Split Spirit
Chapter 7: The First of Many
Fighting and swearing in this chapter, be warned mortals*plot hint*.
He was somewhere comfortable at least, he could guess that much. He heard some talking, but he couldn't actually tell who it was. Feargus had second thoughts about drinking all of that strange alcohol with Luna. At least, what he remembered of it was fun.
His recollection of the entire night wasn't fully complete. After the drinking contest with Luna, his memories started to become muddled.
Suddenly, he heard a sharp intake of breath, a slight ruffling of feathers and sadly, the loss of his comfortable bed.
Feargus opened his eyes, and was fairly shocked at what he saw. Luna, princess of the night and one of the most powerful beings in Equestria, was lying on top of him, covered by his wings, while hers seemed to be standing on edge.
They made eye contact, and Luna began to blush heavily.
"What's all the blushing for Luna?" He asked the princess who, almost reluctantly, took herself out of the embrace of his wings, and off Feargus all together.
"Im going to go get something to help with our hangovers, I'll be back" she groaned, obviously feeling the full affects of whatever they drank last night.
Feargus then realised that he , and Luna, slept on a piece of furniture, a sofa , that had been moved in to the basement for his party. Looking around, he saw overturned tables, and empty bottles of different alcoholic drinks everywhere.
He looked back at the sofa he slept on, and realised behind him was a very large number of empty bottles.
"I'm pretty sure I'm meant to get a hangover or something after drinking that much booze? If Luna has one ,then I should be a lot worse off." as soon as he said it , he regretted it. As almost as if thinking about it called it in to existence. What little light there was became almost unbearably bright, and a massive pounding headache starting to chip away at his sanity.
Luckily, he could hear Luna coming back. Hopefully with a remedy for his hangover. Luna came back to the sofa with two glasses of a foul smelling, gooey looking liquid. He was about to ask what was in the 'concoction' but he could guess from the look on Luna's face, he would be better off without knowing.
She floated one of the glasses over to him, and he took it , and drank it instantly. His headache went, but he was left with a small problem after that.
"What the? What is in that? It tastes like sewage water and thousand year old food , eugh!" he yelled and retched slightly, coughing a little bit.
"Luna, remind me never to drink so much again, whatever that is tasted absolutely horrible."
Luna looked at him, and broke at laughing. After her fit of giggles was over, she drank her hangover cure without a second though.
"Im used to these drinks" she smiled, while Feargus stood there, attempting to recover his wits after seeing Luna not giving off any reaction to the drink at all.
Suddenly, there was a series of loud crashes and bangs from upstairs, and they heard Twilight call out for them.
"Luna! Feargus! Get up here! We need your help with something! Ponies are in danger I've already teleported spike over to tell Celestia, I had not time for a letter, now hurry!" She shouted down from the basement door.
Luna levitated Feargus' duster over to him, he put it on, and with that, they were following Twilight in a mad dash towards the town limits.
There was a large gathering off ponies, all looking scared , all pointing towards a dust cloud that was coming from the Everfree forest.
"Can anypony see anything?" Looking up to the source of the noise, it was rainbow dash, hovering in the air as if she was trying to get a better look.
"I cant see nothing' either sugarcube." Applejack's reassuring voice projected clearly, despite the number of panicking ponies.
"Ummmm… I don't see anything either… sorry" Fluttershy whispered, hiding behind her mane, slightly scared because of the amount of ponies.
"I don't know about you guys but I see a really large dust cloud!" Pinkie shotued, despite the gravity of the situation, still had a extremely upbeat tone to her voice. Twilight turned to Feargus who was just standing there, staring off at the ever closer cloud.
"Feargus, can you see anything?" Twilight asked. Everypony then proceed to look at the human.
"Get Everypony out of here, and back in to town, tell them to lock their doors until I say otherwise, understood?" His voice was completely serious, and almost devoid off all devotion.
He then proceed to flex his wings, causing his duster to fall off.
"Twilight, Luna, stay here in case in what Im doing is going to backfire in any way."
"Wait!" Luna yelled. Feargus stopped in mid air.
"Yes?"
"What's coming? Why does everyone have to go hide in their homes?"
"Its simple Luna, every animal in the Everfree forest is coming this way. Im going to go stop them before they try to lay a claw on anypony."
Feargus continued his flight towards the dust cloud, which now similar shapes were starting to form. Manticores, timber wolves, cockatrices, all charging towards Ponyville
"Wait, how is he going to stop them?" Rarity raised the question. Applejack and Pinkie were gently herding Everypony back to town.
"We'll be right back out once we help everyone else darlin' , go on ahead!" Applejack cried.
"Yeah!" Pinkie laughed , despite the gravity of the situation.
" We'll be right behind you!"
And with that, everypony was racing off after Feargus.
"Damn, that's a lot of animals!" Feargus spoke. He was close enough to the horde of creatures to perfectly see them. Timber wolves, Manticores, cockatrices. Every single animal that lurked in the Everfree was charging at him, intent on wreaking havoc.
He had flown his way over, much faster than Rainbow dash could have managed. Not really being a experienced flier, he guessed it was adrenaline which gave him the skill.
