Chapter Four, Love Conquers All
(Probably forgot to do this but I do not own Dungeons and Dragons. All D&D related content belongs tot he creaters of the various Dungeons and Dragons moduels and editions. Again, too many names to list so suffice to say I own nothing D&D related and make no money off of this, this is a fan-based fictional story made for entertainment only.)
-They say that love will always win in the end; yet others say that love will always shatter your heart. Be it a magic undescerinable, or merely a force of chemical reactions in your brain; one thing is universaly agreed upon. Love makes us do crazy things.- Excerpt from The Secret Book of Bemnal The Fallen
Well, you feel like shit. It took two healing potions and a week of bedrest to recover form your wounds in Manehatten, but sadly magic and recovery can only heal physical wounds.
Because, there's this silly little ache in your black ice-chunk of a heart that you can't quite put your hoof on. And its getting pretty annoying. You hate everything and everypony more than usual; you're even ignoring Spike have the time. You don't seem to have the motivation to work on new experiments, you could care less about creating more undead and spellcasting just isn't as fun anymore...
You're depressed almost all the time and the only relief is sleep. Eating is even more of an anoying chore than normal and you've been starving yourself quite often which only makes your mood worsen.
You constantly switch between pissed off and wanting to cry and its driving you nuts! What the fuck is causing this?! You've cast every divining spell you can but nothing works. You've tried the few illusion spells that you know on yourself but your natural mastery over magic just negates their affect with magic resistance.
Ugh, this is getting you nowhere fast. But you know what's the worst thing of all? You. Can't. Even. Enjoy. Reading.
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AAAAAAARGGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGH! You're gonna blow a fucking city up if this shit continues! The last Palading that managed to break into your stronghold two days ago found himself being tortured in the most agonizing and excruciating ways you could think up; and you made sure to drag it out for 15 hours before killing him.
But still it didn't help you mood much.
Gods damn, what is wrong with you?!
Shoving some breakfast down your gullet (literally) you get dressed and sulk through your lair of undead before exiting the labyrinth and wondering aimlessly through the forest, just wallowing in... whatever it is ponies are supposed to wallow in.
After 7 hours of roaming, three fights with monsters of the Everfree, and 5 instances of spacing out, you decide that you need to get out of Ponyville. Suddenly the entire town and forest feel like a prison, you just need to get out. Maybe some traveling will lift your spirits.
XXXXX
You hop off the train in Baltimare and sigh as you walk through the city. So obsessed ar you with your own self-pity that you don't pay any notice to the empty streets. The ghostly fog that fills the air, and... this next part gets your attention, a faint humming. A very unsettling hum that acts almost like a chime but of a much lower tone rings throughout the air; but rather than an actual sounds drumming on your ears, if feels more like an echo inside your mind, as if your own thoughts are creating the sound.
Huh... well that's wierd, you bonk your head a few times with your hoof to get the dizzying sound out but no such luck.
Oh well... looking around you finally notice the empty streets. Not a soul within them. The windows are devoid of light and the doors look splintered and rotted; bits of glass surrounded smashed panes of stores and the occasional bit of torn newspaper flitters through the wind; a pale coldness fille the desolate city.
OK... this is... strange... one of the most densely populated cities in Equestria and it looks... completely abondoned... looking at the rotwood of doors and the grime covered windows it looks like nopony has lived here for decades. Spooky...
Alright, this has got your attention. You walk through the town using your staff as a cane as you peer at the empty buildings. The further you go into the city, the more desolate and broken things seem. Eventually you start entering neighborhoods that look like a bomb went off; obliterated buildings with nothing but hills of rubble in their place litter the area, and that annoying hum gets slightly louder.
You hear a bit of screeming around the next corner, when you round it, you find a bizarre sight. Twelve... somethings... naked with parts of their body covered in scales, others covered in slime covered green flesh; many of them possess fish-like maws with giant needle-like teeth, bulbouse yellow eyes and tendril fingers ending in curcled hooks; on their backs extend grotesque mutated batwings with eyes and small tentacles extinging form them; some have serpantine tails whil others have spiked dragon tails. Among the twelve... things... is a Mind Flayer.
The Mind Flayer is wearing a set of half-plate armor that looks heavily enchanted and colored like sea water. A beauitfully adorned sheath is attatched to his hip encasing a dagger that you can tell even from this distance must be heavily enchanted with multiple powerful spells. He also wears a golden amulet that radiates some of the strongest magical aura you've ever seen. There's only a few spells you know of that could radiate that kind of energy, the Amulet must be enchanted with Limite Wish, Power Word Kill, or some other such arch-mage level spell. That or its filled with multiple high level spells; either way, you'd rather not find out. You're a baddass Wizard with a high resistance to hostile magic but you're not immune and you're not invincible.
They all surround what appears to be a cross between an Ilithid and a pony wearing a poor-quality robe, the half-breed squirms, held in the telekinetic grip of the Mind Flayer who stabs his clawed fingers into the half-breed's stomach twisting and crushing; the half-breed screams in agony and in a feminine voice it yels "PLEASE STOP!"
The Mind Flayer laughs, "then tell me what you did with the Relic." he growls, though the tendrils on his face make it a bit hard to make his speech out.
The twelve... things that surround the duo laugh at the display of torture. You hide just behind the corner spying on the scene. You are very powerful but better not to risk your life when you don't have to, its not like you owe this half-breed anything. Perhaps another great hero of good-alignment might step in but- oh look it's Dash.
The blue pony charges in and tackles the Mind Flayer slamming into him and knocking him down likely shattering several of his ribs even through the powerful armor.
Strange, you feel a bizarre twist of happiness and dread at seeing Dash. But at the same time, that constant blanket of depression seems to melt away.
The Mind Flayer grabs Dash in his telekinetic field and using the psychokinetec-science: Project Force he hurls her with monstrous momentum before lifting his legs up and jump kicking back onto his hooves, looking completely unphased by Dashs's tackle. Well so much for breaking ribs; geeze either he's much more tough than his psionic-oriented body lets on, or that is some STROOOONG magic armor.
Speaking of Dash, she slams into the cracked wall of a nearby ruined building smashing right through it and getting toppled with stones. Ow.
You feel a strange broiling agner building up at seeing her hurt by another. You cast an Invisibility spell and a Transmute Object spell on your staff causing a glass double edged blade to dextend form the staff's orb turning it into an impromptue spear. Invisible, you begin sneaking up behind the Mind Flayer with your spear for a backstab.
Dash zips out of the pile of rocks sending them flying everywhere looking like a mad bull as she snorts and draws her axe and dagger.
Charging down, she aims to attack the Mind Flayer again who points a finger at her and suddenly she drops to the ground howling in pain as she graps her head. Ah, telepathic combat. You're guessing Dash dosn't know the first thing about defending against psychic attacks.
Right, you get about twenty five hooves behind the Mind Flayer when his dagger begins to vibrate, he releases Dash and draws the blade eyeing curiously. You sneak a few hooves closer as he inspects the blade, then holds it out; it seems to move on its own before waving in the air and stopping with its tip pointing at... you... oh... shit...
The Mind Flayer glares right in your directions and oh-gods -you-don't-have-any-telepathic-defenses-he's-gonna-fucking-kill-you-with-a-thought-oh-gods-oh-gods. He's scanning for cognitive thoughts! Aaaaahhhh don't hink of anything!
Rubber ducky. Rubber ducky. Rubber ducky. Rubber ducky. Rubber ducky. Rubber ducky. Rubber ducky. Rubb-AAAHH!
