NaNo2014: Shadows of Friendship: Part 18

“Might. We might get to see the Princess.” Rarity reminded Rainbow, “She didn’t promise but I do agree with you. There’s six of us, we should be able to handle her nasty little tasks. As long as there’s nothing sticky and gross.” Rarity shuddered in overly dramatic horror at the idea, making the other ponies smile slightly.

“Do you think she can really steal souls?” Fluttershy asked, her whisper of a voice carrying well in the worryingly silent forest.

“Yeah and what was that thing?” Dash demanded, swooping overhead as best she could but finding flying difficult amongst the branches. On occasions she had to come within millimetres of the ground to avoid them and Twilight found herself wishing that Dash would just walk for a little bit, for her own safety.

“M...My dam-sire,” Twilight licked her lips and tried to pull her focus back onto the facts when she caught herself stammering, “Treasure Trove, he used to tell me stories about things he had learned on his many excursions to the part of Saddle Arabia that used to be Equigypt. He told me horror stories about what happened to others who tried to complete my puzzle, some were driven crazy, others saw things, strange creatures of mist and shadows, yet another fell into a coma from which they never woke up...supposedly they thought it was the Princess’s Curse, but I’m wondering if it was the Shadows rather than the Princess. After all ghosts don’t exist.”

“Hold up, you knew all of that and you were still working on it?” Dash looked impressed, “Pretty brave.”

“What are the Shadows anyway, sugar?” Applejack asked, glancing over at the unicorn who seemed to know so much. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Neither have I.” Twilight admitted, disliking the fact and already planning to write down everything so she had some sort of reference for the next time this happened. If it something went wrong again, which she had an odd feeling it would, she wanted to be ready for it. “But my teacher left me a letter and...”

As Twilight explained the contents of the letter, they continued walking, heading further and further into the gloom. It was cold and Twilight had a slight headache as she told them everything that Celestia had told her, figuring that forewarned was forearmed. The silence around them was oppressive too, the weight of it weighing on their minds as they slowly slipped into a rather fearful and wary march.

It was far too quiet for their peace of mind. The Everfree Forest was supposed to be full of creatures, both friendly and less so. That they could not hear anything amongst the trees except for the sound of their own hooves was distressing. There was not even the sound of the wind whistling through the trees to break the sound of their hooves stomping the hard, dry mud on the floor and it was getting to all of them as they entered a copse of gnarled and twisted trees.

“I can’t take it anymore!” Dash was the first to break the silence. Her frustrated cry echoed through the trees and seemed to bounce off of the roof of foliage over their heads, “The quiet is driving me nuts!”

“Easy Rainbow.” Applejack, who had seen this coming from the explosive pegasus sighed, “We’re all gettin’ wound up, but yelling won’ help no pony.”

“It makes me feel better.” Rainbow grumbled, actually landing for the first time since they had entered the forest, surprising Twilight who had begun to doubt that Rainbow actually knew how to use her hooves since she spent so much time up in the air. “And...” Rainbow trailed off as the nearby bushes rustled, causing the first sound that wasn’t caused by them in what felt like hours.

“Hello?” Twilight asked nervously, her voice trembling slightly as the bushes rustled again, “Anypony there?”

A low, threatening growl was the reply as a group of creatures with fur not unlike the stallion who had met them at the entrance and white, almost glowing teeth, stalked towards them out of the bushes. They were canine in shape, at least vaguely and the shadows rolled off of them as they moved forward.

“A...Are those timber wolves?” Rarity asked with a frightened squeak as she backed up, crashing into Fluttershy, who shook her head.

“N...No, th...they’re not...” The pale yellow pegasus pony shook her head, taking a few steps back. “The...they’re different.”

“Whatever they are they ain’ gettin’ past me.” Applejack promised as she got between Fluttershy and the advancing beasts.

“Or me.” Rainbow Dash swore, taking to the air for a second, her wing tips just brushing the canopy before she swooped down and launched herself at the wolves, scattering the pack. One of the shadowy wolves tried to attack Fluttershy but Applejack dove into the fray knocking it aside as Rainbow’s second swoop sent another tumbling back into the underbrush.

