase those pony- headed hedgehog images. " the Iron Stallion flew nearby.
" Images deleted, sir. "
" Today we are training air combat. I'll put on the suit too and you'll try to avoid getting hurt. " Dash flew down to the wooden car and soon the Iron Patriot flew towards them. The Iron Stalion pointed his left forehoof and the distinctive repulsor sound was heard. Luckily, the pegasus avoided it, but than it became a bit harder, when dash engaged the minigun on her shoulder. The stallion had to avoid both the pulse turret and the repulsor rays, which eventually ended in being hit by a repulsor.
Stark had decreased the power level for the training, but it still hurt. Later Hase had to use his shadow teleport skill very often, which made him tired and soon he gave up.
" It was a good training. Few can go toe - to -toe with me on my best day. " Stark commented.
" TWIIIIIIIIIIIILIGHT...... SPAAAARKLEE! " a voice echoed through the passage. It was an unknown voice. Most of the ponies would have never recognized it. But to Twilight it was pretty fammiliar.
' No! ' she thought. She jumped out of the tent on the wooden car and rushed to the front. Captain Equestria and Forge were staring at the mare, standing on their way. Crescent was also staring at the mare and looked worried.
" Some angry relatives? " Stark asked, as he together with Dash and Hase hit the ground.
' Worse. ' Twilight thought. She could never forget her. The orange coat, the red and yellow mane, the evil eyes and the horn. It was Sunset Shimmer.
" You've got something, that doesn't belong to you. Give it back! " Crescent yelled at her.
When she looked at Sunset Shimmer more carefully, she noticed something different: a little amulet with a sun in it's end. The unicorn mare smiled and the amulet shone.
" You don't have the power to wield the Sundisc Amulet! " Crescent yelled at her.
" Do I ? " suddenly the clouds were pierced by a strong beam of light. It was absorbed by the amulet. The diabolical mare grew in size. Demon wings grew from her back. Her eyes turned black and there were flames in their centers. Her horn also grew in size and eventually claws stuck out of her hooves.
" Ah... Twilight, why didn't you mention Celestia's ex- student has the ability to turn into a demon? " Pinkie asked.
" I thought it was because of my crown! " the alicorn replied. " I didn't know she could turn to a demon without it! "
" Nonsence, Twilight Sparkle! I can always turn to a demon! I just lack the power! And this amulet provided it! "
Twilight remembered, that before the demon was bipedal. Now it still resembled a pony, but the fire mane, the claws and the fire eyes were here. It appeared, that Sunset prefered to fight in a pony- like form.
" Oh dear. " Rarity spoke, after she would get off the car to see what's going on.
" Don't be afraid, I'll handle this. " Pony spoke and shot a repulsor at Sunset. She just smiled and caught it in her front left claw. The ray formed an orb, which got on fire and the demon threw it at the car. It exploded, sending everypony aside. Applejack somehow managed to stand on her hooves and threw her shield at the new owner of the Sundisc Amulet with the words:
" Dat ain't mah first rodeo, girl! "
The shield bounced off the demon and she tried to catch it, but it returned to Applejack. But before the farmer mare could throw it again, she was forced to hide behind it to protect herself from the flames coming out of Sunset Shimmer's mouth. The flames stopped, after a lightning struck the demon in the head. After the diabolical mare raised her head, she saw Thor hanging in the middle of the sky , spinning his hammer. His mantle waved behind him. Sunset threw a fireball at him, but he dodged it with his hammer.
While Thor was distracting Sunset, Hawk took his position and aimed for the demon's scruffy ear. He fired an arrow, but sadly the demon pony caught it in mid- air. She turned around and smiled. Red light flickered and the arrow exploded. The archer smiled back.
One other pony took advantage of Thor's decoy. The god of mischief Loky stood right in front of the demon and fired an energy bolt with his scepter. The demon just turned around and smashed him, but the Horsegardian vanished. Sunset Shimmer was confused, untill Loky appeared on her back and shot a beam of energy right in her flaming mane.
' Are the ponies ever gonna stop falling for that? ' the trickster thought
She fell on her knees and Glace, with the help of Hydro, managed to freeze her hooves to the ground. Webs of light and darkness stopped the demon from getting up. Blaze stopped Sunset's flames from melting the ice on her hooves. In this moment Dash and Stark fired flares at the demon. When she was finaly able to see again, she saw the beam from the Elements of harmony firing at her neck.
" NOOOOooooo! " the roar of the demon turned to a yell as the Amulet flew off the unicorn's neck and Sunset Simmer returned to her normal state.
" That's what happens when you go toe- to - toe with me on my best day, I warned you. " Stark turned to Hase and noticed something strange. Hase was fighting demons they didn't even notice. When he finished with the last one, his chest shone and something appeared on his body.
Hase returned, now armed with the Armour of Extinction.
" 3 out of 8 " he spoke.
" The Dragon Armour? " Twilight spoke.
" Yes. " Hase stood on the nearby rock. Standing there with this armour and the bloody whip and mace, still with some red in his eyes and a mane in different shades of red, he looked even more sinister than Sunset. He saw, that the mare was trying to get back to the medalion.
" Stand down! " he commanded. But the mare just smiled and levitated a stone. She threw it at Twilight.The alicorn mare ducked to avoid being hit, but the crown fell off her head. When it moved Twilight realized, that Sunset was aiming for the crown and she only aided her. She turned around to see how Sunset levitated both the crown and the medalion to herself.
" Twice the power... and you won't able to stop me with your foul tricks! " the unicorn spoke as she put the crown on her head and the medalion around her neck. Instead of spreading, this times the clouds gathered. A bond of light connected Twilight's crown and the Sundisc medalion.
Twilight rushed at her, but stopped, knowing it was going to be too late. Dark oreol surrounded the two magical relics and a huge beam of darkness struck upon the unicorn mare. Inside this beam she changed again, but this time to a more powerful demon. This time she had 4 wings, 5 claws on each hoof instead of 3, fire running across her whole body, connecting the mane and the tail, and... was this possible? Sunset Shimmer had a horn of fire, or at least it was entirely covered in fire.
" Behold the ultimate beast! " the demon pony yelled and prepared to attack the pack.
" And it's slayer. " nopony ever saw Hase jumping from the rock, flying for a second in mid- air and slashing through the hoof of Sunset. The wound filled up with fire and healed.
" Fool! Only I myself can take the crown off my head and the amulet from my neck! I fell once, but this time your friends won't help you ! " the demon spoke and a transparent barrier surrounded a circle, 30 feet in diameter, all the way to the clouds. Applejack tried to punch her way through it, but as she soon knew, it burned and stopped any external attacks. After they saw, that they couldn't do anything, The Mane 6, the Lords and the Avengers stepped away from the walls.
" Ha! " Sunset Shimmer got Hase between her claws. She grabbed him, threw him in the air and hit him with her claws. The stalion barely made it off the ground.
" How was it... stand down! " the demon stepped on Hase. Her weight was enormous and Twilight realized, that if Sunset leaned forward, there was a chance for her to break the pegasus' spine.
" I will beat you up untill your own mother isn't able to recognize you! " the former unicorn grabbed the nearly- unconcious stalion with her hind claws and started swiping. Since his chest was guarded by the Armour of Extinction, the demon aimed for the face and limbs. Soon there was a bleeding fissure on every square inch of his body.
" Let's see... I can still recognize you. Let's add some fire! " the demon lowered her head next to Hase. Small flames got out of her nostrils. When they went bigger Hase suddenly hit her muzzle with the mace. In her pain the demon dropped him from his claws. To avoid breaking a limb from falling, Hase turned to a shadow and appeared on the ground. The angry demon had already recovered. Hase waited. The distance became smaller and smaller, and than the stalion made a step back and Sunset bit the dust. The pegasus limped, since the horrible attack of the demon had injured his wings very badly. And than he faced the demon.
" You die... right now! " flames covered the front claws of Sunset and she lashed at the pegasus. Hase avoided being hit and jumped on the demon's muzzle, breaking the brittle balance and making the demon fall on his back. And than he hit her with the mace. Again and again, faster than she was able to regenerate. Red oreol surrounded him, as his speed increased to inpony.
" Fear me! " he triumphed, as he hit her for the last time. But his oreol went out, and Sunset regenerated fast. The pegasus jumped off her muzzle and walked backwards. The demon smiled again and walked with the same speed, now just playing with her prey. Hase' peripheral vision noticed a black piece of wood or something and threw it at the demon.
While it was flying, Hase realized what it really was and threw his whip too, guiding it by magic. The wood hit the demon's eyes, but before it could bounce off the whip made a knot behind her back, invulnerable to the flame and tied the wood to Sunset's eyes. Suprisingly, the demon screamed in pain. A ray of light from the wood ( actually a shield) was emitted on the walls and the ponies saw what horrified the demon:
First there was darkness. Than a strong light made everything visible. Sunset Shimmer kneeling before Celestia, Luna and Twilight, who remained resillient to her cries and stared at her with cruel eyes.
" I always knew, that it was the right decision. " Twilight shivvered, when her copy spoke with a dry and malicious voice.
" You will be banished. Forever! " the way Luna said " forever " sounded like Nightmare Moon.
" No, please, take them! " the crying unicorn threw the crown of her head. In the reality the demon also threw away the crown and the medalion and turned back to normal. Hase got them away. The walls fell, but the image still projected on the clouds. The pegasus gave Twilight her crown and Crescent the Sundisc Amulet and took his place on the ground next to Pinkie, staring at the sky.