You are sent flying backwards as the Mind Flayer uses Psychokinetic Science: Detonate on all the loose rubble near your location causing them to all self-destruct; one of them happned to be close enough to send you zipping through the air and taking out a portion of your side. Ow... you put a hoof to the side of your torso and you can feel part of your ribs... as in you are making direct contact with the bone. Well that's not good...
The Mind Flayer turns back to Dash who tries to dive bomb him again with her weapons but he teleports to the side and she slams into the ground getting a face-full of dirt. Spitting it out she instantly regains her hoofind and whips around in a torndado of steel spinning her dagger and axe around at the Mind Flayer who keeps her at bay with a Psychokinetic Devotion: Inertial Barrier. The telekinetic buble acts like invisible rubber bouncing any attack Dash throws at it right back at her.
Getting up and drinking a minor healing potion, you feel muscles, sinew, and skin regrow over the open wound and launch a Grease spell under the Mind Flayer's hooves causing him to slip and loose his hoofing before falling over. The Mind Flayer growls in agitation and teleports a few yards away, curling a mouth tendril around his lips he wistles in a high pitch frequency that hurts your ears. A Dimension Door opens up and a... a... WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?! Some giant blob of viscious jelly-like skin creature covered in bulbous eyes, mouths filled with needle teeth, and dozens of wreathing tentacles crawls out of the tear in space.
The Mind Flayer teleports ontop of it like its a battle mount or something and with a snarl; the giant... thing races off towards the harbour at mind-blowing speeds; its not even rolling or slithering or... anything! It's just like.. sliding over the ground like a hovercraft or something, leaving a long trail of slime in its wake.
O-OK then...
Shaking yourself out of your stupor, you look back to Dash who's hacking up the wierd Fish-pony-dragon-frog... things... Ya you've gotta come up with a better name for these freaks.
Joining in, you teleport bey the grease you summoned and hold out your hoof. Casting a Burning Hooves spell you light it on fire, and just like a pool of oil, a small lake of flame erupts. Several of the monsters are caught in the inferno and roar in pain. Dash swings her axe and dagger at a few more of them, sometimes slicing into their flesh and sometimes missing, occasionally her weapons hit but bounce off the hardened flesh. That's a bit... disturbing actually. Dash is pretty strong...
Still, together your magic and her speed take 7 of them down, the remaining four are swinging at you with deadly precision and you're pretty sure that your blood pressure has lowered to dangerous levels, their tendril fingers with hook ends act like scourge flails that sink into your flesh and rip chunks of your right out and it FUCKING GODS DAMN HURTS OH FUCKING GODS! WHY IS THIS SO PAINFUL?!
The agonizing pain and bloodloss is starting to get to you; your conciousness is wavering, gotta think of something fast. Another monster runs at you and you clobber it on the head before tackling it and casting Shocking Grasp frying its ass from the inside out with electricity. You hunch over a bit panting while Dash slams into another monster lopping off its arm with erh axe and stabbing it repeatedly with her dagger.
Shaking your head and summoning up your rage, you conjure a Flaming Sphere spell, creating a large orb of fire that you slowly dragg in a circle around your self immolating anything it touches, killing off two more of the monstrous freaks. Only 2 remain. Dash finishes off the one she tackles. OK, only ONE remain... s...
The last creature doesn't seem the least bit perturbed by the deaths of its comrades and charges at you.
You try to cast another spell but you cough up blood preventing you from speaking the necessary arcane words; instead to go to cast a spell from your staff but your muscles have lost too much blood to lift the thing, in fact, your hind legs buckle underneath you and you collapse to the ground.
Well fuck a godsdman cheese peddler! Ya this is totally how you wanted to die, bleeding out on some gods forsaken townsquare and getting eating by fish-pony-dragon-frog... whatever! Aqua-Chimeras! Hey that's not a bad name actually... ohhhh there goes your nervous system, can't feel the pain anymore though so that's nice... also can't feel your body heat... that's not so nice...
Fuck...
Oh look there goes your eye sight. Nighty night!
XXXXX
Ugh...
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Hnnn..
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...
Huh?
Warmth?
Ugh...
You're eyes slowly crack open and you shake your head very slowly. Huh? Looking up your sitting in one of the abandoned buildings. Well, you're not dead... so that's something. You look down at your body and see all your wounds are , either somepony had a lot of healing potions or they had Clerical Magic. Looking around you see Dash leaning over something.
... Dash?
Dash tenses... then relaxes. Not looking at you she speaks, "Bout time you woke up."
Did... did she save you?
"..."
She doesn't answer.
Dash holds out her holy symbol and summons up Clerical Magic casting Cure Critical Wounds on whatever is laying at her hooves.
You groan as you stand up, rubbing your sore head you walk over and see that the being laying down is.. that wierd Ilithid-pony hybrid that the Mind Flayer was torturing.
You peer down at it. For some bizarre reason it kinda looks a bit... familiar? The creature wakes up and upon regaining its sense, it looks at you and Dash and then shrieks in horror before backpeddlign until it hits a wall, then it whimpers out, "kill me... and tell that bastard Ignw'thul he'll never have the Relic!"
You both stare at her in confusion.
"Kill me!" she yells angrilly, "I won't tell you anything!"
Internally you growl. This is going to take a while.
XXXXX
After a few hours of convincing the half-breed that you mean no harm and aren't allied to the Mind Flayers, she finally calms down.
Finally you can ask her some questions.
"So..." Dash asks, "who are you?"
"my... my name is Cadence."
FUCK THE WHAT?!
Your jaw drops.
Wh... wha... bu... WHAT?!
Cadance jumps at your shouting.
You call bullshit on that, Cadance sure as fuck isn't a half-Ilithid thing!
"Y-you know me?" Cadance squeaks. She stares at you for a few moment before blinking, "T-Twilie?"
...
What the fuck dude...
"Twilie!" she jumps on you with a glomp and hugs you tight. Ewww, she's all slimy!
"Oh Twilie I thought I'd never see you again!"
Wha... there's... there's no way this is Cadance... there's polymorphing spells out there but none that could last for this long... what... how did this happen?
Cadance looks down forlornly. "After Chrysalis got married to Shiny she drove me out of Canterlot. I found refuge here in Baltimare and things were fine for a while.. but then... all this happened." she gestures to the ruined city.
"There was a cult worshiping some... horrible thing under the ocean, they gained a lot of power when the war with Nightmare Moon and Discord started. The ensuing chaos allowed them to take hold of the city's politics and soon they controlled everything. They began foalknapping everypony and conducting experiments on them."
Cadance shudders, "some were ripped apart by the experiments, others were mutated with a mixture of psionics, magic, and alchemy until they became half-breeds of psionic monsters like myself. Others suffered much worse fates..."
Well... shit...
Dash frowns, "wait, how do you two know each other?"
Brightening up at that, Cadance chirps out, "Oh, I used to be Twilie's foal sitter! She was such an adorable little filly."
You frown at that and Cadance just giggles at your agitation.
"What about those freaks who were torturing you?"
Cadance growls, "They were Deep Ones. Some kind of alien creatures that followed their 'Slumbering Lord' from beyond the stars. I don't know much about them or the cult itself, only what i overheard from the prison guards. The Deep Ones are servants that act like the Slumbering Lord's soldiers who do his bidding and spread cults that worship him throughout the world. There's apparently lots of sects that worship him all over Equestria."
