Phantoms of The Truth

Chapter 13 Act 3

The Deal

*Location: Border of Everfree*

“I’m back Equestria,” Neckros said as he glared at the Bot as he held his scythe to his side

“Did you miss me?” He asked smugly as the bot just stared at the Nightmare

“A.O!” It replied as Neckros just laughed slightly before turning to the group

“Yo, Serafin, hold Erika for a sec, would ya?” Neckros asked as he threw his scythe and she grabbed it in her magic

“You’re not seriously doing this?” She asked as he just hummed and she sighed “Idiot,”

“Right then, so I give you 1 chance to land a hit on me with everything you got,” Neckros challenged as the bot complied and began to swing its sickles around but Neckros put his hand out

“No, no you misunderstand me, I said hit me with Everything. You. Got,” He worded out carefully as the bot then charged at him as it duplicated into more than a dozen clones

Then after circling him they impaled the Nightmare in every inch of his body as he spat blood out from the wounds. They swiftly pulled back, taking chunks with them as black smoke rose from the black wounds.

Then he just laughed as AB twisted its head in confusion. Then it saw that he was perfectly fine as he snapped his fingers.

*Blazing Trail*

His body then lit up into purple flames as he smiled effortlessly and then he ran. AB didn’t even have a chance as he was struck multiple times, pieces of scrap and wires flew as Neckros tore into the Robot’s body, he even used his teeth as he ripped its arm clean off.

“Now, you see I know that you can copy abilities of the person you fight, that’s why you took Blaze out first, me on the other hand thought ahead,” Neckros began to explain as he held his hand out and Serafin threw him the scythe

“I never died back all those months ago, no I just waited and grew stronger, gaining new abilities, and becoming stronger than you ever thought possible,”

“To put it in perspective, not even the elements, combined with the monarchies could stop me now!” He said in a more demonic voice as he laughed like a maniac

The mane 6 just looked at him with such fear, to even rival the embodiment of it, they thought they won, they freed Blaze from his grasp, they were wrong and that made Neckros stronger. All the fear, the sadness and dread over all this time, he absorbed it and used it.

“Sadly, you’re not worth joking about as you did almost kill Blaze with that wire attack and I’m really~ pissed,” Neckros said as he shot his free hand up as AB began to twitch and groaned against the pain

“Sorry, this is a new one of mine, I call it ‘Soul Stitching’ and boy oh boy you are going to feel it, you see invisible wires are coursing through your body at this second, wrapping around your most vital components until…”

Then AB’s body sparked and began to crumple into pieces as Neckros then held his scythe out and dashed forward, then with one fell swoop he was on the other side of the fight, then the bot split in half from the attack, his body dissolving into smoke.

"Well i guess he was a 'Cut' above the rest!" Neckros joked as he laughed before looking at the horrified mares "What? bad taste?"

The wind was the only noise as they all watched in terror (Except Serafin) as Neckros turned around as he walked towards them. Dash was the first to react.

“I'll bloody kill you!” She yelled as she flew towards him with a murderous glare, but he just snapped his fingers and she froze, making the rest gasp

He then stepped to the left and clicked his fingers again and she flew into the ground as he laughed.

“Oh, boy you-you should have seen the look on your face hahahahahaha!!!” He laughed as this pissed her off more but he didn’t have any of it as he pointed the tip of his weapon to her throat

“Now, now, let’s not spoil the reunion, shall we?” he said as she gulped but then a new more feminine voice joined in and it had a nice, sweet voice to it

“Neckros, don’t you dare harm this poor mare!” She snapped as Neckros looked… spooked as he jumped back a few feet

“Um- I, uh, sorry, I wasn’t going to do anything! Seriously, like Blaze or you would let me!” He argued to the scythe as they all watched his fear and confusion

“Me and Blaze can both here your thoughts so don’t lie to us,” She continued, yes, the scythe was talking

“Us Nightmares are prone to having a snake tongue, not my fault!” He said as he crossed his arms, then a flash of red light appeared at his chest as Blaze came falling out

“He's got a point, you know?” Blaze added as Neckros nodded in victory “But you touch her and I’ll send you to hell personally,”

“Umm, Blaze? You know your standing right next to ‘Him’ of all demons!” Twilight shouted as he looked at him and then back to her

“Meh,” He said simply as he just sat down

“MEH!?” They all said in unison before Serafin sighed

“You might want to tell them why he’s here and alive,” Serafin said as Neckros clapped

“Yes, my favourite memory, well besides killing you of course,” Neckros responded as he looked at Dash but Blaze hit him “Kidding,”

“Alright, you all deserve to know why this phyco-“

“Hello!” Nekros shouted with a wave

“-Is still here, so, it all began just after I beat him…”

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*FLASHBACK*

The smoke surrounded Blaze as he looked down at the now smoking body of Neckros as he smiled, even though he was close to death.

