Impossibilities

Chapter Seven

The Showdown, Part One of Three

()()()

In an instant, they all found themselves at the same location, twenty years in the past. The sky was clean, the birds were singing, the buildings weren't non-OSHA compliant hazard zones; everything was back to the way it should have been.

"Oh, man, it's good to be back!" Dash said, breathing in the fresh air.

"Don't get too nostalgic, Dash," Jack warned, looking up towards Canterlot. "We still have a job to do."

"Oh, yeah, right."

There was a brief pause, before Dash spoke up again.

"So, now what?"

"We'll need a lot more help this time. Adam, get Twilight and Applejack."

"What about the others?" He asked, prepping a multi-teleport.

"Leave them here, in case Herobrine comes back. Tell them to go to Twilight's place and bring weapons."

"Right. Multi-teleport!"

In about twenty seconds, Adam returned, Twilight and a very confused Applejack at his side.

"How'd he do that?" Applejack was vaguely aware of how magic worked, and she was pretty sure that it was impossible to teleport more than one pony at a time.

"I've always been able to multi-teleport!" Adam said, in his usual eerily cheerful tone.

"I still have no idea how he does that." Twilight was much better versed in magic, so she knew what she was talking about.

Jack sighed. "Enough small talk, we need to get there now. This is just a massive waste of time."

"Oh, all right, then. Teleport!"

()()()

"Finally, I'm rid of that fool Jack. Now, on to Celestia and Luna, and my new rule!"

It was just moments after the Baron had sent the group years into the future, and he was gloating to himself about how awesome he was.

"Not so fast, Baron," Jack said, appearing out of thin air behind his foe.

"What?" Schadenfreude wheeled around, and gaped at them. "Impossible? The SPARTANS failed? But…how? And how did you get back?"

"Wait, what are the SPARTANS?" Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't ask, it's not pretty." Jack said.

"Well, Jack, if you're not going to tell her, I shall."

The Baron cleared his throat, and began a short, though more specific speech about his plans.

"Twilight, after I kill Celestia, Luna, and you four idiots," he glared towards Jack, Adam, Simon, and Lewis, making it clear who it was that he despised at that moment, "I'll convert you, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie into horrific steam-powered atrocities that function only to kill. As for Fluttershy and Rarity…well, I wouldn't want to give you terrible nightmares. Let's just say they'll be otherwise…indisposed, or rather, disposed of. Equestria itself will be turned into a hellish wasteland, but I'm sure that Jack told you that already."

"Not if we have anything to say about it!" Applejack insisted, putting her hoof to the floor.

"What?" The Baron asked. "Is that really the best you can come up with? That's honestly pathetic, Jack. I would have expected some explanation on how to do threatening quips."

"There wasn't enough time to waste on that."

"Well, I do have to admit I loathe wasting time. Which, by the way, is exactly what you're trying to do while Adam attempts a sneak attack behind me." He gestured to the back of the group, indicating that Adam had disappeared. "Isn't that right, Adam?"

He turned around, but was surprised to find only the gaping hole he had blasted into the wall.

"What? Where did he…"

"SURPRISE!" Adam yelled, teleporting in at that moment and landing atop the Baron, both of them collapsing into a heap on the floor.

"Get off of me, you idiot!" The Baron used his dark magic to throw him off, and got back up.

"Oh, that was smart, Jack, toying with my expectations. Who came up with that?"

"I did!" Adam said, suddenly standing right next to him. "That was completely my idea!"

"Oh, will you shut up already!" He fired a freezing spell, encasing Adam in a solid block of ice.

"As for you, I have quickly grown tired of this absolute nonsense…and, of course, Rainbow Dash is now missing. Let me guess, she is about to fly in through that gaping hole I blew in the wall, which will catch me off guard, and you'll all start attacking me while I'm off-balance."

He glanced at the destruction he had caused, but noted a distinct lack of blue ponies flying towards him.

"Oh, come on!" The Baron yelled. "Does nobody have an inkling of predictability anymore? Wait…"

He'd heard a strange noise; a loud hum, quickly increasing with pitch. He ducked, and with good timing, too; Rainbow Dash had actually flown up instead of sideways, and just now decided to fly back down, through the wall, and slam right into the Baron, but this plan was negated by her target's skillful dodge. She slammed into the opposite wall, and slumped to the ground, seemingly unconscious.

"Oh, that was just horrendous. Honestly, you idiots beat the SPARTANS? How did you ever manage to do that?"

"I might not know what you're talking about," Applejack interjected, "but I know that you're just putting on airs, and that you're gonna lose!"

Using the absolutely perfect strategy of rushing him, she tried to knock out his hooves from beneath, so he would be off balance and be easier to defeat. The flaw in the plan was, however, painfully obvious to anybody that thought about it for more than a few seconds, and the Baron easily moved away and delivered a brutal chop against a certain place on the back of her neck, temporarily paralyzing her. She collapsed instantly, her legs no longer moving, and crumpled

"Hey, what'd you do to me?" She asked, her voice slurring.