A realisation hit him. If he didn't stop these bloodthirsty animals here, they'd go on to Ponyville.
"I'll be damned if im going to let that happen!" He snarled. Suddenly , he was struck by a strange sensation all over his body. A slight tingling at first, then it built up so it felt like there was a inferno underneath his skin.
"Let it out!" Angel cried from his thoughts.
He simply agreed, he didn't have time to question it, and proceeded to heed the advice of the spirit.
The energy seemed to flow to his hands, and built up in a burning crescendo. Sparks of white light flew in between his hands. Within seconds, his palms were engulfed in a white light, and energy sparked at the tips of his wings.
Then, he let it out. He forced it out through his palms, and it grew in to a ever expanding wall of solid ,cleansing, light. And it was going straight towards the creatures of the Everfree. It had the impact of a tidal wave, al of the animals fell back, and looked around, confused. All of the timber wolves, a large pack of two-hundred or so, split off from the horde under the lead of a larger wolf, clearly the alpha.
The pack of wolves was followed by a few cockatrices. And all that was left out of the inhabitants of the Everfree were a few Manticores, ten at most.
Then , the Manticores had become enraged again, and began to charge towards the winged being.
"My turn" Shadow cackled.
" My power can do whatever you want, let it be what you wish to be."
Power, overwhelming power began to flood through his veins again. Knowing what he needed to do, he let it build up. The energy in him spiked again, flaring on his wings and turning the edging wings lethally coated in a dark haze.
With a another cry, he casted his rage towards the Manticores. He only wanted to pacify them, not kill them. It was like a artificial night. Another rising wall of magic, this time not light, but as dark as the deepest abyssal pit. The Manticores froze in place, and immediately turned to stone. The wall receded, creating a dark mist all over the ground in a area around the Manticores, and Feargus. He then collapsed on to his knees, folded his wings, and looked at his hands, which were still sheathed in a dark aura.
"W-what am I?" He stammered, questioning himself. The sound of wings could be slightly heard in the distance.
Then, applause was heard. The sound of metal on metal. A rather annoying, clinking, sound.
"Oh well done lord, oh very well done." a strange, sly tone reached out through the mist.
"What? Lord? What the hell are you talking about!" Feargus barked, his short rest over.
"Its funny you say that actually…" The voice trailed off. Then, a orb appeared in front of him, the same colour of dark surrounding him.
"Boo!" the orb went. "Oh? You don't recognise me? Well, let me help you remember. Its not often your forget Vile, the lord of insanity.." The orb began to speak. The orb of darkness condensed, and turned in to a bipedal figure, and then place one if its metallic hands over his face.
Feargus began to scream.
A loud, painful yell of agony echoed over to Luna ,Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash
"Oh my.." Fluttershy squeaked, much , much quieter than usual at the sound.
"We need to hurry! Rainbow, Fluttershy, fly ahead as fast as you can!" Luna instructed, keeping calm. She turned to Twilight.
"Twilight, you know how taxing it is to teleport one pony, let alone three. We well both partake in this spell, sadly, I doubt Rarity knows the complex spell of teleportation."
Normally, Rarity would not have suffered this insult towards her magical skill, but she knew she couldn't. And besides, at this moment, there were more pressing matters.
In a blinding flash, they teleported towards Feargus' rough location. When they arrived, they saw Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were already there. They were standing on the ground, staring at the figure that was holding Feargus in place.
Then, Feargus reached out, and removed the metal claws from his face.
"No.." Feargus whispered softly. After removing Vile's hands from his face, he realised they were not hands, but elongated claws, made out of some silver metal.
The being himself was more terrifying. What stood before him seemed to be human like him, but taller, he couldn't tell if it was male or female. Vile was clad in a jesters outfit, in a checkerboard pattern .On it's head, a jesters hat made of he same pattern, but the bells were made of bone. What kind of bone, he couldn't tell. On its face, it wore a mask, one side twisted in to a grotesque smile, the other in to a look of sadness, made out of the same material as the claws. The eye sockets were empty.
"Oh I can't wait to introduce myself to your friends." The jester whispered menacingly., and lengthened his claws some her, they were longer, and so much sharper. With a flick of his wrists the claws became serrated. Feargus looked up from the ground to see all his friends, standing there, gazing at him, all standing still.
"You will not touch them!" Feargus launched himself of off the ground, and became covered in the dark aura again, and with that, he reeled back and punched the jester in the ribs. Hard.
The magic dispelled, causing the demon to go launching through the air.
Feargus snarled, and then condensed the shadow around himself, and then, the shadows burst in to motion, racing in front of Vile, who was flying through the air.
Feargus reappeared, and kicked the still-moving demon upwards in to the air. Feargus than flapped his wings, and shot in to the sky, like a bullet out of a gun.
He intercepted Vile, and grabbed hold of it, and began crashing back to the ground. Vile began to slash at Feargus, cutting his body a few times, but not realising his hold. The magic was protecting him, but not for long.
"I dare you to try and harm these ponies! I FUCKING DARE YOU!"
He yelled, his voice taking on anew character, a much sinister darker tone. A much deeper, voice that oozed lethality.