“I got to admit Blaze, that was a fun fight, I mean you just grab guts from a badass and charged straight through my most powerful attack!” Neckros laughed as Blaze glared t him, tears still in his eyes

“You think this is funny?! You killed Dash, the one person who I could actually trust, and you killed her!?” He snapped as he kicked Neckros in the face as his smile remained “I hope you burn in the fires of hell forever,”

Blaze was about to walk away but something grabbed his neck and turned him around, he then looked at Neckros, his purple eyes near millimetres from his own.

“I’ll make a deal then,” Neckros said in a more serious tone, this confused Blaze

“What?” He asked

“I’ll be your Ally again, if you spare me, I’ll not harm a single hair on any one of your friends, no one of innocence will be slaughtered because of your rage anymore,” He said as Blaze snapped as he grabbed his collar

“Why would I make a deal with a monster like you!?” He asked, venom clear in his words

“Is it that hard to grasp? Well, Cyborg, since when does a Nightmare offer his power to someone? NEVER, so I would really reconsider,”

“Why?” Was all Blaze could say as his smile grew slightly

“Because not everything is Black and White,” Neckros finished

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*PRESENT DAY*

“After that, he’s been in the back of my mind ever since, the only ones who knew were Me, Serafin and KAI,” Blaze finished as they all looked at him with mixed feelings, what they didn’t notice was Loki sitting there as he wiped a tear from his eye

“That was beautiful, oh well can’t get rid of him now!” Loki shouted, alerting everyone to his presence

“I guess you finished cleaning up your mess then?” Applejack asked as she looked at him carefully

“Yep! Not an ‘E’ (sadly) missing from stuff and all buildings ‘not’ (sadly) crumbling to my chaos!” He listed off as he threw a book away

“Oh, and Loki also knew I was still here,” Neckros pointed out as certain glares went his direction

“Not my problem,” He said simply as he began to walk off in the direction of Ponyville “Well? You wanna save your world or not? Which I would happily burn, but I pretty sure Blaze has that covered,”

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Now before you ask, yes most of this is being skipped, why? Because The Walking Dead have that covered, Now then.

The Mane 8, now with Neckros and Loki, were about 2 miles from their home, the dark clouds spanned even further than the rest of the crystals and it felt even colder than the rest, it was the epicentre of it all.

Neckros however wasn’t bother by it, in fact he enjoyed it, but one thing was getting on his nerves. Well 2 actually. He then stopped as he turned to Rarity and Applejack as they stopped talking and looked at the Nightmare as his face remained the same.

“Here-“He said as he handed them his scythe “-if you ‘love’ talking about me so much then this should clear your empty heads of questions,” He then proceeded to talk with Serafin and Blaze

“Umm, hi? So what are you exactly?” Rarity asked as she tried not to freak out

“It’s alright if you’re both unconformable with my appearance, I understand, but my name is Erika, and as far a i know ive been in his form for about 1000 years,” She said as they both apologised but decided to ask questions, then one specific one came up

“So, Erika, how did such a ‘disturbing’ figure obtain your soul exactly?” Rarity asked, after finding out that Neckros had made a living weapon with her soul they began to feel more anger towards the Nightmare, that just helped him more

However, this bothered Erika a bit as she glowed with annoyance.

“I would much rather you refrain from insulting Neckros, thank you,” she warned as she sighed “He took my soul from my dying body, after an attack happened to my village, he then kept it until he forged me into a weapon, took him about 100 years or so to gather the pieces, so most of the time i would linger in his head,”

“You mean to tell me after you already suffered at the hands of attackers, that ‘Thing’ stole your soul and turned into ‘this’!?” Applejack snapped as Erika sighed

“Yes, but like I said before ‘don’t’ keep calling him that, and I was ok with him turning me into this, like i said i was in 'His' mind, not the most pleasurable experiences, also because a Marefriend has her limits you know,” She said harshly as they both stopped before whispering/shouting

“Are you nuts?! How could you like someone like ‘him’!?” Rarity whispered in, almost looking horrified

“I just can’t believe you, he must of put you under some sort of spell or something?” Applejack whispered as Erika dimmed a bit from that

“I’m telling the truth, sorry but I’ve known him longer than all of you, so you can’t just judge him like that,” She retorted as Rarity rolled her eyes

“Please dear, it’s obvious that he must have been the one who attack your village as well, he tried to do the same to us months ago and the fact that he killed innocent ponies is just unbelievable, That ‘Monster’ surely has tricked you into-“

She stopped as she felt her magic fail as the scythe hovered in mid-air, the air also felt ice cold as everyone stopped. Blaze that concerned as Serafin also looked distress as Neckros had stopped mid step.