" It's not enough! " Celestia spoke " Demons should be banished! "
The horns of the three alicorns shone and suddenly they saw through Sunset's eyes how she fell in a botomless pit and the hole to the world became smaller and smaller. Eventually the evil unicorn fell on the ground in the real world. She faded away. Hase lifted his left hoof and the whip, together with that wood, that proved fatal for the demon. It wasn't wooden. It was metal. A metal shield.
" Everypony has his or her fears. But sometimes it's hard to fight them. " the pegasus watched as Twilight closed Sunset in the Eternal Bonds and got her on the back of Forge. Cold wind screamed through the passage. The dark surface of the metal shield didn't reflect any light, it consumed it. Fluttershy shivvered. That was indeed that wicked shield, that Vortex spoke of: the Shield of Horror. The group silently gathered and continued through the passage, hoping, that they would not awake another evil.
Trick and treat!
The sinister passage with the screaming wind was behind their backs. Things weren't getting any better though. They saw something on the horizon, that according to Twister was Sabredance' castle. There were just dry plains around and the castle, standing in the foot of the mountain, that went all the way to the passage, was in the perfect place: the deffenders would of been alarmed for an army hours before it gets to the city beneath the castle - the dark city of Thrandor, as Crescent said. The place, where colts over ten were forced either to forge armoury for the soldiers, or to become a soldier themselves, where a mare couldn't just walk across the street without getting attacked, a place, where the parents feared to let out their foals for a single second, the city with no shame, the city with no justice. And for a flavour - alcochol.
The group noticed a big squad of soldiers. Hase insisted to slay them, but Vortex adviced him to be wise. So they accepted Twilight's plan instead. They hid in the nearby bushes.
" That's lame! " Rainbow dash whispered and Johny, Hase and Wanda silencely agreed. Dash nearly jumped out together with them, but twilight held her back. The squad nearly passed. And than something unexpected happened. A strong beam of light hit the ground exactly in front of the hooves of the leader. The squad stepped back.
" Prepare to meet... your dooom! " Luna yelled.
' There was a use of practicing in front of the mirror. ' the princess of the night thought.
Back in the bushes Twilight's eyes nearly gotten out of their eye orbits. The Princesses decided to join the party right now?
Luna always loved adventures. So when she knew, that the Avengers are sent on an interdimensional mission, she insisted, that she and her sister should " bravely aid their loyal servants in their chivalrous duty " .
Celestia was at first against this quest, but she wasn't able to hold back Luna's enthusiasm for more than a couple of days. Luna honestly believed, that she had to catch- up with the 1000 years she missed on the moon. After she thought of it for a while, Celestia also came to the solution, that they still need to take an eye on Vortex and Hase, and the Mane 6 probably needed help, so she finally agreed.
Magic bolts broke the lines of the soldiers. Because the squad was pretty big, and there was no more use of hiding anyway, the Ghost Biker jumped out of the bushes, smashed a pony with his bike and ran over three other, swiping with his chain. Wanda and Emma also joined the party. Orbs of magic made the troops weapons attack their owners and chaos spread through the army. Some of the troops fell with a strong migrene. This only made it easier for the Iron Stalion and the War Marechine. Vortex wisely decided to stay hidden for now, and so did Hase. Rarity remembered, that she had forgotten her suit. A minute later she returned:
"My suit! It is absent! "
" I wouldn't say so. " Hase looked from the bushes. He turned his head to Rarity and pointed something with his wing.
The sight made Rarity very, very angry. Hawk, the stalion of her heart, or at least untill this moment, was teaming up with a red- maned mare, wearing her suit.
" Ahem, darling, would you explain me about this... hmmm... affair between you and ginger? " Rarity asked him after she got there.
" Just like in Budapet all over again. " the red maned fired with the hoof bands.
" You and I remember Budapet very differently... sorry, what Rarity? " the archer turned to the fashionista and continued firing arrows.
Rarity sighed and nearly cried:
" R-r-rarity? You call me Rarity? " she spoke through tears.
" As far as I remember, that's your name, yes? "
" What happenned to darling? " the mare cried
" I'm sorry, but we would never of gotten any further in our relationship. And besides, that's the mare I've been talking about, the one, that " died " from Blaze, remember? Well, it appeared that she had saved herself and went through a portal. She comes from Stalliongrad, the New Equestrian one, and is known like Чëрная вдова, the Black Widow. She has been trained by Stalliongrad 's secret intelligence, the KGB, but she needed her suit. I hope you don't mind, but I returned it to her. Friends? " the archer spoke, but his face remained without any expression.
Rarity didn't say anything. She just ran away, only hearing the beats of her heart. When she was 50 feet away, she felt a wing on her back.
" Don't try to stop me, Twilight. " she spoke " You do not know how dreadful I feel. "
" In fact I do. " Rarity was surprised, because the voice wasn't the one of Twilight. She stopped and turned around. The dark feathers of Hase' left wing entirely covered her back.
" Hase. " this time the unicorn mare managed to hold in her tears " It's different to be hated by the ponies, and to be ignored.. "
" ... by the one you love. You don't know me well enough to say that. I'll prove it to you. " multicoloured oreol surrounded Hase' tail and a little medallion in the shape of the heart appeared. He let it in the magic of Rarity. The mare still cried, as she opened the medalion. Two parts of a same picture- two ponies kissing. First it was an earth pony- Hase obviously, but the mare... was this...
" Emma Frost. My former greatest lover. I loved her from the bottom of her heart. I thought she did too. But... not once or twice I saw her kissing Johny. She spent more time with him, than she did with me. She's with him now, sharing the excitement of the fight, the same way as Hawk and Agent Romanoff do. Surprised I know her name? " the unicorn mare nodded " Hawk told me. He wanted me to explain it to you, but it's unexplainable. I can't. "
" How did you do it? How are you doing it? " Rarity looked amased and horrified at the same time " How were you... "
" How did I ignore my heart for the good of the group? How I'm still ignoring it? " the pegasus looked at Rarity for confirmation
" Well, why do you think I remained silent for a week? It wasn't because of Vortex, I hope you don't really believe in that. Now it's obvious. The days would of been more, if ms. lady warrior hadn't interrupted us. " the stallion looked back to the fight. Sif, aided by Crescent and Twister, were dealing with a group surrounding them. The soldiers soon fell.
" Love is... volatile. And, as I found while on this trip, not replacable. No matter how hard I concentrated on my task, I will never be full. " the pegasus sighed
" Anger, War, Frenzy, Fear, Happyness, Brothership, Hatred, Supremacy, not even Friendship... " the pegasus was interrupted by a deserting soldier. Before the pony could even react, Hase pulled his shield in front of the soldier's eyes and the horrified pony preffered to run in the opposite direction. " ... can replace it. You won't get over it, unless you find it again. " the pegasus raised in the air and left Rarity think over his words.
" Thou fell! Surrender! " Luna triumphed with her hoof on the leader of the squad. He just husstled at the ruler of the night.
" Princess Luna, excuse me, but what the hay are you doing here? " Twilight neared the princess.
" We've came here to aid you in your chivalrous duty! " the alicorn replied
Twilight was just going to inform the princess, that they are doing well on theirselves, when she spotted the new mare with Hawk. The mare looked back at her with great interest. This suit suited the unknown mare better than Rarity, and the mare also looked more like a fighter than Rarity. However, it was unclear to Twilight how the fashionista will react to both the miss of her coltfriend and her suit. Luckily, she was nowhere to be seen and the crisis was avoided.
" So, Twilight , we'd like to hear your report. " Celestia spoke.
So the purple alicorn had to tell the whole story from the arrival. She tried to avoid the part with the Weapons of Devastation, but it failed. After the Princesses knew the whole story, Twilight saw how they were whispering in eachother's ears. That surely wasn't a good sign. Hase might of been a good guy, but the evil forces had an unhealthy interess for him. First the Elements, than A.I.M. and Vortex, and now those Weapons... Interesting concidence.
Luckily for her winged friend, the Princesses were more interessted in Sunset Shimmer, after the purple mare assured them, that the son of Vortex has a perfect control over his weapons.
" The Weapons are a far greater problem than my ex- student, but while they won't harm anypony while in Hase' control, the problem with Sunset can quickly escalate, if she contacts Sabredance. " Celestia said Twilight " Where are you exactly holding her? "
The lavender alicorn led her to the bushes. But the blanket, that covered, or used to cover her unconcious body, was now in the dirt. After she looked everywhere, Crescent found, that the Sundisc Amulet was also missing.
" We didn't expect anything else. My sister's ex- apprentice is a master of escape. She only pretended to be unconcious. " Luna profounded.
" Let's just hope she doesn't join Sabredance. We have enough problems eitherway. " Celestia replied.
" Aha, I have found you! Now prepare to meet... the Great and Powerful Trixie! " a triumphant voice reached the ears of the three alicorns. When they turned around, a mysterious hooded figure laughed at them.
" I thought you said Zecora had made Trixie promise she wouldn't become evil again. " the Iron Patriot landed nearby. The mask lifted, revealing Rainbow's worried face.
" Perhaps it's the Trixie from this dimension? " Twilight made a lucky guess.
When the hood came off, the purple mare knew, that she was right. The Trixie from this dimension had grape- coloured mane and tail. The unicorn sent an orb of light at the bystanding Hawk, but it was diversed from Hellios, the lord of Light, and hit the blue mare herself.
" Iiii.... just don't get it. " the cyan mare spoke
" What? " Twilight asked her.