They crashed back in to the ground with a large dust cloud, creating a small crater. Before the dust had cleared, Feargus, enraged ,jumped upon the fallen form and began to beat him viciously, driving blow after blow in to its body, further deepening the crater.
"YOU COME HERE AND EXPECT ME TO JUST WALK BACK THERE LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED! SO I CAN CAUSE MORE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION! NO!" He punctuated each word with a punch, and the occasional kick.
Feargus launched the demon lord out of the crater, and it landed neatly on the lip of it. It stumbled, and began to laugh.
"Oh good show, but you cant beat me without your precious weapons!" Vile cackled, a dark ooze leaking out of the cracks in its mask. Its clothes didn't tear, but they did crack. And the slow moving darkness that passed for the demons blood was flowing freely.
The claws had shrunk back to their normal size, and had a dew drops of the crimson fluid that was Feargus' lifeblood on them. The mask was scratch free.
"Without your little magic pea shooters, your nothing!" Vile yelled. Desperately trying to stand.
"Feargus…" a reassuring voice whispered in his mind.
"Angel?" Feargus thought back. Time had seemingly stopped. The dust and debris was all still frozen in mid air. The looks of shock on everypony's faces were frozen still. Vile was frozen, in the middle of standing up.
"Time for us to stop talking, and get shooting." Shadow huffed.
"We were brought to this reality with you along with three other things. Your bastion, your scythe, and us."
" We are part of you. You invested so much in to us we became attached to your very spirit."
"Don't worry, while we wont be able to talk anymore, we will still be able to help."
Slowly, time began to un freeze. Everything began to move in slow, slow motion. As time began to unfreeze, and as Angel and Shadow began to detach themselves from his mind, he experience all of his memories at one time.
Majority of them all were violent, dark memories.
"They may not accept you for who you are at first, but they will eventually, they will need you. But, remember how caring they all are."
"Now, I believe we have a rebellious vassal to slay?" Angel remarked.
The voices went, the weapons came.
" THEN WHAT ARE THESE BITCH!"
Feargus yelled, raising his hands.
In his left, a flintlock pistol made of white ivory, with gold etching all around, and a elaborately carved hilt, bladed hilt.
Angel
In his right hand, a pistol with four separate barrels. The ends of the barrels were spiked, and chains dangled off the ebony coloured weapon.
Shadow.
Feargus pulled the triggers. The weapons were heavily enchanted, so no reloading was need. Just point and shoot.
A dense ball of light magic gracefully flew out of the mouth of angel, and a large glob of darkness was vomited up from the depths of shadow.
They both struck the insane demon lord in the chest, knocking him back to the ground.
Feargus shadow-lunged over, turning himself in to the ball of shadow, and reappearing over the jester. He turned to Luna, Twilight , Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and the recently arrived Pinkie and Applejack.
"Look away. Please" Without waiting for a response, Feargus porccede to violently and brutally shoved his flintlock pistols in to the chest of the mad jester, and lifted it up in to he air.
"More will come. Lord Arkane is already here, working on opening a gateway." Vile rasped.
"I am but the first of many, you know that lord F-"
"Don't call me that, foul demon." Feargus hissed.
"I no longer wish to my associate myself as that being. Now, prepare to die." Snarling, Feargus ripped the guns out its chest, spilling a black ichors al over the ground, and punched his hands in to the spaces the barrels of his weapons recently were.
The doomed demon desperately scratched at Feargus with is claws, slashing open his shirt and cutting his chest.
"THOU ART BANISHED!" Feargus yelled, and tore Vile in half with brute strength alone.
The Mask and claws fell to the ground, while the black ichor drenching Feargus in a foul rain slowly began to disappear in to a fine mist.
Feargus fell to his knees, and looked up to see Luna and Twilight , and everypony else to be looking at him. They all had a look of fear in their eyes. But Luna, also something else. Sadness.
He knew what they were going to ask.
"Yes , I have my full memory back. Short or long version?"
"Short." Luna whispered.
Feargus took a breath, and braced himself. Before he began, a bright light interrupted him, and Celestia , with Spike, stood in its place. She looked around and was about to speak, shocked by the scene before her, before stopping herself, realising that she should simply let Feargus speak.
"I have many names, from many culture. And considering how I am substantially older than I look. Much, much older. You might even have a name for me here. I've probably already been here once. A few millennia ago. Possibly more."
A gasp emerged from Everypony present.
He chuckled, before he was slowly engulfed I a white light.
"I am regarded of Lord over the darkest plane of existence. Master to those who know how to do nothing but sin, and kill."
"I am Lord Fear, the grim Reaper, last of the humans , who are the utmost evil life has ever seen. And while this form has served me well, I think its time I changed. Maybe I'll grow up a little bit?"
"But, considering how I just saved Ponyville, and possibly all of Equestria, from a painful death, you could let me off?"
Sudden plot twist, I know. Probably didn't pull it off well but meh, my schoolwork has been getting in the way.
I will try to upload whenever I can, but considering how this is one of my most important years at school and, sorry guys, school comes first.
Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome!
-Goose