Dash crinkles her brows, "what's the Slumbering Lord?"
Cadance shudders again, "I have no idea. But I have nightmares about him. Sometimes when I dream I'm deep underwater and... it's like I can see glimpses of him in the deep abyss of the ocean and somehow I just know that it's the Slumbering Lord. And everytime I'm filled with dread and hopelessness. Everypony else in the prisons have the same dream on a regular basis. The first ones on this planet that the Deep Ones got to worship him were the Mind Flayers. Then the Mind Flayers enslaved the Ilithids as a work force to hypnotize ponies into joining the cults to the Slumbering Lord."
You rub your chin. Interesting... what about that one Mind Flayer leading the Deep Ones?
Cadance gulps in fear, "that was Ignw'thul, he's the leader of the Baltimare cult. He's also in charge of controlling all the Shoggoths."
"The what now?" Dash inquires.
"The Shoggoths are a slave race, they're these giant blobs of eyes, mouths and tentacles. I don't know anything bout them either, just that they're used as slave labor like the Ilithids. They're terrifyingly strong too." Cadance answers.
That droning hum is still present in the back of your head and you ask about that as well.
"That's... I don't know... it started up when the cult started expanding and hasn't gone away since. Everypony can hear it and... I don't know what causes it." Cadance says with a frown.. or you think she's frowning, hard to tell with the tentacles on her face.
So then... should we... like, flee the city?
Cadance shakes her head vehemently, "no! We have to kill the Slumbering Lord! All of the prisoners have overheard the guards talking about when their Slubmer Lord awakens, reality will be shattered and he will devour all life before destroying the world! Even the Mind Flayers speak of him with fear, can you imagin how powerful he must be to command all these monsters?! And... even if he doesn't destroy everything, he'll certaintly cause the cults to spread even further and soon every town will be like this one. Everypony will be either a slave or die horribly in some experiment. He has to be stopped!"
Ugh, great, another quest. OK well, does she got a plan?
"Yes actually." Cadance says excitedly, "The psionic strength of the Slubmering Lord must be god-like if he can command an army of Mind Flayers, so me and a few other prisoners that escaped have been searching for a way to get past that. And we found an ancient Relic developed by the Dragons many milenia ago. Apparently thousands of years ago, there were beings called Humans that lived in a land called Ébány far to the east of Equestria. There the Dragons had a war with them that lasted for 10 years. The Dragons had magic, the Humans had technology. The Dragons had physical might but the Humans had psionics. Nodrake could stand up to the Human's psionic abilities, especially the extremely powerful Humans. So the strongest of the Dragons poured all their magic and life energy into a rod producing a Relic that could cancel out all psionic energy no matter how powerful."
Wow... how did you miss that in history class?
"And we managed to find the Relic! With it we can get past the Mind Flayers and find the Slumbering Lord, and KILL HIM!"
Huh, you never pegged Cadance as the violent type. Then again, being tortured for a decade has probably warped her sense of morality.
Dash puts on her cocky smile, "then what are we waiting for! Let's kick his ass!"
Meh, you didn't have anything better to do today...
The three of you leave the building and Cadance leads you towards the harbour. As you travel, you keep stealing glances towards Dash. Eventually you can't stand the silence. You ask Dash how she's been doing.
The mare looks away with a 'hmph'
Ok then...
Cadance looks between you two with a frown, "I can sense some hostility between you two..."
"It's none of your business!" Dash growls out and speeds up her walking. Geeze, she's pissed.
Cadance looks at you questioningly.
You merely tell her that its a long story.
Finally, you three arrive at the water's edge and look down below to see a blackish sinkhole. Cadance looks to you and says, "through here is an underwater tunnel leading tot he cave where the Relic is hidden... umm.. the ride will be a little scary... there are Remnants guarding the place."
Remnants? Before either you are Dash can ask about them, a loud cracking noise sounds out, you all turn around towards the harbour quey to see Ignw-thul along with 10 other Mind Flayers. And he brought a lot of firepower with him, 8 Ilithid slaves, 3 Shoggoths and... are those Stone Giants?! Where the fuck did he get 5 Stone Giants?! OK, not good...
Cadance immediately dived for the water while Dash draws her weapons. You wield your staff and launch a fireball from it stright at Ignw-thul who teleports out of the away as the sphere smacks into a Stone Giant exploding and lighting the three Shoggoth on fire who screech in pain. Ten points! Yay!
The Mind Flayers retaliate with a barrage of psychic attacks that leave you rolling on the ground in unexplainable pain, your head feels like its going to explode. Dash pulls out a small crossbow and fires a noisemaker bolt at them launching a very loud and annoying whistle that distracts the Mind Flayers allowing you to regain your bearings. The Ilithids are charging at you and the remaining Stone Giants are prepareing to start hurling parts of building debris at you. OK, think fast...
Casting Mass Telekinesis you stop the giant stones although even with the magical assistance to your natural telekinetic grip it's still a very heavy strain but at least you're not a pancake. Droppin the stones you caste Wall of Fire in front of the charging Ilithis incinerating the ones who ran into it and pushing back the ones who diddn't
The surviving Shoggoth lift the Mind Stone Giants up while the Mind Flayers levitate and all prepare to attack again. Dash hurls several throwing knives at the Mind Flayers knocking them down as the pain disrupts their concentration. The Stone Giants toss more boulders at you and you both quickly run out of their path.
Alright, enough screwing around. You summon up some of your most powerful magical runes inside your mind's eye and caste Reverse Gravity on the entire area that your opponents stand. You smile evily as the Shoggoth, Stone Giants, remaining Ilithids, and Mind Flayers all go hurtling up into the air at high speeds going faster and faster as they pick up momentum.
The Mind Flayers and Ilithids are too surprised to use their psionics but Ignw-thul teleports away. Once your enemies are about 2000 hooves up, you release the spell and watch them plummet to their deaths.
Gods damn you fucking love magic.
Dash yells you to you and you turn around just in time to see Ignw-thul bearing his dagger down on you, you quickly raise your foreleg up and the blade pierces straight through as you fall onto your back, the tip of the blade poking through your foreleg just inches away from your face; then it glows and you move your head just as the dagger extends into a shortsword.
Then Dash slams into the Mind Flayer knocking them both away. The Mind Flayer kicks her off and quickly hops to his hooves as does she. They engage in an intense knife fight until Ignw-thul's shortsword glows and turns into a broadsword; with more momentum and power bedhind his swings, Dash starts to switch to the defensive.
Then Ignw-thul's sowrd becomes a claymore and he whips the balde around in a windmil flurry of strikes with alarming speed. Dash dodges most of them and when she tries to parry, she gets knocked over to the side; the monster teleports above her and raises his claymore. Before it lowers you cast Lightning Bolt from your staff singing him while Dash rolls out of the way. The Mind Flayer shakes his head and stand up only for you to cast Whirlwind with your staff lifting him up in the air and slamming him into the ground and decaying buildings repeatedly like a pinball machine 'ping' 'ping' 'ping' 'ping' 'ping' BAM! finally you drive him into the ground and Dash leaps ontop of him burrying her axe in his chest and her dagger in his face.
Ignw-thul sputters a few times, then falls silent and still.
Huzza! Not such a tough asshole now is he- his amulet's glowing... with a 'pop' his body vanishes.
"Huh! Wha! Wh! Huh?!" Dash exclaims. You too are confuz-... oh... contingency spell... crafty... so apparently the amulet is encanted with a contingency spell. Whenever his health gets too low it teleports him away... you idly wonder if it also has healing spells on it...