" The first time Trixie didn't try to attack, she just looked for fame. The second time,when she vowed revenge, she got advantage over us with the Alicorn Amulet. We either have to assume this dimension's Trixie is a lot more stupid... or that she has a trick up her illusionist sleeve... " the War Marechine turned her head towards the now stunned Trixie. Twilight imagined how inside the helmet Dash's eyes suspiciously looked at their enemy.
And she was right. Trixie suddenly got back on her hooves with a beaker filled with ... smoke. Smoke with eyes and a mouth. . It looked pretty familiar to both Luna and Twilight. So they both yelled " NOO! " when the illusionist broke it and the smoke enlaced her.
The azure blue coat darkened and became with the colour of a deep lake. The grape mane and tail also became longer and floated in the air. Trixie's eyes became even more blue than usual and an evil spark shone in them. Pink sparks ran across her now longer horn.
" Behold... the first of the new warriors... Nightmare Trixie! " the unicorn proclaimed and made a huge force field, only leaving the Princesses and herself in it. Twilight was horrified. If it was possible, Nightmare Trixie looked more evil than Nightmare Moon, because she had a fanatic glow in her eyes. She looked, as she was ready to die only to stop them from reaching their destination. And according to Nightmare Trixie, this was only the beggining.
" Perhaps you think, that I am the queen? Noo, she would never bother again with such weakling as you, Luna. We will have our revenge. Before only our queen was able to possess a pony body. Now everypony among us can do it! Finally we figured out how you always win - our Queen is one, and you are many, now even more. But we, we are infinite! "
Luna stepped in front of her sister and Twilight. With a brave glow in her eyes she spoke:
" I won't let you possess innocent ponies again! Take me and end this, it's what your queen wants, right? Take me! "
The unicorn mare smiled and a strand of her mane stretched and punched Luna. The Princess of the Night fell on the ground.
" You? We haven't travelled between dimensions only to end up with you again. You have nothing to offer us, Princess of the Night. Before our Queen was weak and she gladly accepted your offer. Now she has much more power than you could ever offer her. You beat her twice, don't expect to do it thrice. No, the real thing she seeks is somepony, easy to control, somepony, recently betrayed, somepony, who is an Element of Harmony... you know who I'm talking about? " the mare grinned, as the three Princesses finally realized the plot of the Nightmare Spirits.
" Rarity... " Twilight whispered. Now she understood. The heart of her friend was probably broken, because Hawk was with that unknown mare.She was left vulnerable.
" But first, I have to make sure, that you won't ruin our plan... " the strands of Trixie's mane pounced at them as giant snakes. One of them caught Celestia.
" Princess Celestia, such an honour! " Nightmare Trixie kneeled, but the grin on her face remained " Sadly for us, the power of the sun in you had always burned us and never allowed us to possess you! And you would of been our better queen! Thousands of years of experience was something, that used to be very attractive. But now our queen has enough power and could defeat both of you. Not at the same time, of course, but you shall all kneel before her greatness and her power! " the unicorn profounded and laughed at the sky
" All she needs now is an Element of Harmony... first, it would make your other pretty necklaces useless. And second, the Element, no matter which, holds a great power, that would make our queen even more powerful! " Trixie was so busy taunting the captured Celestia, that she didn't notice Luna pick up a log and hit her in the head with it. That made the shield dissapear for a second and allowed another pony to join the party.
" How primal! " Nightmare Trixie pretended to cry, but than caught Luna in the grip of her mane " oh, I've now got two Princesses in my grip, let's go for the third! " a strand of her tail reached for twilight's legs, but the alicorn jumped in the air and flew towards Trixie, preparing a magic. But this reckless move left her in the grip of Trixie mane.
" Now they are three! " the unicorn grinned again.
" How about 0? " the mare was suddenly punched in the muzzle. This was enough for the Princesses to get off her grip. When she saw who hit her, trixie just grinned even more:
" Oh, look who's finally joined the party! Hase, the champion of the Princesses... or more like their puppet, hmm? "
Completely unnoticed by Hase, the nightmare unicorn had made a force field, preventing her and Hase from hearing anything outside of it.
" Look at yourself, Hase! Few villains have such power and you still waste it on heroism! If you remained the villain you were ment to be, all of this, " Trixie nodded at the Elemental Lords and the Avengers " , would of still been yours. I see how you fight yourself in your mind, but know this is true: if you haven't limited yourself, your forms would never, ever dare stand against you! Not even your father is more powerful than you. Think about it Hase. What would of happened, if you didn't play fair in New Equestria? What if Stark, Hawk,Thor, Loky and Glace were on the other side, together with the Lords, do you think the Mane 6 and those miserable royalties would stand a chance? No! They would of remained sealed there forever, and you would rule not only over New Equestria... oh, no.
If you were still evil, you would of ruled over Equestria too. What do you think your old friends would do, after you revealed youself? They wouldn't of had another choice, except to join you, as they truly wanted. A.I.M. would of granted you your dream, " a little strand of Nightmare Trixie's mane tickled the left cheek of the pegasus " , the throne of Celestia. And what are you now? A marionette of the two royalties, trying to prove itself innocent. These Weapons are signs, son of Vortex.
Signs, that your fate isn't being a hero, it is being a villain. Break of the chains the Princesses had caught you in! Release your Rage! " the unicorn smiled, as she saw the three alicorns yelling outside of the bubble. No sound got out of their mouths.
" Release it, and great fate awaits you. You will have an honour... unheard for centuries. You'll be the host... of our king! "
That clinched it.
" A host? " Hase' eyes filled with hatred
" A host? Well, my dear Trixie, if you ever plan getting somepony on your side in the future, don't tell him he'll just be a host. " the pegasus jumped at the unicorn and hit her horn with the Berserker Mace. She yelled in vain and dark streams of smoke got out of her coat. The real Trixie fell unconcious, while a female Nightmare Spirit with a form of a pony stood against Hase.
" I see you prefer getting destroyed. That's not impossible. " the voice of the spirit was half as beatiful and convincing, as it was before, so Hase didn't fear getting enchanted. He pounced at the Spirit, but the mace just passed throughher.
" How do you fight smoke with a stick? " the spirit asked, after throwing Hase 10 feet away.
" I don't get it... last time, when Rarity was taken by the Nightmare Forces, I thought we have destroyed them forever, by freeing the peaceful animals on the moon, isn't that right? " Twilight asked Luna, while inside of the force field Hase was trying to figure out how to fight smoke with a whip and a mace.
" I am as confused as you, Twilight. " Luna was worried. She stared at the force field, untill somepony else spoke:
" Nopony but me knows the answer to that..." the three alicorns turned around. Vortex was staring at the bubble fight too.
" You might of known it earlier, if you haven't turned me to stone and if I saw how you defeat them with my eyes. But as I understand from Twilight's words, you have only destroyed... some of them. "
" What do you mean, Vortex? " great anger was emitted from the eyes of the Princess of the Night.
" Well, I didn't ask once or twice about this. But your friend here convinced me, that all of them are gone for good. " the alicorn looked at Dash
" I... I thought it was so! " the War Marechine tried to excuse herself.
" No. Does anypony among you know how the Spirits came to an existence? " Vortex' eyes slowly circled the whole group. The prequestrians, of course, didn't know anything about it, because such thing obviously never existed in this dimension. The Lords, who had spent nearly the time Vortex had been turned into stone waiting for the right host, didn't know anything either. The Avengers, that weren't part of the Mane 6, had spent their life in New Equestria and didn't know anything either. Vortex' eyes slowly moved to the Horsegardians. They guarded the 9 realms, they should of known of it, right? But apparently not.
" I have never been sent to the Moon on missions to Midgard. I didn't ask questions about it. " Thor replied to Vortex' glare.
" Well... I haven't been targeting Equestria for an invasion, I targeted New Equestria. " Loky smiled.
His eyes now focused on the Mane 6. They have defeated these forces twice. Hadn't atleast one of them made a research or something?
" This topic isn't very popular in the books. Most of the books just describe the horrors of Nightmare Moon. None focuses over the spirits. " Twilight replied, as if she had read his thoughts.
Celestia and Luna didn't know anything either. Finally his head turned to Johny, Emma and Wanda. Perhaps the magic researches of the Witch had brought her to the information
.
" Ah...no. " Emma replied.
The Dark Emperor sighed. He had to tell them the whole story.
" The story of the origin of the Nightmare Forces. As many others of the stories of the monsters, it is related to the Destroyer.
As you should, or concidering your limited knowledge, maybe don't know, " Vortex looked at the whole group with disaprooving look, while his mane reflected an ugly shade of orange " , the Moon was, and currently is, populated with peaceful beings, like our animals, except that they are able to speak. But what you apparently don't know, is that the Moon was populated also with ponies. "
" Ponies? Why haven't I encountered them, while I resided on the Moon? " Luna glared at the Emperor, doubting his words.
" Maybe if you dont interrupt me, you'll know. " Vortex looked like a teacher in the moment, in which a student asks him a question, which he or she thinks, is very hard, but actually is quite easy. His mane reflected his cheer.
" These ponies were as different as the crystal ponies are different. They weren't transparent like them, but I don't know is it either because of the constant low gravity, or because of a kind of spell, but they manes are big, beatiful and float in the air, ignoring all laws of gravity. They were a beatiful, proud and powerful race. Their kings and queens were majestic, a pony would of never forgotten the beauty of the the Moon Queen, or the pride look of the Moon King, if they had seen it only once.
