I crouched down into a solid fighting stance, my feet shoulder length apart, my hands loose and held in front of me, and my body angled towards my attackers. The ten bronze armored guards broke into two groups of five and started circling to my left and right, trying to break my concentration, trying to make me go after one or the other... Well we, meaning Luna, Aurora, and I knew that I could take on such adultery attack, no problem... So, that's what I did. Both groups suddenly came at me, from my left and right, and spread out in two half circles to try and encompass me.
seeing this coming a mile away I just gestured with my left and right hands respectively and launched a light, but forceful enough, force push against them to knock them on their collective asses.
"Grah!" The leader of the group yelled as he slammed into one of his subordinates. I then sighed and stood up straight, towering over every single one of them by several feet. The tallest of the ponies present could have possibly come up to my navel... But only just.
"Is this what thine forces are capable of? Tis pitiful... And We must say, the gryphons put up much more of a fight..." I sighed theatrically and lashed out with my left hand and smacked one of the guards in the face as he and his buddies got back up and charged at me. He went back several feet, no thanks to the force... Sadly.
I roundhouse kicked the next one into a nearby tree, felling said tree in the process, and then brought my elbow down on the one next to him, knocking him out cold, even through the helmet. I then back-handed a grey stallion into four of his compatriots, knocking them all down, again, and drop kicked a mare... Yes, the Equestrian army employs both genders for its ranks... Like I was saying... Kicked a mare off into the ranks of royal guards behind the Princesses.
"Celestia... Is this the best thou hast to offer?"
"Soldiers of Equestria... ATTACK!" Suddenly all her forces charged at me, making me laugh in surprise at the sudden mob of bodies pressing towards me. So, with little hesitation, I. Picked. Them. Up. This didn't just make them stop... This made the sun Princess gape in awe of what I was doing, Luna was too, but I already knew she would.
"As We stated, Celestia, is this the best thou hast to offer?" My words finally struck her, making her recoil. She now knew that I was being dead serious when I had asked that question.
"If we say yes... Will thou spare us?" She asked, properly cowed out of her superiority complex.
"Yes... We shalt spare thine forces and thou... If thee would give shelter to our newest companion... Aurora!" I called her name, sending a mental message as well, making my words appear as avian in her mind, automatically translating them for her. She then got up off her furry bum and tracked over, carrying the two bundles in her front left claw as she stumbled towards us.
Luna looked like she was going to have an aneurism from the amount of lopsided bullshit that seemed to be taking place around her, from my current state to the whole debacle with her and her sisters guards... And my levitating them twenty feet in the air.
"Dearest Friend Corpus... What dost though think thee is doing? Thou hast embarrassed our guards, destroyed our township... Trounced several of our guards... Allied thyself with a gryphon... And insulted our sister... How much more dost thou need to do before we smack thee over the head with a wooden plank!" Luna growled at me, making all the guards and her sister turn to her in shock at such formalities... Or I formalities I should say. Celestia was agape, I was smirking, and the guards were going pale at the thought of losing their Goddess of the night.
"Well, seeing as thou was the one to go and take a few hours of thine time to acquire thine sister... I would say not much more if it has finally bumped thou out of thine funk, Dearest Princess Luna..." At that I lowered the guards back to the ground and set them about twenty feet behind Luna, leaving her a clear shot to me. I then got down on one knee and bowed in supplication to my friend, the very same one I was indebted to. At the same time as this Aurora arrived at my side, carrying my belt of hilts on her back and the two swaddled bodies in her arm.
Celestia looked between the two of us in awe, seeing as how I gave up so easily to Luna and not to her, and also at how we had addressed each other, speaking with such high esteem for the other. But both Luna and Celestia were far more interested in what the gryphon had covered in her arm, granted not even she knew what it was. Aurora the tapped me on the shoulder with a claw, making both Princesses flinch at the action, thinking that the thing would tear my skin asunder, which it could, but did not.
"Thank you Aurora...
" I then reached out and took the two bundles from Aurora, cradling one in each arm. I then rose up to my full height, again towering over all those around me by at least a foot or more. I then unwrapped the bundle that beheld the injured form of the colt I had saved, gesturing for Luna to come forward and take the child into her care.