Twilight launched an offensive blast of magic, the purple beam striking the nearest one, knocking it away but not seeming to hurt it. The dazed creature crashed into another one, sending them sprawling like dominos. Pinkie Pie could not help herself and started laughing at the ridiculousness of it.

Shockingly the noise seemed to hurt the creatures, all of whom let out a whining noise and cowered, backing up slightly, though the moment she stopped, confused, they started advancing again, snarling louder than before, this gaze firmly fixed on the pink pony who had caused them such discomfort.

“Laughter!” Twilight realised, “It’s an Element of Harmony! The Shadows were beaten by Unity! They’re the same thing!”

“These big scary dogs are frightened by a little laughter?” Dash questioned, wanting to make sure she had heard that right.

“Hey, don’t complain if it works…” Applejack shot back, knocking another canine monstrosity back. The Shadows coating it began to dissipate at the strike, revealing a shaggy silver fur that reminded Twilight of something she had seen earlier.

“If we just need to laugh…” Pinkie actually looked serious for all of about three seconds before she pulled out a huge cannon from Celestia only knew where and fired it, letting loose a mass of streamers and confetti that festooned the trees and wolves alike, Rarity and Rainbow could not help but burst into giggles at the sight of this shadowy silver creature decorated with neon streamers and coated in multi-coloured confetti. The sound of caused the wolves to recoil again, shaking off the confetti but unable to strip themselves of the streamers.

Their attempts caused Fluttershy to let out a soft giggle that sounded embarrassed for the poor wolves and forced the monsters further back again.

With enough of the darkness gone from the creatures, Twilight recognised them as Silver Fang. A beast type duel monster with fourteen hundred attack points. The silver unicorn filly in town had used the creature in her duel earlier. The dark tainted Goddess had to have summoned them to attack the group of ponies traversing the woods.

“If Nightmare Moon can do it…why can’t I?” Twilight asked herself, drawing a card using her magic and becoming amused when it proved to be the Dark Magician, a card she had had in her deck for almost as long as she had played the game. “Alright,” She took a deep breath, knowing that if this did not work, she was going to look like a fool, “Dark Magician,” She called, putting a little of the magic she could pull from the Puzzle into the card, “I summon you, in attack mode!”

There was nothing for a few moments, then a dark swirling vortex appeared which deposited the unicorn stallion on the card in their midst. The unicorn, whose coat was a sandy, creamy gold, was clad in armour of a purple that was not far from being the same shade as Twilight’s coat and clung to his form. His short tail, which was a slightly bluer purple than the armour, poked out from within, while a robe of a different shade of purple went over that. His mane was hidden by a pointy hat of the same purple as the armour and part of which doubled as a face guard and he held a green, metallic staff with his right foreleg, much like the royal guards held their lances in the palace. The stave had an emerald embedded in one end, probably as a focus as his sharp green-blue eyes scanned his surroundings. They rested on Twilight for a moment and widened, before he bowed to her deeply, practically touching the floor with his muzzle.

“Um…hi.” Twilight knew the others were watching her and looked embarrassed as the stallion before her straightened, though he maintained a deferential pose, “Attack the Silver Fang, please?”

The Dark Magician nodded and threw his staff up into the air, catching it between his teeth before slamming it into the two members of the pack who had tried to sneak up behind Pinkie Pie. The pair loosed a pained howl and shattered into a million shards of an oddly brown light which temporarily flash blinded the ponies, causing them to miss the duel monster taking out another three, though Twilight sensed the magic he used to blow one of them away.

When their vision cleared, there was only one Silver Fang left and he had his teeth clamped around the magician’s staff, trying to tug it away from him.

Twilight forced out a peal of laughter and the beast let go, backing off with a howl of pain that vanished into the ether as the Dark Magician blasted it with a pulse of what was clearly Shadow magic. Once it had dissolved completely into the mist on the ground, the stallion turned to look at Twilight. She surprised the male unicorn by bowing back to him with a smile, “Thank you.” She told him softly, “You can go now, if you want.”

The unicorn seemed to take a moment to decide something, then nuzzled her gently but reassuringly, reminding her of her brother, Shining Armour. Then he bowed again and vanished in a swirl of black energy.