Either way, he's not your problem for the moment. Dash turns to you and shrugs. You both head towards the lake an dive in. Swimming for about a minute you encounter some... heads... of ponies and other creatures floating along on whispy trails of spiritual energy. What... the... fuck...
Ghostly hands grab you and drag you down against your will into the deapths of the water. As you are pulled, struggling with bubbles of precious air seeping away, you see a minefield of explosive runes; strangely, the ghostly heads lead you around the trapped areas taking you throughthe very narrow safe zones and guiding you towards the cave. The trip takes too long, you run out of breath and all goes black again.
XXXXX
Great, that's twice you've nearly died today. wonderful. You cough up blood as Dash pushes down on your chest pumping air and seawater out. Coughing heavily you finally breath.
After steatying your breathing you stare at Dash who looks away. She saved your life again.. wait... doesn't CPR require... mouth to mouth?
Dash quickly gets up and walks away before you can ask her anything. You see Cadance leaning over the edge of the apparent cave your in talking to the disembodied heads. You seem to be in an airpocket of sorts.
Cadance turns to you, "I've been communicating with the Remnants, they say they'll guide us to the hiding place of the Relic. They hate the Mind Flayers as much as us. But... they do ask something in return. If either of you have any priestly abilites, they are the spirits of former slaves, Ilithids and half-breed prisoner that were tossed into an underwater graveyard that we'll pass by along the way to the Relic. They lack a proper burial and they beg for you to pray over their souls and provide some of your powerful holy magic to allow thier spirits to rest in peace."
Dash stands up with a firm nod, "you got it."
"They also warn you of some... guardian creature that lurks around the greaveyard. One that will probably try to stop you if you help them."
Dash puts on her signature cocky grin, "please, you're dealing with Rainbow Dash here, I can kick some old guardian's ass no problem!"
This time you were smart enough to caste a water breathing spell on you and Dash before entering the water. The spiritual hands rocket you three through the water at alarming speeds before pausing over the... grave... ho...ly... fuck...
A collossal cylindrical trench stretchs out beneath you with flourescend sea flora lighting the area. The pit is... massive... filled with countless bones. Geeze... even you wouldn't keep a collection of dead this big...
Dash begins praying with her holy symbol giving them their last rites.
After a few minutes, the most disturbing moan you've ever heard rises from below and the arms holding you from the Remnants dissapate, all around you the Remnants zip away into the walls wailing in anguish and fear.
Looks like the Guardian's here...
Shadows swarm around you and begin to collect in the center of the pit, a swarming mass of cloudy blood coallesces into a pony shape... and it sort of... looks at you...
Oh fuck... it's a Blood Elemental...
OH FUCK! IT'S A BLOOD ELEMENTAL!
The Guardian jets through the water encasing Dash and sucking out blood from her body like squeezing a sponge. DASH!
You lift your staff in the water and activate one of its strongest spells, Conjure Elemental. You summon a great Water Elemental that you command to attack the Guardian. The Blood Elemental is suddenly pulled off Dash as your own Elemental meshes into it soaking it up and then jetting over to the wall and slamming the Blood Elemental into it repeatedly.
Dash recovers from the intial shock and loads up her hoof-crossbow; the bolt shoots through the water leaving a sream of rings behind it and you command the Water Elemental to move as the silver enchanted bolt rips into the Guardian causing a moan of pain to erupt.
The Guardian darts towards you and you cast Wall of Ice freezing a giant thick layer of water in front of you cutting the Guardian off from reaching you. Unfortunately this also blinds you from the fight. You command the Water Elemental to fight the Guardian and hope for the best.
Vaguealy you can see shadows through the sheet of ice as Dash and the Water Elemental visciously attack the Guardian.
You can see Dash using her wings to jetstream through the water, dodging every time the Guardian makes a move for her before your Water Elemental slams into it and soaks it up before charging it into the wall. Then Dash fires a bolt. This process repeats for a few minutes and you pull all your magic out of the Wall of Ice causing it to dissipate. Alright, time to see how awesome you are under pressure.
You closely watch the Guardian dart around the room. right after Dash hits it with another bolt, you teleport in front of it and cast Cone of Cold freezing it solid in a giant glacier as you freeze the water surrounding it. Now for the finisher STARSWIRL'S CRUSHING HAND BITCH!
You cast Starswirl's Crushing hand, a giant ehtereal hand twice the size of a pony appears and wraps the glacier up in a tight graps and then squeezes the living buck out of it. The ice shatters and the Blood Elemental is trapped in the magical hand's grasp, crushing and crushing it in a small sphere of blood until all the corporeal magic is obliterated and the blood puffs into a disolving cloud; finally it dissapears, the entity returning to its original plane of existence.
YA! TAKE THAT MOTHER FUCKER! Oh ya, who's the best fucking Wizard in town? You are! Uh huh! Oh yea!
Dash sighs in relief and finishes the last rights before blessing the ouls. The Remnants slowly fade into nothing and a sense of peace and happiness fills the room.
Well that was nice... You and Dash catch up with Cadance and swim into a large cave area, popping out of the water you clamber up onto a rock platform. Beyond you you see a large rock bridge leading to a platform on the opposite side of the room. The walls and ceiling are covered in beautiful crystals like the ones you've seen beneath Canterlot mountain. Thaumatergic crystals. This place is literally a wellspring of magic. In fact, you can feel the runes from spells you already cast reappearing in your mind's eye, giving you back all your spell charges for the day. Sweet! You gotta somehow make a teleport pathway to this place; this is awesome! Imagine, never having to re-study spells each day ever again! Just pop in here, get them all back and be on your merry way!
You start drooling as you begin to have a mage-nerdgasm. You all take a moment to rest and recuperate. Dash uses some of her herbalism and first aid skills to patch herself up and some time passes... You look to her and decide its time you two finally speak.
Dash...
Dash sighs, "look Twi I... ugh..." she looks away pondering. "I... You're my mortal enemy!" she glares at you, "It's my job to hunt black magic users like you down!"
Cadance gasps, "Y-you use black magic?!" she squeaks. You roll your eyes and confirm that you are a Necromancer. Cadance nearly faints at this.
Dash looks away again, "those Remnants down their... their souls can finally rest in peace now... but there's nothing protecting their remains, you can alway turn them into your toys anytime you want and that sickens me... Just... its... its evil!"
Well it's not like they're using their bodies anymore.
Dash glares at you, "And that's exactly it! That's what all Necromancers think! You don't give two shits about other ponies! We're just weapons and slaves waiting to ripin for you! You just see everypony as a corpse waiting to be made so you can turn it into braindead servant! It's sick!"
Again, they're not using the bodies anymore, their spirits have past on, is she really so attatched to that shell?
You glare back at her.
It doesn't matter how much you care about your body, eventually it'll rot away and become nothing. It's the soul that matters, it's the soul that moves on. The body is a just a vessel. What about when you get reincarnated? Would go and pay respects to your former body? Would you care about it at all? OF COURSE NOT! YOU DON'T FUCKING REMEMBER IT CAUSE YOUR PAST LIFE DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE! BODIES ARE JUST SACKS OF MEAT AND WATER! THEY'RE FUCKING USELESS WITHOUT A SOUL! THEY'RE NOTHING BUT PUPPETS! You just use the puppets when other throw them away!
You can Dash are butting heads snorting and whinnying as you snarl at each other.
