Phantoms of the Truth

Chapter 13 Act 1

Mt Lyric

*2 Weeks Later: Location Mt Lyric, Prison*

It’s been too long since the darkness consumed the land, no one could prepare for the 5 Anchors of Shadows to descend and cast the world into chaos. Many tried to fight, but failed, others just tried to survive, hoping one day the elements or someone would come to save them from this nightmare.

That day however, was closer than they knew.

As guards patrolled the area of the menacing and dark prison. A shadow jumped between shadows like light escaping from the darkest reaches of the void. As soon as one guard turned the shadow moved.

Then it was in. The halls were as white as marble and housed many captives as they watched the guards and each other from their glass cages. Levels upon levels descended and ascended into the mountain as the shadow became clear as day. It was a simply security bot.

It walked the halls as many prisoners chatted and cursed at the machine as it didn’t pay them a sideways glance. Soon the bot came to a halt as a sign hung above its head as it read.

*Mess Hall*

*Repair Station*

*Element Holding Cell*

*Overseers’ Office*

The bot nodded to itself as it travelled down the ‘Element Holding Cell’. As it approached the doors it saw no guards as no one could really get in here without being spotted. As the bot approached the glass door it peered in and saw the two chained ponies, they were beaten and looked worn out but alive. The bot then looked down at the panels.

*Rainbow Dash: Element of Loyalty: Pegasus*

*Pinkamina Diane Pie: Element of Laughter: Earth Pony*

The bot then began to mess with the controls until the hiss of the door came and it opened, however this alerted ‘Everyone’. But the bot didn’t care as it began to make its way towards the two. Pinkie was snoring and Dash was weakly awake.

“What? Co-come to gloat?” She weakly mocked as the bot just stared at her before lifting its hands towards her as she just glared back “Do your worst.”

*Snap-clank-clank*

Before the two mares knew (Pinkie awake now) they hit the ground as the bot turned to face the doorway before pressing a button on its arm. A few seconds later yelling, metal clashing and guns blazing were ringing out into the facility.

The bot then turned back to the two mare confused mares as its red eyes turned to purple.

“Pinkie help me get Dash out of here!” Twilight said as her voice emanated from the bot

“Wait… Twi?” Dash asked as Pinkie and her had already helped her to her feet

“Yes, it me, I’ll explain later but for now we have a prison riot to attend to,” She said determinedly

“Since when did you become Blaze!?” Pinkie asked excitedly as she bounced along

“About the same time we all met him,” Twilight sighed in amusement as they made their way to the exit, along with everyone else

Twi-bot then approached the door as she carefully handed Dash to Pinkie. Before she approached the door, she saw the blood on her hands and shivered but shrugged it off.

“What was it he said before? ‘When one door closes, use a nearby wall and smash it in with brute force’,” Twilight thought before yelling and throwing her mechanical fist into the door multiple times before the door went flying off the side of the bridge

“Come on! Run before they send reinforcements!” Twilight ordered as everyone ran across the bridge to freedom, all that was left was Twilight

As she ran she felt like something was behind her, she turned and saw two massive hands grab her chest as she tried to fight but failed as Krux lifted her off her feet.

“Now where do you think you’re going?” He teased as he dug his hands into the metal frame and began to tear it apart, then there was a flash of purple light and Twilight appeared beside her friends, sweat pouring from her head as she held it in pain

“Oh, I see, you hacked into one of my drones with your magic, cleaver, but that must have taken a lot out of you? ” Krux applauded as he tore the machine in half and threw them to the sides of the bridge

Twilight didn’t waste any time as she blasted Krux in the face as he stumbled back but just laughed, for a thing without a mouth, it was annoying.

“My, my you really are something Twilight, but sadly your little rescue ends here,” Krux said as he unholstered his blades and held them to his sides

“But, seeing as you infiltrated my prison, freed my captives, and somehow fended off the guards I’ll give you a chance,” He said as he looked among the injured

“I’ll let everyone else go, no strings attached, but you, Dash and Pinkie are to remain here as my captives, forever.” Krux offered as Twilight along with a now angry looking Pinkie stood, glaring at the bot

“Will never make a deal with you,” Twilight spoke sternly as Pinkie nodded

“Yea you big meenie!” Pinkie added as she stuck her tongue out

“*Sigh* you really shouldn’t have said that,” Krux said in defeat as his eyes just glared at them, even without a mouth they knew he was smiling

Then his two blades extended into massive blade-whips as he swung them in an ‘X’ formation, heading towards them at high velocity. The 2 of them stood their ground as others covered their eyes or just shook with fear.

*CLASH-SHINK*

All eyes soon opened and saw what appeared to be another robot, but unlike the others it’s bottom face was showing, and smirking as it deflected the two whips.

“Sorry I took so long,” Blaze spoke as he swung his blade around “But teleportation is really annoying,”

“You could say that again,” Serafin added as she rubbed her head and stood behind him “You got this, right?”

“No promblemo, besides i really want to try my new ability,” Blaze said cheerfully as the rest all smiled back at him as he nodded “Now then, let’s dance,”

“I don’t know how you broke through the severed wormholes, but it won’t matter now, because your journey ends here!” Krux roared as he saw Blaze’s body ignite into flames as he smiled

*Blazing Trail*

“I like to see you try,” He dared as Blaze ran forward as a torrent of fire

Krux swung his two whip-blades towards him as Blaze spun in between them and struck Krux in the face as he dodged another attack and brought his sword upwards, amputating Krux’s right arm as he kicked him back.