Once it was a well- known fact, that the moon is populated. But since we, them and the Horsegardians are the only ponies, that survived to see Equestria being rebuilt, this legend was forgotten. Primal Light didn't want to risk telling you about it, at the end you'll understand why, " he looked at Luna before she even opened her mouth " , and so you are the first ponies to hear this from thousands of years. While the kings and queens ruled, the Moon and Equestria lived in peace. We even had business together: there is food on the Moon, but some of our delicacies the Moon ponies craved to have. And no Equestria jewel could ever compete with a jewel from the Moon.
This was so, untill the Destroyer came to the rule. He feared, that the Moon ponies may try to liberate Equestria. They were able to do that, their magic is mysterious and no equestrian charm could block it. So the Destroyer took the fight to them. He attacked the towns and villages on the moon.
Knowing what they are dealing with, the moon ponies activated their defence system: all towns and villages sunk in the ground. In fact this was a mechanism, that protected the towns from meteor rains. I forgot to mention, but the moon also had more advanced technology than us. Millions of radars searched the skies for a potential treat.Lasers dealed with the single meteorithes, but when an asteroid or a metheor rain was going to surface, this was their alternative. So all of the villages and towns just went underground and the hills nearby them closed aboves them, because they were just smartly masked covers.Tunnels connected them.
But this made the Destroyer's job easier, because he went straight to the castle. It didn't have such mechanism, because it was protected by a strong force field. If it had such a mechanism, the Destroyer would of either had to dig hundreds of feet under the surface, or to retreat, cursing the technology on the way back. But he went straight to the throne room, slaying half of the castle's population on the way, and threatened, that the Moon Ponies... oh, I got tired from saying that every time..."
" Moonies? " Pinkie suggested
" That will do. So he threatened the Moonies, that they should either become his allies or else... Both the King and the Queen agreed to sacrofice themselves, instead of betraying the folk. But the Destroyer laughed and said, that death will be too mercyful.
the legend says, that he had thrown a pot on the ground and vanished. After breaking, a dark smoke filled the entire room. Some survivors, that chose to evacuate to the Earth, instead of hiding, said to me, that the cloud grew and surrounded the whole moon. It than sunk into her surface. The ponies got their identities warped and became the Nightmare spirits. Most ponies think, that the spirits in their forms would definetely need to possess a pony. That's wrong. The ponies and the moon animals are themselves, but their minds have been warped to crave for evil. Only the Queen and the King spirits need hosts.
Those in particular aren't exactly spirits, more like viruses. If they held the Queen and the King, they wouldn't need to possess, they would of had constant forms. But the part of the dark chaos, that was ment to... not to possess, but to disease them, didn't do it on time. They only managed to suck all of their power and knowledge of magic. The King and Queen killed themselves with magic. So these viruses didn't become spirits, but something between a spirit and a virus. Strange, is it? They don't have enough power to live, but once they have diseased a pony, the pony would have all of the power and the knowledge of magic of the King or Queen of the Moon. The diseased would be like the rest of the spirits.
Most of the spirits of the Moonies would look like Nightmare Moon - not so magnificent, powerful and wise, of course, but would look just like the Moonies used to - except that they would have a slightly darker shade of their coat. They are also able to possess another pony, become more powerful and other nasty things. They can exit it anytime, as this one left Trixie. But let's get back to the story: because the whole moon was diseased, soon those Spirits began creating trouble: horrible nightmares, abductions, et cetera. Sounds familliar to you? "
Rarity shivvered, as she remembered herself as Nightmare Rarity, saying with her own voice, in her conciousness, that there is no longer Rarity and speaking for herself as a weak pony, just a host. Rarity had no idea back than, she thought, that it was the Spirits' fault, but now she realized, that she wasn't possessed. She just unintentionaly focused on the bad sides of her life, and sunk in her nightmares, becoming a nightmare herself.
She remembered how she feeled, while facing Luna, how her entire self hated the Princess. She hadn't been controlling herself. There was no spirit. Just she. Rarity got scare and wondered if this would happen again without the transformation, in the right circumstances... she didn't want to think about it anymore.
" You say you have defeated the Nightmare Spirits. But according to me, you have only defeated the animal nightmares, while now the Nightmare Moonies will strike. And this will be more harder than ever. Any questions? " Vortex looked at the crowd. Most of them had confused looks on their faces. If that wasn't enough, Pinkie got out a strange gadget with the logo of Stark Industries on it's back and did something, because soon the sound of crickets was heard.
" I... didn't get the whole possess/ disease thing. " Dash broke the silence.
The stalion sighed and drew a diagram:
.............. + MOON ANIMALS-------------- WEAK SPIRITS
/
/
BLACK SMOKE ............. + Queeen/ King ( only knowledge and powers) -- SOMETHING LIKE A VIRUS.......+ a pony--------
| NIGHTMARE MOON/ NIGHTMARE RARITY/ NIGHTMARE KING/ NIGHTMARE QUEEN
|
|
+ a moon pony ----------------- STRONG NIGHTMARE SPIRIT ........ + another pony( not actually needed, no idea why they are doing it. For more power perhaps? ) -------------- POSSESSED PONY
" Is this OK? " the alicorn asked after he had finished drawing in the sand.
" Yes. " Rainbow nodded and her mask went back down.
" So actually the spirits of the normal ponies can live by theirselves, but the ones of the royalties can't? " Twilight hoped, that she got it right.
" Exactly! Because they aren't any living beings inside them! " Vortex looked happy, that somepony finally understood.
" One more question, Vortex. What was the black smoke? " Celestia asked.
" It is a weird story and it wouldn't sound very convincing, I warn you. " he turned to Celestia " But I'll need to tell it anyway. The Black smoke is... death. "
" We know this already. I mean what is it made from? " Celestia was insatisfied
" It's made from... death. "
" Stop being sarcastic and say us already. "
" OK. " the Dark Emperor smiled
" I did say the truth. You just didn't understand. You see, the Destroyer wanted another weapon. His weapons were very powerful, but as you know, they didn't help him a lot in the final battle. He didn't have any reasons to doubt the power of his weapons all the time untill the battle. But nevertheless, he wanted a new one. A weapon, that didn't just grant him the victory, but a weapon, that stopped the battle before it even started. If he had really done this, he would of won and rule over Equestria forever.
He wanted a weapon, made out of Death. Death is the ultimate weapon. You can get over your rage, ignore the burning hatred, supress the wish for vengeance, stay calm in the battle, instead of recklessly attacking. You can look through illusions with faith, ignore the fear and be brave, even to fight before you become extinct. But nopony can escape the death. I know what you're thinking, you are thinking, that currently the whole population of Ponyville is immortal, plus me, three, oh, sorry, four princesses, 7 lords of the Elements, all of the Avengers and Hase.
But we aren't invincible, and if we aren't careful, we can get ourselves killed. Imagine a weapon, that kills immeadietly. Even we won't be immune to it. These were the thoughts of the Destroyer too - to make a weapon, that has no mercy. But there was a small problem: unlike with the others, the tyranic ruler wouldn't be able to produce this weapon by concentrating his feelings, before he had never died. So he just concentrated and focused on all of the homicides he remembered. The result was better than he have imagined, but it didn't satisfy him. With such a bloody life, he suceeded to summon the death, the power of the death.
He tried to forge a weapon out of it, using the Void, but the death doesn't take orders from anything. He just suceeded to give the death a permanent form - black smoke. However, he wasn't able to produce a weapon out of it, so it was useless. At least untill he deceased the Moon. But the results weren't the same as in his evil mind. He wished for an army of Spirits of Death, but because of the effect of all of the defensive spells, and also a result from that, that the magic flows through the blood of the moon ponies, he got an Army of Nightmares. he liked it, but was dissapointed, so he just ditched them and let them haunt the dreams of the ponies. And that's how the black smoke was created. An unsuccesfull experiment. " Vortex finished his story.
While the others were chatting, Hase wasn't exactly in the best mood. Something like a miniature Nightmare moon, the so- called Spirit, that according to his friends should of been way more animalistic, was trying to kill him, and wasn't very far. The pegasus was tired. He stopped flying around for a second and a huge bleeding wound appeared from his left shoulder to his flank. Hase fell on the ground. The spirit triumphed:
" You'll live to see your friends serve us with their lives and you... you will lead them, as you conquer your own home!
Hase felt an immense wave of hatred flow through him. He saw something falling from the sky and smiled:
" But you won't. "
The pegasus jumped in the air and felt a stream of magic partially close his wound, as he grabbed the falling object. he felt the bond to his mind. The stick was multicoloured and at least 4 feet long.Multiple lines wet around it on the surface, some of them dividing the colours. The lines of a unicorn horn. Three black spikes stood on the top, and kept a small orb of light on the top of the spear from getting away. The Spear of Hatred.
" There is no smoke without fire. Let's stick to the rules. " Hase spoke as he activated the spear. A wave of light went across the whole Spear, changing it's colour multiple times on the way. The orb grew, but before it could exit the space between the spikes, a multicoloured lighning struck from the top. These lightnings didn't stop, but continued to torture the Spirit. After 10 seconds of electrifying, the Spirit flew away, reuniting the group with Hase.
" I like this one. " the pegasus smiled " Now, who's left? I've just warmed up."
Rehearsal
It was unusually calm. For entire 2 days there were no crazy spirits, evil apprentices, armies of gryphons or anything like that, stopping the group from travelling to their location. When Hase heard the stories too, he was surprised:
" So, you are saying me, that the Destroyer had harnessed death and because of a mysterious moon magic it just produced the Nightmare Spirits? "
" Sure. " Vortex replied to his son.
The evening Hase stared at the stars.