Cadance pushes you both apart, "please stop! Why are you fighting like this?! It's obvious you both care about one another!"
Dash snorts, "ya right. She just care's about using my corpse as a tool."
OH, FUCK YOU DASH!
Cadance frowns, "then how come she keeps protecting you?"
"Doens't wanna damage the goods."
You clobber Dash upside the head with your staff. How's that for damaged goods?!
Dash gets up and tackles you to the ground. You both wrestle around until Cadance pulls you both apart with telekinesis.
"Enough!" she yells. You and Dash both leer at oneanother before looking away and crossing your hooves.
A few more awkward minutes pass.
Looking up you see a magical rod impaled into the ceiling.
Cadance smiles, "there it is! When I found it I brought it here and levitated up to the ceiling and stuck it in their before putting a barrier around it. If anything other than myself goes past the barrier then the Relic will teleport back to where I first found it. Just a precaution. There's a lot of slave that some through here and I didn't want to risk one of them deciding to look up and try and get the Relic."
Cadance carefully levitated up to the rod, dispells the barrier and grabs the Relic, "got it!"
As soon as she excalims that, you hear a stampede of hooves and turn to see a fucking army of Deep Ones along with ten Mind Flayers behind them.
... Fuck...
Ignw'thul appears out of air next to Cadance. Huh, so the amulet does resurrect and heal him...
the Mind Flayer slashes Cadance's face and snatches the Relic from her grasp as soon as he grabs it, Cadance punches him in the face and he stabs her in the belly before telporting himself and her away.
You and Dash make a break for it while you cast Rock to Mud at the rock ceiling above the adancing army losening boulders to create a cave in. It won't stop them for good but it will buy you both some time.
You both charge through the underground area and slowly begin to enter the complex of the cultists you pass by some slave pens, no time to free them sadly, and reach a holding cell full of Shoggoths trapped in psionic cages. You also see that the walls in this place are getting older the further you go.. soon you enter an area where the walls look milenia old covered in aincient carvings in some long forgotten language. They depict Deep Ones sailing through what appears to be the night sky with constillations you don't recognize.
In front of them lightyears away are huge creatures that take up the entire 30 foot room, it shows your current solar system with these massive beings being about half as large as the planet of Equis... holy fuck... there's no way a creature could be that big... could there?... naw... no way... The giant creature has dragonlike wings, tencacles hanging from its face and an octupus like head with yellow eyes and catslit pupils, dragon clawed hands and a bloated body with legs and webbed feet; the body shape looks a lot like those Humans you read about in myths.
Altogether its like some wierd hybrid of Human, Dragon, and Octopus... freaky.
There are also all manner of symbols covering the walls.
You here that hum in the back of your head getting louder and louder...
The carvings grow ever more disturbing as you procede... Very very vivid pictures of all sorts of creatures, some Deep Ones, some of Ilithid halfbreeds and some of strange hybrids between plant and star-fish. The pictures only get stranger and stranger, masterfully carved and layered with resins of all colors to depict each creature perfectly. The pictures slowly become terrifying and your ears unconciously fold. The further you go towards the center of the complex, the more horrifying the pictures become, depicting impossible creatures, some with shapes and colors that your mind can't comprehend.
It gets to the point where the pictures depict creatures that your brain just refuses to accept as possible and it hurts your mind to stare at them.
A faint song begins to ring out...
*Awake ye scary great Old Ones Let everything dismay! Remember great Cthulhu shall rise up from R'yleh To kill us all with tentacles if we should go his way! O' tidings of madness and woe, madness and woe, O' tidings of madness and woe! (and great woe)*
You begin cringing a bit and feel like a tiny filly walking through your dark empty building, tears begin forming at the corners of your eyes as you feel the need to cry and screem for mommy, an undeniable sense of wrong fills this place and every fiber of your being yells at you to run away.
*In Yuggoth and din Aldebaran the great Old Ones were spawned Imprisoned by the Elder Gods to wait for long eons! Enticing humans to release them, Chanting dreadful songs! O' tidings of madness and woe, madness and woe, O' tidings of madness and woe! (and great woe)*
You begin hyperventalating and so does Dash who huddles close to you. You quickly reanimate the corpses of dead slaves around you for protection, all senses on high alert as light seems to fade from the room.
*An Arab said "That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange eons you will find that even death may die"! The great Old Ones will rule once more Then all will be destroyed! O' tidings of madness and woe, madness and woe, O' tidings of madness and woe! (and great woe)*
The song just keeps looping itself over and over again... You... you actually loose controll of your bladder and urin leaks out between your thighs.
Dash begins openly sobbing and your undead servants suddenly drop to the ground unmoving; you don't have the sense to care, you're scared shitless right now. Something move behind you and you both jump screaming. You turn around to see a Shoggoth charging at you.
Screaming like little fillies, you both sprint to the end of the room and slam into a locked door. Dash tries to fiddle with the lock with shaky hooves, but you're fucking panicking you shove her aside and cast Explosive Rune on the other side of the door through the lock and set it off blowing the door off it hinges. You both charge through screaming and enter a maze of twists and turns.
All the way, the song continues to loop over and over. You've never been this fucking terrified in your life. Nothing compares to this, you randomly charge through the maze taking whatever turn you see until by sheer fucking luck you find the exit and slam into Dash, you both shake your heads and sprint for the exit slamming it shut behind you and setting all the bolts of the iron door shut.
The music stopps and you both fall against the door with sighs of relief.
BANG!
You both screem again.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Dents form on the iron door and you both being to pnaick again.
You grab Dash and teleport to the end of the hall, jumping through you enter a pully system elevator, Dash flies up and you levitate to the top before turning around and casting a Wall of Stone spell blocking it off and then following up with a Permanency spell to keep the wall there.
You both fall onto your backs panting and covered in sweat.
FUCK!...
...
...
...
Well..
...
...
That was the most horrific experience of your life...
So...
...
What's for dinner?
Sounds of anguish and pain catch your attention. You look up you both enter into another room and find. You both charge into the next room and see a horrific sight. It's what looks like a medical emergency room with titled floors and white walls and ceilings. Magical lights shine above. You see a dozen or so ponies horrifically mutated, bits of their bodies here and there looking like they are crossbred with the creatures you saw on the walls downstairs. You idly hear the Shoggoth banging on the stone wall you made but you know that it'll take it a while to breath through, you made it pretty damn thick.
Heh, that's what she said... FOCUS!
You also spot one Mind Flayer looking over a shackled... thing... what the fuck is that? It looks like... you don't even know how to describe it. Idly you notice tags next to the chairs that the ponies are strapped down to, each displaying their race, Earth Pony, Ilithid, Unicorn, Pegasus, Deep One-Half-Breed, next to the bizarre creature is a tag that says 'Yiffian'
The fuck is a Yiffian?
Well whatever it is, the Mind Flayer injects a syringe into it's throat reaching into its brainstem and sucks out the spinal fluid. The Yiffian opens its mishapen mouth to scream but not sound comes out.
Dash finally recovers from her horror and draws her dagger and axe. As she makes to charge, the Mind Flayer turns around inspecting the syringe when he sees Dash. With a yelp he teleports out of the path of her attack and runs for the next room. Dash gives chase and suddenly gets a claymore hacking down into her back. Something was hiding behind the door. You turn invisible and teleport into the next room seeing Ignw-thul and two Deep Ones behind him. On the other side of the room you see Cadance strapped dwon with three Mind Flayers around her snipping off her mouth tenticals as she tries to fight them off. One of them seems to be regurgitating something and bears its fangs...