There was silence for a moment from the other fillies who had accompanied her, then Rainbow Dash swooped over, landed at her side and looked her in the eye as she told her, “You have to teach me that.”

NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 23

Blue eyes widened and turned on the girl on the other side of the cage bars as their owner got up and moved closer, watching the girl on the other side of the bars like she was a puzzle. “S...Sonic?” She asked, tone so full of hope and fear it was painful.

“It’s alright, little bro. I’ll get you out of here.” Speedster promised, just barely keeping control of the raging power inside her that wanted to rip Sawyer into tiny pieces. “And it’s Speedster now.”

Before the kid could reply, Sawyer cackled slightly and something large and metallic shot out of the nearest door. It was fast, almost impossibly fast. It didn’t quite match up to Speedster though, who easily dodged the incoming attack.

The metallic silver humanoid didn’t stop, doubling back and forcing Speedster to go on the defensive, pushing her back as she tried to defend herself against the powerful, heavy blows. Speedster managed to knock it back, using her speed to give her the momentum to send the robot crashing to the ground on the opposite side of the room.

Speedster slid to a stop in front of the cage, shielding her little brother/sister while keeping her sharp gaze on the robot. It wasn’t just silver, she realised as it picked itself up. It wasn’t really silver at all, more like a steel grey and though she hadn’t been able to see properly at speed, she could see that the greater majority of its metal plating had in fact been painted blue. A cobalt blue that was eerily close to her natural hair colour.

“I couldn’t resist seeing if I could build something to match you in speed.” Sawyer gloated, “It’s superior to you in every other way, thinks faster, smarter, punches harder, even actually strategizes, unlike you.”

“Ah but it doesn’t look anywhere near as cool as me.” Speedster shot back, watching the robot carefully. “Needs to be at least twenty percent cooler for that.”

“Metal Speedster doesn’t need to be as cool as you in order to annihilate you.” Sawyer snorted, sounding offended.

“Well it ain’t as fast eith...ack!” Speedster yelped as the metallic version of her launched itself at her, the pair crashing through the electrified fencing and landing heavily on the other side. Metal Speedster bounced upon impact with the ground, his systems knocked offline by the electricity, and slammed into the prisoner who went crashing into the metal fencing.

Sawyer’s cameras couldn’t pick up what happened next, but he heard the girl scream in pain and then there was an explosion of light and heat and energy and the cry stopped.

A golden blur emerged from the damaged cage, both delighting and terrifying Sawyer in the same moment as it came to a stop to reveal Speedster, the prisoner in her arms, but not the same Speedster who had challenged him to start with.

This Speedster was golden blonde, her normally warm emerald green eyes a vicious, angry ruby red. As she glared up at him, all hints of humour and sassiness squashed, he took note of the golden spine like protrusions emerging from her back that seemed to be made up of the same energy that surrounded her in a fire like aura which seemed to do no harm to the girl she was carrying, but was merrily melting the nearby metal.

“So you can go Super.” Sawyer considered his options, wondering just how in control she was. He didn’t remember the form before him very well at all. It was never around for very long. All he remembered was that it was a threat. “I didn’t think you could, considering you’ve had no access to Chaos energy.”

Speedster carefully set the prisoner down, gesturing for her to get out of the way. The girl wasn’t stupid, she scurried to one side, getting away from the danger as Speedster darted forward, launching herself upwards and knocking the stupid little hovercar thing out of the air.

Sawyer tumbled out, hit the floor and bounced, twice before laying on the ground, groaning in pain. Speedster didn’t give him time to recover, launching another attack that sent him crashing into the wall the other side of the room.

“Get up.” She snarled at him as he collapsed into a heap at the bottom of the wall. “Get up so I can knock you back down. Just like you did to all the people whose lives you’ve ruined.”

Sawyer realised, as he pushed himself into a sitting position, only to see her preparing to attack again, that it might have been a rather bad idea to have pushed the other Fusion this far. “Speedster, let’s be reasonable about this...” He tried.

“Reasonable?” Speedster laughed, not a mirthful laugh, but a harsh, bitter one, “You want to be reasonable? After what you’ve done? I should destroy you for everything you’ve done.”

“But you’re Sonic!” Sawyer panicked slightly as she moved towards him, backing into the wall, almost trying to press himself into it, “You don’t kill! You’ve never killed!”