" You enjoy stargazing too? " Twilight came nearby and lied on the grass.
" I enjoy anything, that will distract me from my life. From the day I was born my life is a constant battle. Every time I get to know something more about that who I am, there is a great battle. My whole life is one big battle. I just want... I just want to live a normal life in a normal house, " he glared at Rarity " , with a normal marefriend and normal friends. "
Twilight noticed who he was looking at and grinned, She sang the song with the tree. Instead of getting cross, the mane of the stallion revealed his happiness.
" Remember when you all sang this in New Equestria? While Hawk and Rarity were kissing. I think... I think he loved her because of me. While Hawk was me, he loved Rarity for a whole year. And after he left, he dumped her in less than 2 months. Do you think she knows this? "
" Yes. I am sure. Hawk just isn't like he once was, while he was you, " the lavender alicorn replied " , and I think she loves you too. "
" But my life will never be normal, will it? I wish it was like it once was, before i started all of this. Before my father came to life, before I met my old friends, before Rarity was the Widow, before Fluttershy was the Shyulk, before Applejack was Captain Equestria, before the lords. Now she's normal again, but I'll never be. Before I was a science experiment with many powers. Now... it's even worse, because it cannot be undone. "
For 10 seconds the two ponies stared at the stars, before twilight could think of the right answer:
" Hase... many ponies crave for what you have. Once Trixie was ready to lose herself for such power. "
" And it didn't end up well. This won't have a happy ending either. "
" Why? Those weapons don't say who you are, you say this yourself. They don't bend your will. they might of been forged for destruction, but they can also be used for creation. "
" And what if what the spirit told me is true? What if I am destined to be evil? You still haven't figured out how am I able to use magic, or how do I have the power for so hard spells, that no normal unicorn can perform, have you? "
Twilight felt uncomfortable:
" No. I haven't. This research had a dead end. But if you believe you are good, than good you will be. "
Hase smirked:
" That sounds like a lesson from some of Granny Smith's old mare tales. "
" There's lot tah learn from these ol' mear tales! " Applejack passed nearby
" She's right. " Twilight supported her friend " Do you know, that most of those stories are true? "
" Oh. So I should warn Scotaloo, that the headless horse is real, when we come back... if we do come back. "
Twilight looked at the stalion. He wasn't showing any signs of being worried, but still looked sad.
" We will come back. Come on, we've beaten, beg my pardon, you, Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Rarity... "
" I heard that. " Rarity's voice was heard from the nearby tent
" I mean Nightmare Rarity! Also all of the lords, one by one, your foalhood fellows, your dad... How can a swordspony be much different? " Twilight smiled, while she remembered all of those fights
" Well, if we should be honest... you didn't defeat me, but just slowed me down, you just cleansed Luna from the spirits, not totally destroying the Spirits, Chrysalis... well, basically Cadence and Shining Armour did this one. Discord... if he was playing serious, he could of easily defeated you. Sombra... I'll count that for a victory. You only dealed with 1/2 of the Spirits, while on the Moon, but since you didn't know for the rest, I'll count this for one. The lords... as with Discord. If I was playing serious, instead of watching you from a cloud and eating popcorn with Discord... "
" Wait a second. " Twilight grinned " You don't count them right.... wait, you ate popcorn the whole time we were fighting the Lords? "
" It was a big box. " Hase smiled in responce to his friend's amazed face
" So... any time you could of just jumped on our way and knock us out, stealing the medalion and defeating us... forever? "
" Yes, but as Discord says, where's the fun? That's what makes us different from the others: we don't fight for evil itself. Or even victory itself. " Hase explained
" Well, you know what Sombra or Chrysalis would of done, don't you? " the lavender alicorn asked
" Ahem. But this duo has no style... think of it. Chrysalis, with her swarm - feeding - love - destroying plan. Horrible. And King " Sombrero in the Frozen North " . Honestly, this stallion has no idea of evil, if his symbol is a dark crystal... "
" Symbol? " Twilight was confused
" Oh, you know... the villain's trademark. Something, that helps you recognize him or her. If you do something evil, but you don't want to reveal yourself in public, you leave a mark. A symbol, that says the ponies, that you are the pony, who did this evil thing. For Nightmare Moon... perhaps those dark misty blue clouds. Discord - cotton candy clouds, of course. But the Queen and the King have no taste. Seriously... some horrible looking insectoids and a field of dark crystals? "
" After we heard the story of Celestia, you know, about how all of the Changelings just suffered the curse of a Voidian, do you think, that they can be our friends again? " the purple mare asked
" I doubt it. Chrysalis would only agree, if she finds another source of food for her folk. " Hase replied
The stallion didn't feel when his eyes closed. When they opened again, however, it was morning. The tents were... burning?
" Fire! " the pegasus jumped back on his hooves. Strange, only the prequestrians answered his call. Luckily, they suceeded to put out the fire with the remaining buckets of water. There was a river nearby, so that wasn't a problem.
" Where are everypony? " Twister asked
" Look! " the eyes of Crescent spotted something.
A huge army. Their friends... either chained, or captured another way. Fluttershy, as the Shyulk, was fighting the walls of a spell, but they seemed to be unbreakable. The Iron Stalion and the War Marechine were standing on the ground, with their heads hanging. Obviously an EMP strike had disabled the suits and now Djarvis was trying to reboot the systems. Thor's hammer was in another unbreakable magic field, while Thor himself was chained in twice the number of the chains, than the ponies, that didn't have any super powers. Blaze the Fire Lord was captured in an orb of water, Hydro and Glace were in a circle of fire, that raised and melted every one of their escape attempts. Twilight and the Princesses were in the Eternal Bonds. The Black Widow had no suit on, and Hawk's bow was just next to him, but guards with whips guarded it.
Crescent immeadietly recognized the leader of the squad. After all, she had given him the scar herself.
" Remember me, Crescent? if you had let me take those amulets none of this would of happened! " the scared unicorn yelled at the mare. Crescent levitated two blades and threw them at him, but a force field around the stallion blocked them. He grinned:
" You still think you can solve all of your problems with knives? Those ponies you got here... Sabredance was right. They will be perfect hosts for his allies. But you... instead of fighting, why don't you just come with me? I can forgive. Don't fight, when there is no point. " the stallion looked at his old friend. But the unicorn mare just threw another two blades at him, together with the word:
" Never! "
" Than finally I shall have my vengeance! For each drop of blood, that fell off my wound that night, I'll take 10 galons! " the unicorn raised a knife and neared Luna.
" Vengeance! That's it! " Hase got an idea
" What? " Twister asked the pegasus
" If I concentrate good enough, I may summon the Bow of Vengeance! It's arrows pass through any shielding and we won't have to get closer! "
" What about that Spear? " Crescent nodded at Hase' newest weapon.
The stallion aimed for the army and a multicoloured bolt of energy was fired. A shield, that covered the whole army, stopped it. The pegasus got angry and fired two balls with his Chaotic powers, but the result was the same. The scared stopped half the way to Luna, turned to the four ponies, smiled and spoke:
" Try as hard as you can, son of Vortex. Nothing can breach this field. Or can it? Let's give you some motivation: we'll start with the ones, closest to your heart: your beloved and your father.
The stallion passed by the Princesses and the Lords and reached Vortex and Rarity, who were next to each other. As the knife neared the neck of the white unicorn, the head of Hase ached from anger. He let it out in a single word:
" BOOOOW! "
The knife was an inch of the mare's neck, when, amused, the unicorn turned to the pony again:
" Oh, you are trying to collect all of the weapons? Maybe there is hope for you. I should tell the Spirits, that you are a fit king for them. But sadly, first your little friend will have to die... " the scared turned around.
But before he completely turned around, something stuck in his back. He fell on his knees. The stallion felt the arrow burn it's way through his muscles. A nearby soldier pulled it out, before it killed him. Though it hurt like hay, the unicorn stood up on his hooves with the help of two of his troops. Again he smiled and greeted the son of Vortex:
" A hero... a hero wouldn't of been able to summon such a weapon so quickly. A hero would know when to give up. But you are ready to sacrifice the world for the ones you love. You aren't a hero. And besides, how did you think you would kill me with an arrow, that doesn't make me bleed? "
" If you want blood, you've got it. " Hase referenced the Es/Ds song as another arrow hit the scarred between his eyes. Immeadietly after that, he fired four melting arrows in the chains of Pony and Dash. The iron ponies assaulted the army from the inside. The unicorns, producing the force field, got distracted and it fell apart. Now nothing could of stopped the attack of the Prequestrians. While Hase guarded their backs and shot surprising arrows, Forge swung his hammer around him and moved forward. The Hammer gained momentum quickly and soon Forge was in the eye of a hammer tornado, that smited everything on it's way. One soldier somehow went between the hammer and Forge, but he was quickly eliminated by Hase, who shot an arrow in his throat. Unlike before, now the arrow didn't pass through the pony's neck, burning everything on it's path as before, but remained in his throat. The horrible part was, that the soldier somehow avoided the hammer again and left alive, trying to get the arrow off his neck. But after he did so, a strong stream of blood flowed through the hole and the pony fell on the ground.
Hase tried to use non- lethal arrows. He found out, that he is able to fuel the arrows with Chaotic magic. So instead of using lethal arrows, he tried to make them non- lethal. He fired an arrow at a pony, who was going to hit Thor in the neck. After the arrow hit the soldier, a lightning bolt struck the nearby two troops, stunning them. Obviously Thor got inspired from this, because he summoned a huge thunder, that cleaned a whole squad of his way. Hawk joined the bowpony party and fired an arrow after an arrow. His arrows were just as effective as the Bow of vengeance' magic arrows, so the two archers decided to compete.