Oh shit, it's planning to plant a Mind Flayer egg in Cadance's brain! You launch a Lightning Bolt from your staff electricuting the first Mind Flayer dropping him to the floor in a fit of siezures. Dash recovers from the backstab and unleashes a torrent of attacks at Ignw-thul slicing him open multiple times before tossing a smoke bomb at the ground. The other two Mind Flayers begin to use their psychic on you.
Aha! You're ready this time bitch! You cast Chaos on them screwing up the chemical balance in their brains throwing them into a fit of insanity, they run around babbling incohearantly.
Dash gets zips around the smoke coud from her smoke bomb and back stabs the two Deep Ones killing them instantly before jumping up, floating with her wings, and spin kicking Ignw-thul in the head knocking him onto his back.
Ignw-thul gets up and swings blindly at her.
The first Mind Flayer you electricuted gets back up and picks up a syringe with his telekinesis and hurls it at you with Project Force; you BARELY dodge the lethal projectile as it soars past your head and sticks into the wall with a thunk.
Rushing towards him to punch him in the gut and cast Shockin Grasp electricuting him further and finishing him off.
The other Mind Flayers still run around mindlessly.
Dash and Ignw-thul continue to trade blows as the cloud clears, parrying blocking and slashing at oneanother.
Then you cast Clover the Clever's Horendous Laughter. One of the Mind Flayers falls into a fit of uncontrolable laughing rolling on the floor and unable to fight or recover.
The other Mind Flayer finally shakes off the Chaos spell.
Dash and Ignw-thul have both dealth heavy damage to oneanother but Dash gets the upper hoof and delivers several debilitating hits to the Mind Flayer who falls to the ground coughing up blood. Dash whips around and impales her dagger into its skull. Before it falls off her dagger, she grabs the amulet and ripps it off.
Ignw-thul dies for the last time.
The Mind Flayer facing you however goes in for his own attack enhancing his own physical strength with his psionics and satarts swiping at you with his claws, you try to dodge but you're not a warrior, several gashes soon line your torso stining with nasty burns of pain; blood seeps down while bits of torn flesh fall to the ground, you stab your staff into the Mind Flayer's face and spin around before clobbering it in the torso knocking it off balance.
As it falls to the ground you grab him and teleport abaove the stone wall you created earlier, falling onto you hop back up into the medical room as the Mind Flayer begins to recover, then you cast Wall of Iron creating a giant horizontal block of tiron above him. He looks up and his eyes widen
"Oh fu-"
The iron block falls down and squishes him into the stone wall beneath him.
Panting from all the magic excertion, you stumble back into the other room where Dash is freeing Cadance who thanks her.
She frantically speak, "Hurry! They are hatching an egg from poor Nng'tar'klu's brain! We... we have to kill him for his own peace... remember the Remnants..."
Who the fuck is Ng'tar'klu?
"He..." Cadance sobs, "he was one of the Yiffians who arrived here."
Dash frowns, "what exactly are Yiffians?"
Cadance sobs and wipes her eyes, seemingly oblivious the pain of her mutilated tentacles, "the Great Race of Yif. Very very powerful psionic beings who can transfer their conciousnesses through time and swap bodeis with another creature. There were two who came here to fight the Deep Ones and prevent them from awakening the Slumbering Lord. One of them is Ng'tar'klu... he's such a kind soul... so loving... no matter what kind of horrors they put him through, he refused to lose that kind smile... h-he's the one who gave me and the other prisoners hope. It was his idea to find the Relic. With out him I'd still be a slave and experimental subject. We have to give him peace in death... he deserves that at least..."
She begins to choke and sob, "wh-why... it's not fair..." she falls to her knese, "I... f-finally worked up the courage to... to tell him... and then he got captured and... and now they're defiling him!" she begins to sob hysterically.
You hug and comfort her.
Dash rubs her back, "come on, let's hurry and end all this."
Cadance shakilly nodds, "r-right..."
The three of you go up the next elevator.
That hum in the back of your head gets even louder now... you'd almost forgotten about it and would have if not for it's increase in volume and intensity. You unconciously rub your ear.
Finally the three of you exit into the highest chamber.
Inside you find a tremendous sight, a massive aparatus of a machine as large as a skyscraper stretches up beyond what the eye can see.
The base of the tower is encased in a massive bulbous sphere of glass, blue lightning licking through it in archs of raw power. Magical and Psionic energy floods the area so thick you almost choke. Near the base are two tal dome glass structures each with a creature inside. Cadance spots Ng'tar'klu's corpse with the top of his head exploded.
Cadance sobs, "no..."
A trail of slime leads from the corpse to one of the glass domes where a gaint... leach with tentacles is squirming around. In the other glass dome sits a Mind Flayer twice as large as the others with bulging muscles and a huge brain.
"woah!" Dash exclaims.
Cadance catches her breath, "the... the grandmaster Mind Flayer... Ik'nuun..."
Ik'nuun laughs, "a little late Heroes!" he holds his arms up and the lighting archs violently through the aparatus, beams of light jut out from the two dome's tops connecting them and Ik'nuun and the giant leach are showered in coporeal psionic energy.
Cadance shouts over the noise, "DESTROY IT NOW!"
Dash immediately whips out her crossbow and you cast Delaeyed Trigger Fireball on the bolt; Dash launches the projectile and time seems to slow as it soars through the air. As soon as it hits a massive explosion rains throughout the area knocking everypony back.
XXXXX
Ugh... you wake up from the concussion caused by the explossion, shakilly getting up to wobble around until finding Dash; the mare slowly stands up letting lose a string of curses. Cadance also begins to stir. Once everypony is up and congnitive, Dash casts some healing spells to refresh everypony.
Cadance begins frantically searching around the room, "where is it! Where's the Relic?!"
She tears the room apart looking for it. After a few minutes she falls to the ground screeming, "WE FAILED! I FAILED! I..." she sobbs, "I failed him... I... I couldn't even tell him I love him..."
"you... didn't... need to..."
All three of you turn to the body of the arch-Mind Flayer who coughs up blood.
"Ok... That was much more painful than I thought it would be..."
Cadance shakilly stands up.
The arch-Mind Flayer rolls over to his back and looks towards Cadance, "hey Cady.." he hack up some more blood.
"N...Ng'tar'klu?" Cadance asks.
The arch-Mind Flayer shakilly starts to get up, "heh... I told you Cady... my race can swap minds with other creatures..."
The three of you near and Ng'tar'klu loses his balance but Cadance catches him.
"heh... That... fucker Ik'nuun has an insane plan... he planted an egg in my brain but it wasn't a Mind Flayer egg, it was for some type of psionic leech. While it was growing I swapped conciousness with it... kind of a strange experience to eat my own brain and bust out of my skull... anyway, I grew fast and Ik'nuun trapped me in the Aparatus. The machine swapped out conciousness much the way that I can. as our minds swapped I saw into his memories. He's planning on latching onto Cthulhu's head and pumping copious ammounts of psionic energy into his brain to wake him up prematurely."
Dash frowns, "Kathu-what now?"
Ng'tar'klu chuckles, then coughs up more blood. Dash quickly heals him.