Blaze didn’t however see the other whip ensnare him as Krux’s eyes lit up and began to throw Blaze into every conservable object, but the whip halted in mid-air as it began to melt from the fires surrounding Blaze.

“Can’t take the heat?” Blaze mocked as he just growled as his remaining arm digistructed into a cannon as it’s red aura built up

“DIE!” he said coldly as a massive beam of red shot towards Blaze

As Krux saw the beam impact his target, he was taken back as he saw the lazer decreasing in size as he saw Blaze blocking it with his weapon as he flew towards him.

“How? You were never this powerful before!” Krux spouted in disbelief as he saw his remaining split in half as he stumbled back, then his entire body was assaulted as Blaze swung faster than ever before

“That’s because you were never worth taking seriously,” Blaze whispered from behind as Krux tried to react but instead his systems went haywire and noticed the arm through his chest, holding the crystal

“Now, fall,” Blaze said as he pulled his hand back, leaving a massive hole in his chest as he stumbled to the edge of the bridge and soon he disappeared into the void

Blaze then threw the crystal into the air and sliced it into shards, holstering blade soon after as the clouds above began to clear, revealing to the world a blue sky once more. Blaze then sighed as he de-equipped his armour and shook his head.

“That. Was. Awesome!” He said as he approached the now cheering crowd “Hey, girls, what I miss?”

“Oh, nothing just the usual evil takeover!” Pinkie said cheerfully as he mane became its poofy self again

“Well it seems more than just a petty takeover, more like an invasion, what happened?” Serafin asked as she began to heal Dash’s injuries as Blaze just looked at her with sadness and rage

“Well, it was shortly after you left that Krux, Loki, Twivine, Loki’s new bot and . . . Omega, they severed the connection between our world and used those crystals to suck the positivity out of everything,” Twilight explained as Serafin finished with the healing process

“So, that means there’s still 4 more out there,” Blaze murmured as he looked towards the city in the distance and saw the black clouds hanging over the horizon

Blaze then got up and walked onto a higher spot as he looked over the survivors as they began to look over at him.

“Right, listen up! Everyone here is to return to a safer location, caves, homes, whatever and if you find anyone still out there help them get to safety!” Blaze ordered as they all looked around

“Look I know things may seem lost, that we might be at rock bottom, but listen when I tell you that we will win, we will take back our home,”

“So, stay strong, and don’t become divided, because if we turn our backs on each other than we’ve already lost this fight before it began,” Blaze finished as some began to clap as he jumped off the rock and then felt a pat on his back

“I guess your recklessness balances out after all,” Serafin commented as he smirked

"I aim to please," Blaze said happily

“My calculations say if we are going to even stand a chance of winning we’ll need the rest of the elements and we need to recover our strength, because if we, 'Someone' were to head out now the chances of being killed is high . . . really... really high, ” KAI added as Blaze nodded

“Alright then, we’ll move out in the morning, it’s getting late anyways,” Blaze added as some began to make camp and others began to move out to a better location

Blaze sat on a ledge as it looked out over the horizon, towards the city, he just looked on into the dark and gloomy world as he thought to himself and asked questions that plagued his mind.

“What am I going to tell them?” He thought aloud as he just sighed and felt the wind brush through him as he waited for anything to happen, anything to clear his mind

“You really are something, idiot.” Came a familiar voice as he turned to see Dash sitting next to him, some bandages covering her body

“You have no idea,” He said with a smile as she turned towards him

“Well I think I do, after all you are the one who kind of gets beaten up every other week,” Dash commented as he laughed sarcastically “But still, why can’t you just let us help you?”

“Because if I did you would only get hurt more, honestly I would love to let everyone know about ‘ME’ but I can’t do that without stomping over them first,” Blaze said in a more annoyed tone as he just punched the ground “I’m just a lost cause,”

“No you’re not,” Dash argued as she got him to look at her “You are not a lost cause, you’re my friend,” She then pulled him into a hug as they sat there for a minute before letting go

“I never took you as the one to get all mushy, Skittles,” Blaze said as he felt blood make its way into his face

“Well, hang around you long enough and you tend to pick up some traits,” She added with a smirk

“Touché,” Blaze laughed as they both then looked back out into the night sky, somehow it felt less cold but then Blaze pulled up his right hoof and saw the odd symbol branded into it, it consisted of lines, circles and some other symbols that formed a circle "1 down, 3 to go,"

"Hey Blaze, what's with that symbol?" Dash asked as he snapped out of the trance

"I don't know, I've had KAI run an analyses on it but nothing, but it looks familiar?" Blaze explained as they thought for a moment before gasping

"LOKI!" they said in unison

"Yea, that's right he used it to kick our asses back then, but that means..." Dash trailed off

"That means that my 'Blazing Trail' is only the first," Blaze finished as they both grinned

"Awesome!" They both cheered as they bro-hoofed

An orb kept replaying the battle between Krux and Blaze as it floated around a golden throne, its king laughing as he clapped with excitement.

"So 'Blazing Trail' ,huh?" Loki thought as he smiled and clicked his fingers as a mountain of fireworks appeared

“Now this is gunna be good!” Loki said as the sky lit up in a magical show of fireworks “LIGHT THE FUSES, BECAUSE THE SHOW’S JUST BEGUN!!!”

To Be Continued…