" Four. " Hawk noted, after three ponies were disoriented from miniature flares from an arrow, stuck in their friend's left flank. Hawk hit them with his bow and they fell unconcious.
" Five. " one of the dark arrows of Hase detonated in mid- air, freezing 5 ponies.
" Six. " one of Hawk's arrows split in 6 pieces in the air and hit a group of soldiers. Apparently there was some kind of paralytic toxin in them, because the ponies fell like if they were statues.
" Seven. " One of the arrows opened a sand hole in the ground. Seven ponies sunk in the ground to their necks, and than it closed again, leaving the heads out.
" Girls, you're both pretty. Now can we get back to the fight? " Natasha Romanoff, wearing the Widow, jumped nearby and kicked a soldier, that was going to hit Hawk.
Though all of the ponies fought like one, the soldiers were too many. Hase barely appeared to stop the pegasus fighters from hurting him seriously. He had to move the Shield of Horror too fast. And in the air he was an easy target. So he landed on the ground, put the bow in it's magical quiver on his back, that miraculously appeared together with the bow. Enough archery for today. It was time for the real combat.
As he landed, the pegasus swung his whip at a nearby soldier and pulled him in front of the nearby Twilight, who together with Applejack and Wanda Maximoff were attacking one of the squad of archers, that were a pain in the flank for Hase, while he was in the air. And this pony came just in time. A second before the pony turned to smoke from the burning touch of the Whip of Rage, it served as a living shield for the purple alicorn, guarding her from a barrage of arrows. The arrows burned, before they got to the Scarlet Witchmare, and Captain equestria hid behind her shield, but the arrows would of proved fatal for the young princess. She nodded at Hase and together with the other two mares eliminated the squad. Meanwhile the stallion with the multicoloured mane continued on his way with the Whip of Rage and the Berserker mace levitating around him. In the beggining Hase mainly used the flexibility of his whip to keep the enemies far enough, but later they became too much for such strategy, so he put the whip back in it's bag and attacked with the mace. Red oreol shone around the pegasus, guarding him from any harm. When Hase first used the Mace, he didn't think while attacking. But now he fought with clear mind and didn't let the Art of War guide him.
Eventually, the fight moved near the river. It was a clever move, because after Hase looked back, he saw, that the enemy was pushing them to the high cliffs. So with the magic of the Void he created a wall, shrouded in darkness. Dusk helped him decrease the light and the enemies didn't understand about the wall at all. He gathered the whole group around him and spoke:
" I'm sad to say that, but no spear, hammer, mace or bow can deal with the number of the enemy. They are pushing us to the high banks of the river. If we fall, those of us, who can't fly, won't survive. So we need another plan. Fear will be the best option. "
" So, you'll use the Shield? " Luna asked
Hase shook his head:
" It won't work.Those soldiers are trained to have no fear... from the normal. If we create something, unseen utill now, then we might find their weak spot. If we all use our powers to create the ultimate monster, they can do nothing but run. " the pegasus smirked.
Meanwhile the soldiers were wondering what happened. Suddenly there was a thick mist - a trick of those wizards for sure. Such ponies threatened the wellbeing of the millions of families of the Empire, Sabredance said. He used that to motivate them, of course. Secretly he had a deal with the Spirits - to bring them the perfect host for their Queen, a mare, called Rarity. So the warriors were ordered to bring the group alive. But they continued to bump into trees. The commander felt stupid. Their genious plan stopped... by a tree. Or many trees?
Suddenly the earth shook. Again. When it shook for the third time, a 30 feet tall dragon jumped out of the mist and stood in front of the army. The soldiers have slain many dragons, so they just threw spears at it. But they were magically diversed. A dragon, that was able to use magic? Now that was different. The soldiers stepped back. The dragon was brown in colour, but burning red lights passed through his whole body, including his wings, made out of ice, that constantly melted, but grew again.
" I am the Elemental Dragon, wielder of the elements. What are you doing in my foresssst? " the dragon husstled
The commander went in front of his troops and replied:
" Monster, get off our way or get slain. We are looking for something far more dangerous than you. "
The dragon didn't like those words. He grabbed something in his front claws and lifted them. it was Hase and Loky.
" Oh, you mean those weaklings? They are no match for me, the Master of the Sun and the Moon. " the dragoon squuezed the two ponies.
Loky vanished in bright light and Hase turned to smoke. In the same time the clouds formed a hole, through which the sun was seen. The moon came in front of it. Some got scared from this and attacked the dragon. The dragon either put them on fire, freezed them with it's wings or just grabbed them in his claws and threw them back at their army. The dragon roared, which echoed through the whole valley and the helmets of the soldiers fell of their heads.
" I don't fear you, beast! " the commander rushed at the dragon and threw his spear at him. The dragon just shrouded in darkness. There was blue light and suddenly the commander ran out of the cloud, without realizing, that he ran in the wrong way. He realized when his back was pierced by one of the crystal nails of the dragon. The soldiers didn't need anything else. They just threw their weapons and ran in direction the passage.
" Well, that was funny. " Pinkie noted.
The mist vanished. The magical wall faded. The ruby eyes of the dragon lost their living shine and the monster fell apart, turning to ice, stone and some gems.
" Nice work everypony! " Hase congratulated them.
The whole thing was just a scheme. If the soldiers saw what happened backstage, they would of never ran away. The dragon was built after Landrock formed the stones and Glace made the ice wings. The ice lord stopped them from melting, while the fire blood ran across the dragon's surface, hiding the cracks between the stones. The magic, diversing the spears was just Breeze's wind. Neither Loky or Hase died. Actually the victim of the reptile was just Loky's copy, and Hase vanished a part of a second before he was smashed. The trick with the sun eclipse was made by Luna and Celestia.
The pegasus felt something covering his wings. When he turned around, he saw a dark robe with holes in it's end, as the wing of a changeling, but otherwise it almost looked like a normal robe. It was just his size. He knew, that this was the Robe of Illusion.
Now he got almost all of them.
The group looked at the castle. They got no more than a day, untill they reached it.
" The end is near. We should be careful. " Crescent spoke.
Dark End
" For good or bad, we are here. " Celestia whispered.
The group had sneaked up in castles many times. The castle of Blaze, the castle of Breeze, the castle of Dusk... too many dark castles and this one was no exception. The fact, that servants constantly passed through the rooms, carrying , Celestia knows why ( altough in the case she didn't ) , cheese and wine. When they asked Twister, the one, that knowed the ruler the best, he answered:
" Sabredance is from Prance. He realized he wouldn't suceed there, so he signed up here. From a normal soldier to an officer, from an officer to a general. Eventually he took the throne, using a splinter squad, loyal only to him. They are now his guards, and his enemies are forced either to sign up in the army, or to become his servants, or to get killed. he had a lot of enemies. And he loves cheese with wine. As everypony from Prance, his weaknesses are cheese, wine and pretty mares. "
However, they were now literally on the front door of the prench fencing devils and wondered how to sneak in there without getting noticed. Suddenly, the door opened and revealed the ruler smiling, while eating cheese in his throne. He ever had a fake swirly moustache. There were no guards, but right next to his throne there were the Nightmare Spirits. After he had finished with the cheese, he clapped with hooves. A servant took the dish away, while the king focused on his guests:
" Enter the room, mes amis. I don't want you to catch a fíevre, while standing in my corridor. What will my friends say later: " he let his enemies die in the cold, instead of meeting them in a fair fight. Pas! You will die from the cold of my épée, not from the cold of my couloir. "
Since they had revealed themselves anyway, the group entered the throne room. The door closed behind them. Sabredance' grin became even more annoying, as he continued speaking with french accent and random Prench words:
" Who do we have here? Les Mane 6? Les siegneurs des éléments? La Écarlate Sorciére? Oh, and the Avengers!
L'Union fait la force. So what brings you to my humble abode? "
"The usual. We are here to détrôner you. " Rarity replied.
The grin on the face of the stallion became even more annoying:
" La dame tries to speak Prench... pour moi? "
" Nein. " Forge's interruption was probably a blessing, because it ended the smile of Sabredance:
" Fou, " nein " is in German. " the muzzle of the ruler wrinkled
" Than you'd know what I call der Rüstüng Zerbrecher. "
Forge threw his hammer at the throne. One of the spirits caught it with it's mane. Luckily, the smith suceeded to pull it back, but it became obvious, that it wouldn't be so easy. The pony on the throne smiled and got up from it:
" Let's leave the foreign languages for now. You are probably Horsegard's interdimensional back- up. Honestly, I don't care about this Horsegard or any other one, as long as they don't interrupt in my business. What do you have against me ruling this dimension? "
" Nothing... except that your brutal rule destroyed millions of lifes . " the Prequestrian Loky replied
" Let me guess... Loky. You've been missing from my dead enemies list. We'll add you now. And why don't we add some of your friendly neighbour- dimension Horsegardians too? " the Equestrian Loky fired a blue bolt at the ruler, but he blocked it with one of his swords.
" Funny, but first, I need to give credit to the Nightmare Spirits. " Sabredance clapped and the Nightmare Spirit, that stood next to him, grinned:
" My name... is Darknight. I am the commander of the Lunar Army and the pony, who commands us, when our king and queen are missing. Luckily, they are soon going to be back. " he glared at Rarity and Hase " Perfect. "
The pegasus pulled rarity closer to him and stretched his bow. He was just rewarded with a bigger smile:
" A wepon, perfect for a king. It will victoriously lead us in many battles. "
The dark grey stallion spirit was wearing armour and a sword. Hase' arrow didn't have a hole to pass through, and probably wouldn't of done any damage, so he put the bow back on his back.