"Ah, thanks... right... I never told anyone his name. The 'Slumbering Lord' is called Cthulhu. Currently he is sleeping and dead, but when the stars are right he will awaken and obliterated your reality among other horrible acts. The Great Old Ones have been a scourge on many sentient races throughout the Universe. Earth was the last subject of their wrath. At the time they awakened Human society had advanced so much that they developed psychic prowess and together as one, they hyper teleported to the closest inhabitable planet which happened to be here. Of course they were all happy until they started a war with the Dragons but that didn't turn out so well for them."
You blink... so... much... information... this creature... it has... so much... information... YOU MUST QUESTION IT! YOU MUST LEARN EVERYTHING IT KNOWS! Other worlds! Other cultures! New magic! New customes and sciences! You begin to have a nerdgasm when Cadance glares at you, "Twilight, no."
But- "no."
You grumble while crossing your arms.
"Anyway. Most of my kind simply avoided the Great Old Ones. But my broth and myself refused to run away. We wanted to fight. The Elder Gods fought. The Elder Things fought, so why can't we? Perhaps we can't destroy the Great Old Ones but we can at least minimize their influence as much as possible." Ng'tar'klu stands up, "alright... with Ik'nuun's memory I can pinpoint the location of R'ylae. And..." she shuffles through his pocket and pulls out the Relic, "look what Ik'nuun forgot to hide!" Cadance beams.
Ng'tar'klu joins hands with Cadance and Dash while you grab Cadance and Dash and with a flash of light, you all teleport.
XXXXX
You four enter into R'ylae, the room around you is filled with carvings of creatures that give you a headache. That feeling of fear and hopelessness begins to return, but you refuse to soil yourself again.
That humming in the back of you rhead is like a scream now, drowning out almost all of your thoughts.
Ugh...
Eventually you walk through the bleak empty halls, occasionally encountering a few Deep Ones and Shoggoth, but none of them pay you any mind.
"Why aren't they attacking us?" Dash asked.
Ng'Tar'klu looks back, "Cthulhu's psionic resonance is blinding their senses, they're pretty much blind and deaf." as if to prove his point, a Deep One walks right into a wall and slams into it before falling down on his back with a bloody nose.
You and Dash can't help it, you both burst out laughing.
Eventually the four of you enter into the next room where you come across a massive... chasm of sorts. The ledge you stand on serves as a giant circle around a huge abyss; the diamieter of the circle is lager than a city! Looking down you see only blackness and water.
Ng'tar'klu holds out his hand and light ignights from nowhere and everywehre in the pit and
HOOOLLLLYYY FUCKING GODS! WHAT IN THE NAME OF LUNA IS THAT?!
Looking dwon with a gaping mouth you see... Cthulhu. His sheer size is... is impossible! No fucking creature is that big! There's... there's no way!
Your vision begins to gaze and blur and you feel nausious and dizzy. Cadance slaps you and Dash, "dont look at it!"
You both quickly look away.
"If you gaze upon Cthulhu, you will be driven to insanity." Ng'tur'klu says ominously.
During your brief glimpse you saw Ik'nuun in his leech form ontop of Cthulhu's head, looking like a tiny flea on a Storm Giant, pumping psionic energy into the Great Old One's brain.
Ng'tur'klu lets out a sigh of relief, "he hasn't been awoken yet... we still have a chance."
Just then, doors around the room slam open and Deep Ones and Shoggoth rush in.
"Woah?! I thought you said they coudln't see or hear us?!"
Ng'tur'klu blinks, then pulls out the Relic, "the Relic's been negating the excess psionic energy!"
Well that's fucking great!
Dozens of Deep Ones and Shoggoth come charging at you from both sides. Ok Twi, time to bust out the big guns. Final Boss Fight!
You cast Chain Lighting at the right side of the Deep One Army zapping multiple Deep Ones.
Cadance casts Fireball at the Deep Ones on the left knocking several of them off the edge or blowing them up. Dash takes to the air and zips through them slashing as she passes sending gouts of blood spraying into the air. Ng'tur'klu creates pyrokinetic flames that consume the Shoggoth.
The army advances.
You cast Death Fog choking out the Deep Ones on one side. Dash dumps lamp oil on the other group and flies past hitting some flint against steel lighting them ablaze. Cadance casts Move Earth dislodging a section of the stone wall above a group of Shoggoth letting it fall and crush them.
Ng'tur'klu ripps several of the Deep Ones apart by dystabilizting their molecules.
Just as you start to put a dent in their numbers, 80 more Deep Ones and 20 Shoggoth enter through the doors on the opposite side of the circular chamber.
Cadance casts the inverse of Flesh to Stone to petrify a Shoggoth, Ng'tur'klu creates a center of mass to form a mini-black hole sucking several Deep Ones into it crushing them together into a sphere of flesh and blood.
Rainbow Dash launches whips around in a tornado loosing throwing knife after throwing knife creating a rappid fire balista of knives flying in every direction hitting Deep Ones and Shoggoth around the room.
You cast Starswirl's Sword summoning a huge greatsowrd of blue ethereal light which you command to whip around in a windmil motion creating a buzzsaw that you lanch through the room cleaving easily through the Deep Ones and knocking other down into the abyss.
XXXXX
After Thirty minutes of fighting in your last stand, you're all exhausted. Dash is too tired to fly, Ng'tur'klu has no more psychic energy, Cadance is out of spells and you're not far behind. You and Cadance are between Dash and Ng'tur'klu who fight on either side of you physically slicing and hacking (Dash) or clawing and punching (Ng'tur'klu) at the advancing army.
That's it! Time for the Deus Ex Machina spell!
You tell everypony else to huddle close, they you summon up your highest cast of spells accessing the Ninth Circle of magical runes; you body crackles with god-like energy as you mind and soul become open to the strongest magics in the world; you lift up into the air as your eyes glow white and unlease a forbidden spell. Prismatic Sphere.
Supposdely, the Elements of Harmony's powers were based off this very spell. Well, let's see what it can do!
A giant orb of light. You scream in sheer agony as forces only the gods were ment to control tear through your soul. The giant white orb of light flashes in a blitz of rainbow colors before staying on one.
Red: An impenatrable barrier arrises, the army of Deep Ones slam into it only to be blown back with eavy injuries, their psychic attacks bounce harmlessly off and even the Shoggoth can not smash through it only hurting their tentacles.
Orange: A blast of light flashes out heavily damaging the Shoggoth and incinerating the Deep Ones within 50 feet. More of the army closes in to replace the lost.
Yellow: Another blast of light dealing twice as much damgage. The Shoggoth who were close are now incinerated, Deep Ones within 100 feet are reduced to ash. More of the army closes in.
Green: A huge flash of flight encases a 200 foot radius and reduces Deep Ones and Shoggoth to ashes.
Blue: All though in 400 feet are turned to stone and shattered into dust. The army is now at 1 quarter its original size and... beginning to retreat.
No... no mercy.
Indigo: The Deep Ones and Shoggoth in 800 feet are turned insane and commit suicide.
Die... all things... must DIEEEEEE!
Violet: All life in 1600 feet is erased from the whole of existence, completely obliterated from the very fabric of reality.
DIEEE! EVERYTHING MUST DIIIIIIEEEEEEE!
More of your soul is ripped to shreds as you force the spell to be cast again in your insane bloodlust.
"TWILIGHT! STOP! THEY'RE ALL DEAD!"
Red.
Orange.
Yellow.
Green.
Blue.
Indigo.
Violet.
Part of R'ylae are deleted form reality as you laugh in manic glee.