"A pressure point. I blocked off a particular group of nerves, the motor control ones located in the spine. It will take about an hour for you to regain complete muscle control."

"That's cheatin'!"

"No, dear Applejack, that is not cheating. That is winning. There's a difference."

Jack bit his lip. "Hey, what's that behind you?"

"Oh, dear me. This has gone from being pathetic to being outright saddening. What a shame, really. I ought to put you all out of your misery."

He began charging an attack, focusing on the sheer devastating power. Red lines of raw magic energy, twisting into themselves in impossible ways began leading into his horn, and in a few seconds he was ready. Twilight gasped, realizing he was about to unleash the most difficult spell in existence: the Infinite Barrier Wave, which generated so much power that if it was stored, it could replace the sun for many years. Once unleashed, there was no protection against it; it would destroy the target (and everything around the target, including the planet itself) without any possible defense. It only existed in theory; the pony who invented it wasn't nearly stupid enough to actually try and test it.

"I shall relish your demise, Jack, even if this won't leave even the vaguest corpse behind. In fact, if I'm correct, this should completely destroy this entire building, and you and the two rulers with it. I figured out how to control it, and prevent it from destroying everything here."

"What? How can you control that?" Twilight said. She was terrified that he was so powerful, he could control the most dangerous spell ever conceptualized.

He closed his eyes, knowing that he wouldn't be able to see through the blinding, searing light. Even if he could, there wouldn't be much; this attack was so powerful, that they would be completely reduced to their base particles. Actually, no, they would be reduced even further, for the most part; at least half of the elementary particles would be reduced to mere one-dimensional strings.

"Goodbye, Jack."

"Oh my god, Lewis, we're going to die!" Simon yelled, reminding you he was there.

The Baron began to laugh, and unleashed his attack, which…did nothing.

"What? Impossible!"

He tried again, drawing in a bit less energy, just in case the sheer amount had overloaded and ended up fizzling out. But even this lesser amount didn't do anything.

"Why isn't this damned spell working as it should?" He clenched his teeth in rage; he had practiced this many times on abandoned planets (well, usually they were abandoned).

"I know why it didn't work!" Twilight shouted, stepping forward.

"Oh, really? Care to educate me?" The Baron asked in the snidest, most sarcastic voice he could muster.

"You used up too much energy. Between stopping time and sending five ponies twenty years in the future, plus all the smaller spells I'm sure you've done, you can't do anything else!"

"No! I…this is not according to plan! You…you cheated! You did something to me!"

"Come on, Vlad," Jack said, barely cracking a smile. "You know that there's a difference between cheating and winning. For example…"

Even the Baron's superior reflexes were barely enough for him to react to what happened next: Rainbow Dash getting up from her unconscious form and kicking at him with her powerful hind legs. He was able to move away, but still got hit. The force of the attack, plus his own movement, contributed to him losing his balance and falling out of the building.

"Damnation!" He shouted, desperately unfurling his wings to stop himself from hitting the ground. It didn't work, and he collided with the solid cobblestone below.

"Ouch." He got up, dusted himself off, and looked back up at the group.

"You fools think you've won? Ha! You'll have to do much better than that!"

"Like what?" Jack responded, peering out through the destroyed wall.

"Figure out a way to stop me and Herobrine at the same time in two separate locations! As we speak, Herobrine is entering Ponyville, and he will kill everybody there unless you do something! Ha!"

"Shit!" Jack turned to face Rainbow Dash.

"What do we do?" She asked, panic in her voice.

"Don't worry. I already planned for something like this, and if I'm correct, it should succeed. We have to stay here and fight the Baron off."

"How?" Lewis asked, stepping between them. "Adam's frozen and Applejack is paralyzed."

"Actually, I'm starting to get a little feeling back!"

"It doesn't matter. We're still here, and if that's it, we have to make do with it. For Equestria."

Twilight nodded in solemn agreement. "For Equestria."

"For Equestria." Dash repeated, smiling.

Simon and Lewis glanced at each other.

"Ah, what the hell. For Equestria!" They said in unison.

"Yeah, sure, what you said." Applejack said, though she wasn't much help at the moment.

"Let's take him out." Jack looked at Dash for a moment. "By the way, Dash, very clever pretending to be unconscious."

"What? Oh, no, I was seriously out for a few seconds there."

"Oh. Well, I'm not getting younger. YA!"

Jack ran down the nearby staircase, the rest of his troupe following, bar Applejack, who was starting to regain feeling, and Adam, who was starting to thaw out.

()()()

This chapter was a little shorter than I would have liked it to be, but I've been feeling kind of sick this week, and wasn't able to do much writing. Next week, though, you'll get the fight against Herobrine, and it'll come a lot sooner and be a lot better. Until then, AwkwardVulpix, over and out.