" Not so fast, you have a score to settle with me. " Twister split from the pack and got the sword out of it's scabbard. The king looked surprised:
" Twister! Your father wouldn't be happy to see you, colt. Let me spare you the painful death - I promise a quick stab. "
" We'll see who's the better. " the unicorn stepped in the circle carpet. Sabredance grinned even more and stepped into that circle too. Suddenly it raised off the floor and went through the ceiling.
" Magic carpets...Can phase. I hope your friend is good. Sabredance is sure a good swordspony. Not better than me, of course. Now, who wants to taste my sword? " the armoured unicorn stepped forward. Hase stepped forward too. Rarity tried to hold him back, but he ripped off.
" I wouldn't be able to unleash my true power against my future king, but let it be - even holding back I'll win- without our powers, you are weak. " Darknight spoke and got his sword at the ready, holding it with his mane
" Say that again, " Hase' whip levitated in front of him " , I dare you, I double dare you. " he replied, using one of Nick Fury's favourite answers.
Without any command the unicorn and the pegasus jumped at each other. The remaining Nightmare Spirits attacked the group. The Prequestrians rushed to the stairs to aid Twister. So Darknight and Hase were surrounded by a living wall of enemies and allies. The unicorn was good with the sword. Without any effort he hurt both Hase'knee and his neck. Using normal magic he healed. Than he threw a ball of dark energy at his adversary. The Nightmare Spirit blocked it with his blade and replied smiling:
" We've never had a Chaotic king untill now. Those Weapons, the power of the Void, united with the power of a Nightmare Spirit... you would be invincible! Why giving invincibility away? "
" Invincible and evil. Not a good combo. " Hase answered, leaving a burning mark on Darknight's front hooves. They filled up with smoke and healed too. Exploiting his confusion, the unicorn pushed him on the ground and tried to hit him with the sword like if it was a bat. But the pegasus jumped back on his hooves and the strike of the spirit missed, leaving a part of his skin on his left shoulder exposed. The son of Vortex hit him in it, but it just healed again. His enemy turned around, slashing with his sword. The pegasus ducked and tried to keep distance with his whip. Whenever the knight tried to attack, he was blocked by the whip. It worked for a minute, untill the unicorn jumped over and hit Hase in the back. It was time to switch weapons.
The group's fight wasn't much easier. They were constantly protecting Rarity from the Spirits, who tossed around the Spirit of their queen like a volleyball and tried to find a way to get it closer to their target. One of the spirits, a sprit mare of honour nearly got close enough, but Thorse hit her with Mjolnir and she fell 10 feet away.
Another one and another one. The first was eliminated by Hawk's steady aim, and Pony Stark fed a repulsor to the second. The light made a group of spirits circle him. Parts of the shoulders of the Iron Stallion opened, revealing at least 20 miniature missiles. They fired and several spirits fell on the ground incapacitated. Meanwhile several other tried to sneak behind Rarity, but the Black Widow and Loky were hard to get over. Natasha Romanoff jumped at the first, pretending she was going to kick him in the chest. The spirit immeadietly covered his chest with a part of his mane, which, whenever the spirits wanted, was hard as a shield. But a second before she landed she punched him in the face, leaving him unconcious. The second one was surrounded by Loky's ghost copies. he hit again and again, untill finally he was hit in the head from the real Loky's scepter.
Tornado hit two of them into the wall. Breeze nodded at Hydro and Glace, who, before the two Spirits could realize what happens, freezed them to a nearby pillar. They struggled to get away, but they didn't succed. Nearby another three were protecting themselves from the flame stream of Blaze. Unfortunately for them, that was a trap. They bumped in the wall and 20 feet high crystals closed them. They grew, untill they reached the ceiling.
" High hoof! " Landrock and Blaze celebrated
The Light and Darkness twins were running in circle very fast, leaving a trail of light and darkness behind them. Eventually the circle exploded in black- white, which let the nearby attackers, who tried to assault the brothers as soon as they stopped spinning, with spinning eyes, on the floor.
Dash and Applejack were fighting back - to - back. One Spirit attacked. AJ's shield bounced of him, but he striked again. The two mares switched positions and the Iron Patriot's pulse turret fired fiercly at the enemy. The spirit fell on the ground stunned. Meanwhile one of the Spirits jumped on the War Marechine's back and tried to rip off her turret. Captain Equestria saw this and hit the unaware attacker in the back.
Only holding for the cannon, the Spirit spun and ended directly in front of Dash' face. He was knocked out by an iron pummel. The mare turned around to thank Applejack, because Rainbow Dash loved her turret, but currently she was busy throwing shields. Dash decided to thank later. Captain Equestria threw her shield at one of the mares of honour, making her to fall. When the shield returned, Applejack slammed the mare of honour' s face with it. She whispered :
" Oh, my! How rude! " and fell unconcious.
' An' wah do they bring meah' a' hona in the battle anyway? ' the farmer wondered, before she returned to smacking spirits.
Thor and the Iron Stallion were surrounded. The moon knights swiped with their swords. The duo managed to dodge the attacks and even knocked out two or three, but the next attack was going to hurt them. Luckily, there was no next attack:
" SHYUUUULK SMAAAAASH! " the Shyulk jumped from the other side of the room and stomped the danger.
" TINPONY GOOD? HAMMER GOOD? " she asked Thor and Pony, after she hit her hooves against each other, a sign, that a lot of smashing awaited the Nightmare Spirits.
" Yes thanks, Shyulk, we are OK. " Pony replied, after a Unibeam cleared a row of ponies, that were heading for Rarity.
" It's always nice to have some brave old- school fist fighters. " obviously, the Spirits didn't appreciate Horsegardian humor and eventually the Thunder God had to summon thunder to clear them all. A huge lightning bolt breached the roof and made the attacking spirits look like a bad barbecue.
" SHYULK SMASHES FOR FRIENDS! FRIENDS NEED SHYULK! " the transformed Fluttershy jumped to the other end of the room, where Twilight and Pinkie were guarding Rarity. One of the Spirits let the Queen and she flew towards Rarity, but mid- air she faced an unbreachable wall - Shyulk's hoof.
The unlucky ball of darkness bounced back at the pony, who threw it. The green smasher roared, horrifying the nearby spirits. The ones, that didn't make a step back, were hit by the green hoof, which smacked them agaist the wall. Than Shyulk clapped with hooves and the shockwave made the rest of the Spirits, who surrounded the to unicorns and the party mare, crash in the other wall and make a deep hole in it. Shyulk smiled and jumped in another direction for more smashing.
Meanwhile, back in the center, Hase was using his mace to block the swishes and trusts of Darknight's sword. This proved challenging, since the mace was heavier than the sword, and blocking all attacks was impossible. Because the battle was too intense, the pegasus wasn't able to heal. His wounds bled every time he did some harder move. This was weakening him. But as he realized, none of the other weapons would of worked: the Whip couldn't block the attacks, in the fury of the fight an arrow from the Bow of Vengeance might of hit an ally, the Spirits were obviously immune to the effects of the Robe of Illusions and the Shield of Horror.
Once again, he wished, that the Armour of Extinction also protected his limbs. His magic energy was nearly drained from the multiple magic attacks. He now only depended on the Mace, the Spear and his Chaotic skills. Though now the Mace proved too slow, so he put it on his back and got out the Spear. The multiple bags on his back constantly slowed him down. Suddenly, he got a blessing. The stallion commanded the weapons to dissapear. This only took a spark of his energy, but the Weapons of Destruction dissapeared from his back. He still felt them connected to his mind, so he could of summonned them again at any time, but his speed increased, which played his enemy a bad joke.
Hase quickly dodged one of his swipes, jumped over his head and hit him in the neck. Electricity flowed through the spear and the pony's body, making him fall unconcious. An ancient electrical tazer. The pegasus grinned, but his smile melted, as he saw a Spirit near Rarity from behind. It took half a second for him to summon the bow and fire, but the Spirit was faster. An arrow hit him in the head, but it was too late. Hase made both of his weapon dissapear and got ready for the worst.
After the Queen Spirit engulfed her, Rarity screamed in horror, but these screams soon turned to a victorious laugh, as the smoke revealed the mane of Nightmare Rarity, flowing like a waterfall upside down. Sadly, soon a golden helmet covered it magically and the only thing, that resembled Rarity in her evil copy vanished. The horn of the unicorn shone, throwing the group behind Hase and drawing all of the Spirits next to her. They quickly awakened and smirked, looking at their Queen.
" Holy moly... " Applejack whispered
" Well, I wouldn't say it's nice to meet you again, " the hypnotic voice of the royalty echoed through the hall " , weaklings, not even having a sence of fashion. "
" Evil was modern last year! " Pinkie yelled at the Spirits
" Indeed it was, but it's still modern even now... or at least I am! " Nightmare Rarity replied
A blue magic bolt flew at her, but with a strand of her mane the Queen easily dodged it.
" Seriously, Luna? " the unicorn grinned " You think a small bolt of your ancient magic will remove me from your way? No. I admit, last time I just craved for the dramatic effect, but it wasn't the truth. Let me say it now... Rarity isn't gone, my little ponies, I am Rarity! "
" You're not our Rarity! " Pinkie threw a baloon at the Spirits, but the royalty just grinned again:
" I guess that's your favourite phrase... but it's such a cliché. Like those Elements of harmony! You have to use them all the time? Huh! How annoying! Anyway, this time you won't be able to use them... for the second time. But I see, you're expanding your Circus Equestrié. How original! But don't think your technocrates, gods or whatever you have in mind will stop me! There's no such power... "
" There is. " Hase interrupted her.