KILLL EVERYTHING! DESTROY EVERYTHING! OBLITERATE EVERYTHING! ALLL MUST DIE! EEEEVERRRYYTHIIIINNNG MUUSSTT DDDDDIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
You force the spell to continue shredding another portion of your soul.
Red. Orange. Yeloow. Gree. Blue. Indigo. Violet.
Ik'nuun ontop of Cthulhu's head is erased from existence. You even manage to reduce a bit of Cthulhu's scalp to ashes.
"TWILIGHT SNAP OUT OF IT!" Cadance yells while shaking your floating body.
YOU ARE DIVINE! YOU ARE A GODDESS! YOU COMMAND LIFE AND DEATH! REALITY IS SUBJECT YOU YOUR WHIM! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA OBLITERATE EVERYTHING! KILL KILL KILL KILL DESTROY ERASE REMOVE OBLITERATE ANIHILATE DESTROY IT ALLL KILLL EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING MUST DIEEEEE!
Another charge of the spell and another section of your soul erased.
Re. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. Violet.
This time you obliterate a part of Cthulhlu's head and a low pitched growl fills the air; suddenly the humming in your head changes form a scream to a constant sonic boom, you lose the stability of your spell and everypony falls to the ground screaming. Your head feels like its being ripped apart by two hands pierced into your skull and prying the bone and brainmatter apart. You roll around on the ground shrieking at the top of your lugns, your eyes explode in your skull and blood pours out form your years and down your nose; you can feel your brain being turned to mush.
Cthulhu is awakening...
A giant rumbling fills the area as Cthulhu's eyes slowly open, the part of his head you obliterated regeneates in a single second and he slowly begins to stand up, rising from his fetal position, his head rises from the water of the abyss; the entirety of R'ylae shakes and rumbles, quaking with tremors.
Pain. Pain is your world. Pain is your whole existence. Suffering is your reality. There is no up or down. No light or down. Just agony and despair, depression and pain, fear and suffering. That is your world. That is all that exists.
XXXX
AAAAHHHHHHHH huh? The Pain finally stops and you look... oh ya your eyes exploded, you search through your satchel and find a healing potion, gulping it down you see Ng'tur'klu holding up the Relic, everypony else starts to recover and Ng'tur'klu shakily rises holding the Relic in his hands. Looking over the edge at the rising Cthulhu who's eyes are barely open (but are slowly opening further) he pants and growls, then he lifts the rod above his heand and leaps down into the abyss yelling, "THIS ENDS NOW!" and plunges the rod like a spear into Cthulhu's head; the Great Old One roars and the massive sound causes R'ylase to begin breaking apart, boulders from the ceiling rain down around you, Dash, and Cadance who frantically try to dodge them.
The Relic glows with godly power and starts sapping psionic energy out of Cthulhu's brain. Soon the droning begins to die down and Cthulhu's eyes close again as he falls back into his dead slumber, sinking back into the abyss and returning to his sleeping fetal position beneath the black waters.
Having recovered some psionic power while in you Prismatic Sphere, Ng'tar'klu teleports out of the abyss with the last of his psionic strength as the rest of it is sapped out by the Relic and appears next to the rest of you three.
But the room is still collapsing. Rushing out of the central chamber, your party sprints mindlessly through R'ylae with walls and ceiling falling apart You see the various gems that were used as magical batteries from above and snatch one of them up using it to refil your drastically drained resivoirs. Then to telekinetical pull everypony in close to you and cast a massive Teleport Without Error spell.
Plink!
XXXXX
...
...
Plink!
You all plop down on the beach at Balitmare's harbour.
Everypony rolls onto their back panting and gasping for breath, hearts hammering.
You...
You did it... you fucking did it... you stopped a Great Old One from awakening... Holy shit...
..
...
...
Ugh, you're going to have to go deep into the Everfree and eat like... a dozen or so Faeries to siphon off their purity into your essence to restore the parts of your soul that got sundered... so ya... there's that to add to your scheduel...
Cadance gets up and crawls over to Ng'tur'klu, cradling him in her arms.
Ng'tur'klu rasps out, "there was never any need... I always knew..." he reaches a hand up and caresses Cadance's face.
Then slowly, his body begins to dematerialize.
"Wh-what's hapening?" Cadance squeaks.
Ng'tur'klu's breathing is laboured "Direct physical contact with a Great Old One... afraid that has some very bad consequences... this body is being absorbed into Cthulhu's dream, being erased from this universe."
"But... But no! W... We finally told each other how we felt! W-we can finally be together! NO! YOU CAN'T LEAVE!" Cadance squeases him tight and sobs, "I CAN'T LOSE YOU! IT'S NOT FAIR!"
Ng'tur'klu caresses her face again, "my body fades but my mind is alway free. I'll jump to another vessel. I'm not truly disapearing love, I'll be back."
Cadance sniffle, "b-but you can't always control it! W-what if you shift into another dimension? Or go a thousand years into the future?! I'll lose you forever!" his legs vanish.
Ng'tur'klu hugs her tight, "have faith Cady... if there's something I've learning in my countles years of life... its that this univers has a funny way of working things out for those who have faith. You know that old saying..." he parts and cups her face as his torso vanishes, "Love conquers all." and with that, the rest of him fades away into nothing.
Cadance wails in utter sorrow and heartbreak as she falls to the ground with her face in her hands crying her eyes out.
You and Dash stand awkwardly in the background.
Twenty mintues pass before Cadance calms down again. Silently, the three of you leave the desolate wasteland of Baltimare.
Cadance disguises herself with an illsuion and The three of you get on the next train and ride for a deathly silent fourty minutes before reaching the next stop. Cadance lets out a shaky breath before turning to you both as she gets up, "... don't... don't every push away any love you find... it's... it's so precious... being with someopny who cares about you is the best thing in the world... it makes it feel like this entire shitty world is... not so bad... because that other pony is in it so... please... don't... don't push eachother away... love and bloosom no matter your differences... just please promise me..." she looks up with puffy eyes showing even through her illusion "don't ever give up on love... You never know when you'll lose it."
And with that, she steps of the train.
...
...
...
...
A depressing silence passes for hours, heading for Ponyville. Occasionally you fall asleep for short naps, but it doesn't do any good... sitting on the... c-cold train... looking at the d-dark landscape pass-sing bye.. a-and seeing th-this whole fucking stupied world th-that's not w-worth living in and... and...
Tears stain your eyes.
Y-you realize how fucking a-alone you are in it... S-pikes growing up a-and soon he'll leave to be on his own... a-and you'll have nopony! Wh-what's the point of living f-for eternity if you h-have nopony to sh-are it wi WHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!
You break down into sobs and latch on to Dash.
You beg her to take you back, you don't care if she hunts Necromancers, you don't want to be alone anymore! YOu.. you... you love her...
"..." Dash is very silent and very still... and then latches even tighter onto you, hot tears pouring onto your mean.
"I L-love you t-too Twi..."
The oppressing cold and dark of the eternal night stings at you, but neither of you care; nothing matters in the world. Nothing has any importance but the warmth and tight embrace of the mare next to you.
...
...
...
How... how will this work?
Dash snifles, "we... we'll find a way to make it work."
You shoudln't really feel asured by that but for some reason it's the most comforting thing in the world. You snguggle into Dashs' coat and silently cry away as you fall asleep in a blanket of comfort and love.
...
...
...
...
You'll find a way to make it work.
END OF CHAPTER
* The Arkham Carolers:Awake Ye Scary Great Old Ones *