“I’ve had it with your tongues now, so you think I’ve tricked her mind, killed her town off and Erika included, huh? Just used her for my own gain?” Neckros said in a calm voice as they nodded slowly, knowing he could tell

“Why would we believe anything you say! Like we’ll ever trust something like you!” Rarity snapped which she ignored her friends giving her signs to stop, but it was too late

Then they all froze, even Loki looked freaked, Neckros had turned around completely, his eyes narrowed, his wings outstretched and his smile, gone. An unmissable look of anger replaced it. Then he vanished.

“If shit didn’t hit the fan yet, I sure as hell did now, and is coming in hot!” Loki piped up

Both Rarity and Applejack felt their bodies lift into the air as Neckros held them by their throats as he glared at them with such a look, it could kill Gods. They saw that Dash and Twilight frozen in fear as Blaze and Serafin did nothing.

“If you ‘ever’ insult Erika like that again, if you ‘Dare’ to say you know me inside and out, I don’t care what deal or contract I made, nothing will save you from the pain I’ll put you through, skinning you would be merciful,” Neckros warned as he bent forwards, their bodies just about touching the floor

“Do I make myself clear?” He finished as they nodded, he then let go and plucked Erika out of the air as he snapped his fingers and everything returned to normal, his face returned to normal also

“Right, then! Well come on, were off to save the world!!!” He bellowed out as they slowly went back to their normal topics

5 Minutes Later…

“Hey, Blaze, how do I get this thing off?” Neckros asked as Blaze and Twi looked at him as Pinkie bounced on his head, his face bouncing in rhythm as they tried not to laugh

“Neckros, one thing to note, she Ain’t gunna stop,” Blaze said as he grinned and his eyes narrowed

“Great... you sure I can’t just throw her into a random wormhole? i mean, i know a certain murk with a mouth that would love this!” Neckros said as they just looked at him in confusion as even Dash wasn’t bothered anymore by his presence

“Well, of course not silly! If you did how could a throw you a Welcome to Ponyville party, after this?” She asked as she hung her head down from his head as he looked at he in confusion

“After all of this you won’t let up about that, will you?” He asked as she nodded, then he looked over at Loki, who was nowhere to be seen

“Great, abandoned by my only ally, how charming,” He groaned as they all continued their journey, then Twilight stomped her hoof

“Why are you helping us?” Twi asked calmly as the continued to walk and Neckros kept looking ahead

“You already know the answer, I mean I literally told you,” He pointed out as Blaze glanced at her as he shot her a look

“Stop lying, the only reason your still here is because Blaze spared your life, but you’ve lied before, so how are we sure that you won’t pull it again?” She questioned as he sighed and levitated Blaze up and cut his leg as he winced

At once Dash and Twi tried to attack but Blaze held a hoof out and stared at them. Slowly they stopped as he put him down. Neckros then showed them his arm and they were surprised to see the same cut, slowly patching up.

“See, if I were to kill him, I’ll die to, if he tried to kill me, same effect, so you see I can’t do that, no matter how I try, were bonded so there’s no way around it,” Neckros explained then he narrowed his eyes as he smirked "Still wanna kill me?"

“Fine. I’ll stop bothering you about it,” She huffed as they continued, but Neckros was no fool when it came to emotions, and Twilight was giving him all the signals

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*Location: Ponyville, Twilight’s Castle*

Omega stood on the balcony as he looked out into the sleeping town as he frowned, the same place he was robbed of his power, his victory over ‘Him’. His thoughts stopped as he saw Twivine approach him with a she looked disinterested.

“So, I take it that they’re on their way now?” Omega asked as Twivine cleared her throat and then, her cloaking vanished

What now stood before Omega was a robo-pony, his eyes only containing red, his mouth covered with a grate as the silver joints clanked as it moved, his black, wired mane and tail looked almost natural, as it looked like Blaze, only bulkier.

“Yes, the bots have been prepped to intercept them, dividing their forces upon arrival as they would naturally do so,” He spoke in a metallic voice as Omega smirked

“And what if they break through? Will you take care of them?” Omega asked as the bot just stared at him before speaking

“If you wish to rid yourself of Blaze, then, as people quote ‘Do it yourself’, I got you the army, I gave you all those crystals, it’s your business now, not mine,” He finished, Omega however didn’t like that plan

“Listen here ‘Bot’! you will help me or I’ll-“Omega was silenced as the bot kicked him into a wall as he swiftly pinned him with ease

“No, i have more plans for Blaze, you continued to ignore my warnings that he will prevail, so if wish to throw your life away, do that, but I was never here, got it?” He said dangerously as Omega tried to break free until he dropped him

“Fine then, Flamar, do what you will, but when I beat him, you’ll be next!” He barked as Flamar stopped and glanced back his metal eyes narrowing

“And when you lose, he’ll come for you all, innocent or not” Flamar spoke as he disappeared into the shadows “Like, the answer to a prayer,”

And then all was silent…

To Be Continued…