“This time I have no qualms about making an exception.” She growled at him, still moving towards him, steps slow, steady and measured. She wanted him panicking, he realised, she wanted him frightened and aware of every last second he had. This wasn’t the same girl he had been dealing with before, this wasn’t even the Fusion of the girl. This was something new, something vicious.

Something dangerous.

“Sp...Speedster, think about this.” He babbled, scrambling to one side and darting for his hovercar, only to get cut off by a blur of golden light which knocked him back against the wall. “You...You’re not a killer. You finish me, you’ll have to live with that for the rest of your life. Can you live with that?”

“If I don’t, you’ll never stop.” Speedster retorted, “You’ll just keep wrecking lives. I can stop you, here and now. So I should.” Sawyer’s eyes closed and he threw his hands up to defend himself, only to pause the blow never came.

The prisoner had stepped between Speedster and her target, arms spread wide, shielding him from her ‘brother’ despite his actions.

“Son...Speedster?” The girl’s voice was trembling, fear etched in her posture, “No. You can’t.”

“Move, Tails.” Speedster demanded, anger obvious.

“No.” The girl emphasised with a shake of her head, “He might deserve it, but you shouldn’t.”

“Tails...” Speedster took a step forward, ‘Tails’ didn’t move.

“You won’t hurt me, no matter what we look like or what form you’re in, I know you.” She told the threatening figure before her, “And I know you’re better than this. Don’t kill him. Hand him over, let the authorities deal with him, wreck his robots, destroy his base, I don’t care, but don’t kill him.”

Sawyer almost didn’t dare breathe and draw attention to himself as Speedster seemed to consider the other girl’s words. He didn’t know why ‘Tails’ was standing up for him, but he wasn’t going to question it when it could save his life.

He had just about made up his mind to make a break for it when something silver and blue erupted from the former holding cell, launching an attack on the golden girl that caused her to lose her intent focus on him.

He spared only a millisecond to wince at the sounds of metal being bent out of shape as Speedster went to town on her metallic counterpart, making a dash for the hovercar and managing to get it airborne before she was done turning it into scrap metal.

Ruby red eyes glowered after him for a heartbeat, before their owner was bouncing off of the nearest crates, then off of the wall, tucking in the middle of her bounce towards him, the golden energy spines taking a chunk out of the bottom of his hovercraft.

Then he was away, out through a hole in the ceiling, while Speedster came to a screeching halt down below, tumbling for a moment, leaving gouges in the floor behind her.

The main doors slammed open, startling Tails and causing Speedster to drop into an offensive pose, in case they were under attack again, only for Rowena and Luna to dart through the door, both hesitating for a moment, though Luna’s was more obvious.

“Where’s Sawyer?” Rowena asked, looking the pair over.

Speedster didn’t answer, instead she took another leap, this time managing to get through the hole in the roof and would have gone after the barely visible speck in the sky, except she got three steps, stumbled as it felt like she took an invisible blow that drained her of all the energy she had had at her disposal just moments ago, and collapsed to her knees as the aura vanished, taking all of the changes with it.

It didn’t take Luna long to scramble up the fire escape and join her, darting over and trying not to show her shock at the fact her friend’s hair was its natural cobalt blue colour. “You’re not supposed to go do these sorts of things without me, remember?” Luna scolded as she helped her friend to her feet.

“The robosuits...” Speedster mumbled, beginning to fall asleep and trying to stay awake to deal with what needed to be dealt with, “There’s a control hub around here somewhere.”

“We’ll find it.” Luna promised her friend. “Come on. Rowena’s gunna want a debrief before you can sleep.” With that she helped Speedster off of the roof.

She had gone through tired and back out the other side into awake again by the time Rowena was done lecturing her about ‘giving proper locations’ and ‘not running off without back up’ or ‘hiding abilities that we should know about.’ This was good as it allowed her to hover around the facility until Tails was cleared for being in the outside world, though the robosuited people required more time in order to ensure there were no other control systems Sawyer had left in place.

Luna didn’t like to tell her friend that she was pretty sure the only reason they were letting Tails go with them, was because they knew exactly where they could pick her up from if it was necessary later.