" What do you have in mind, Cursed One? " Nightmare Rarity smirked
" Good one, boss. " somepony whispered
" Tribute. " Hase ignored Nightmare rarity's reply " If I volunteer to be your king, would you let Rarity go? "
" What? You wouldn't... " at first Nightmare Rarity was worried, but then Daeknight blinked with one eye and her smile returned:
" Very well. Step forward. "
" Hase, thes' spirits neva' tell da truth! Ya shouldn't trust 'em! " Applejack stopped Hase from making the first step.
" I know, AJ. " the pegasus replied " But no magic, suit of armour or lightning bolt would defeat these Spirits. The Elements of Harmony are your only hope... "
" Wha did ya say " yah only hope? " " Applejack got even more worried
" According to my father, the King spirit builds a far more powerful connection with the host, than the Queen. I probably won't survive the separation. "
" Than ya shouldn' t go! Maybe if we all unite... "
" AJ, look me in the eyes and say I ain't honest. " the stallion smiled and took the step foraward. The group's mood fell to the ground. They retreated to the door and nervously watched.
" Begin! " Nightmare Rarity commanded. A dark ball of smoke with twice the size of the unformed Quuen Spirit, flew towards Hase. Just before it touched his forehead, it suddenly stopped in mid- air about an inch from Hase' face. The Spirits looked confused. The stallion laughed:
" You don't think I'll just let you possess me before you do as I wished, do you? "
" You are a fool, Hase Vortexson! We would never let our Queen go! The King would eventually find it's way to you! No normal magic or chaotic magic can stop him forever! " Darknight laughed.
" Alright than. " suddenly the smoke surrounded and covered Hase, but his voice was still to be heard. But it now was more powerful, more echoing, something like his version of the Royal Canterlot Voice. " Give all of your power... to meee! "
Dark aura surrounded all of the Spirits. A vortex opened in the smoke, surroundidng Hase, and sucked this aura into itself. As a spirit's aura slowly vanished, their coats lightened and they looked more like normal ponies.
" Ah... what's the magician's show all about? " Pony was confused
" Yes, really, what is he doing? " Celestia was even more confused
Vortex' eyes filled with tears and his mane became black.
" I've never seen anything like it before. Hase is taking the whole Essence of Death for himself... he is sacroficing himself for the whole nation of the moon ponies. "
" What? " Twilight was horrified
" Hey, that isn't right! There are only about a dozen of those moon ponies! " Dash noticed
" Magic always finds a way. " Vortex became even more sad " Look! "
Between the Spirits, a huge portal has opened. dark aura flowed through it, right into the smoke vortex. As Rarity slowly regained her white colour, Twilight noticed something strange: Rarity wasn't shrinking, her mane didn't stop flowing in the air and her coat began to shine... like the moon.
Eventually, the portal closed and all of the dark aura was into the smoke. The confused Spirits used- to -bes were walking around, wondering what had happened, crying, laughing or using strange moon phrases like " Holy crater! " , " What the rock! " and etc.
Rarity had some height problems and was constantly falling. Luckily, the former Darknight was helping her getting back on her unusually long hooves. When they neared, the group heard their conversation:
" It feels strange. Isn't there a couch nearby? "
When he heard that, the knight reacted immeadietly:
" Right away, my queen! Guards! Bring her Shining Highness a throne! And do it quickly! "
Two of the guards ran scared and tried to move Sabredance' throne. Rarity blushed and replied:
" The fact, that I am a fashion queen doesn't mean, that I am your queen. "
" I protest, my queen, you are now the Moon Queen and those lazy as crater slug royal guards should better move their flanks or I'll take their swords and melt them... "
" I, I need a little help here, girls... wow. You're low. Celestia, Luna, Vortex... they are as tall as I am? What the ruby happens here? " the unicorn was really confused and fell. Luckily, the " lazy as crater slug " guards had ripped the throne off the floor and Rarity fell on the pillows.
" Rarity... you might want to look at a mirror. " Dash's voice was heard from the Iron Patriot
" What darling? Ah... a mirror. Hey, you, what was your name again? " Rarity turned to the unicorn, who constantly followed her.
" It's Light Warrior, my queen. "
" Well, Light Warrior, I'll be grateful if a mirror is present? " Rarity tried to get off the throne, but didn't do well.
" Immeadietly my queen! A crystal mirror for the Queen, move, move, move! " Light Warrior commanded. The guards looked at each other. One of them obviously got over his fears:
" No crystal mirrors are present, sir. "
The unicorn with the short floating mane frowned:
" A silver one? "
" No, sir. "
The unicorn hit his hoof against his forehead and asked again:
" A ... glass one? "
" Is present, sir, yes, sir! "
Light smiled. Two of the guards moved the mirror in front of the throne. Rarity wasn't paying attention, but when she accidentally glared upon the mirror, her pupils widened and she jumped in the air:
" Holy Celestia! "
Indeed it was a surprising look. Rarity looked like a Princess. The gold armour, that once covered Nightmare rarity's chest was now silver. The medalion of Generocity had grown to a big necklace with many saphires. The whole coat of the mare shone and a beatiful helmet covered Rarity's head. Sparks appeared in the unicorn's eyes and from excitement she fell back on the throne.
" You should officially say " Holy me! " from now on, my queen! " Light Warrior noted.
Rarity nodded, but suddenly stared at the mirror again. She removed the helmet from her head and her long mane flowed in the air.
" Get rid of it. " Rarity dropped the helmet on the floor. " This mane should never be hidden. "
" Ah... what happened? " Twilight was confused
" Let me explain, my queen. " Light Warrior asked for permission. His queen nodded.
" So, listen up, girl... I mean your highness. " Light Warrior got a bit upset, after he saw Twilight's wings and horn" I am Light Warrior, commander of the Royal Guard of the Moon and the Lunar Army. First, you need to know something. The kings and queens of the moon were elected by their crowns. The crowns were magical artefacts, that only chose the right ones. This ability has passed to the Nightmare Royal Spirits too. The Nightmare Royal Spirit will give much more power to the right host. That's why it was harder to defeat Nightmare Rarity, than to defeat Nightmare Moon... no offence, Princess Luna. "
" None taken. " Luna replied, cheered
" Thank you. Rarity is chosen to be our new queen. As I see, there might be some delays about the king, but the king is clear too. " the worried commander looked at the cloud of darkness, that gathered in a spheric form in the center of the room. " The crowns don't distinct ponies by their race, they judge by their personality. By a day or two, the Moon Queen's crown will appear on her head. "
" How often do you switch your kings and quens? And how to keep this manecut after that? " Rarity asked
" If the bearer becomes unworthy, the crown falls of his or her head. But this had happened only once. Our first king died mysteriously and his son wanted the throne. He got it, but the crown constantly fell off his head, Eventually, we dethroned him and a pony from the folk got the crown. We had only three kings, after all. You are our first Queen since the destruction of the old Equestria, my queen. So don't worry about your manecut." Light Warrior smiled.
" Let's don't forget the main attraction, shall we? " a voice, resembling the one of Hase, spoke. The group turned around.
A tall pegasus stood in front of them. His height was the same as Vortex' , Luna's, Celestia's and Rarity's. His wing span was 12 feet. His eye ring was dark purple, his eyes emitted hatred. An armour, probably the Dragon Armour, covered not only his torso, but also his hooves. A robe, the Robe of Illusions covered his back, carefully going around his wings. Under it a quiver could of been recognized. The Spear of Hatred and the Berserker Mace levitated in the air around him.
A helmet of dark metal covered his head, but most of his mane got out, instead of shifting colours as it floated in the air, slowly gaining a permanent colour - dark violet. His coat was darker than the darkest of nights. His eyes with dark purple eye rings left trails with the same colour behind them.
" Greetings, celestial and non- celestial friends. My name is Hase... Sounds good, doesn't it? Tartarus, way better than Nightmare Moon. " the creepy voice echoed again.
" You are not... "
" Not your Hase? " Hase interrupted Pinkie " No, of course not. I am the real Hase, the way I was ment to be. "
" What do you mean under " ment to be " ? " Twiight asked
A grin appeared on the muzzle of the pegasus, his pearly white teeth in full contrast with his coat:
" I'll leave that surprise for later. As you probably know from my appearance, I don't root for the good guys anymore. I emit evil, don't I? I'm sure I look pretty evil. And eventually, everything ended bad, right, Twi? " Twilight lowered her head
" But I'm not just evil, right daddy - o? This helmet... come on, remind them. "
Vortex stared at his son and spoke with a sad voice:
" The Helmet of Supremacy would only reveal it's true form on the head of the most evil pony, that had existed, exists and will exist in this universe. "
" Voalá! " Hase grinned " The most evil of them all. I'll ruin the surprise, but anyway... spoiler alert! Ask Chrysalis."
" Chrysalis?!? " Dash's voice sounded angry.
" You'll have the chance to ask her... personally. " a portal opened behind the group and the group barely managed to hold on the nearest objects.
" Where.... are you sending us? " Twilight yelled, because the air being sucked into the vortex was pretty loud.
" More like when. " Hase replied and a dark magic blew up the objects the ponies where holding for. The group was sucked into the portal and the last thing they heard was their former friend's haunting laugh.
To be continued...