"What dost thou need... Oh my... Is he the only survivor?" Luna asked, tears coming to her eyes at his disheveled and tear-stained state. She took him in her aura and secured him to her back with her wings keeping him snug against her metal plating.
"Yes... But he is not the only one We took..." I then unwrapped the other form and started crying again, making the rest of them, even Aurora, stare at me in confusion... Seeing as none, not even Luna had seen me openly cry like this. I then removed the silk cloth completely, falling to my knees, to show them. they all recoiled in shock at what they saw, Aurora gagged a few times before vomiting on the ground a few feet away... When she regained her composure she came back and cried into my shoulders, not being able to comprehend that her people were capable of such travesties.
"Luna... Calm thyself, there is no more needed bloodshed this eve... We hast taken care of all punishments this night of nights." My solid tone and unwavering eyes, they told the Night Goddess all she needed to know. She bowed her head in thanks and went back to cradling the lone colt in her magic, taking him from his place on her back and murmuring nothings of the mind to him, comforting him as well as she could.
"Creature... What is thy affiliation with our sister... Luna? Thou seems to have quite the understanding between thyselves... So, tell us... What is it?" Celestia asked, trailing around me, keeping her eyes trained on my prostrate form. He head was not held high like most nobles would be, it was tilted down and towards me as she made her circuits. When she could she would keep eye contact with me, trying to course me with a sense of mental pressure to get me to talk.
"Dearest Princess Luna, WE two have known each other for more over a months time now... Having been under her care for most this time has been quite the pleasure we assure thee... Though our activities have been naught, but talking and keeping the other sane in the odd hours of the night, we had come out here on an errand of sorts when Dearest Princess Luna here told us of an incident she had... concerning a lion eagle hybrid no less... So, as I said the two of us came here to investigate, to make sure the townships of this wonderful land were not under any harm...But alas we were too late..." I halted my speech and motioned to the destroyed buildings behind me. Celestia stood stock still and of to my immediate left as she took in my answer. She then looked to her sister for confirmation.
"Luna is this true?" She asked, breathless and in shock, though about what I could not be truly certain. "Hast though known this Creature for so long... And told us nothing...?"
"Sister I-" Luna was cut off by the force of her sisters outrage. making her ears go flat against her helm and her mouth to slam shut, along with the rest of us.
"YOU KEPT SUCH A THING FROM ME!" She cried out, her temper reaching its breaking point now. She started to stalk towards her sister, anger in her eyes. That is until I placed my hand on her chest and stopped her in her tracks.
"I would not suggest doing that your highness... You don't want to see what happens when I have to defend my friends... Or in this case family..." My eyes had become slits and my tone was acid thick... making each and every one of them freeze at the seriousness in my voice.
"You would dare... TOUCH... ME!" She yelled out, swinging her great axe towards my midriff, to which I just brought my elbow down on the blade and sent it into the dirt. I then brought my heel down on the center of the axe head, shattering it into a billion pieces, making her eyes shrink to pin pricks, along with everyone else's.
"Please, excuse our manners from before..." I said cheerfully, a complete contrast to how I was a moment ago, "But I slipped back into my old demographic... Now, We would appreciate it if thou would not swing a weapon at us again... We have killed enough beings this eve to not want to see blood again for a month..." I finished with a completely forced cheerful smile glued to my lips. The looks I was getting from the rest of the guards was one of fear and awe as they saw me lift my foot out of the small crater I had made when destroying Celestia's weapon.
"We... We see now... We art sorry Creature..." Celestia said, flabbergasted, as she slowly stepped away from me, back to her sister's side. As she did that I could feel the dark presence of a large demonic like creature coming towards us. Placing the dead child on the ground tenderly, I went over and picked up two of my sabers from my belt, taking a third and tossing it to Aurora.
"Something is coming... Get ready..." I spoke to Aurora before repeating my warning to the others, "Get ready everyone... Something big is coming, and it doesn't seem friendly..." I growled the last bit out, making everyone on edge and ready for a fight. The guards swarmed around their Princesses, making several rings of defense while I, with Aurora at my side, walked towards the Dark presence.
"Creature... What art thou doing!" Celestia yelled from the center of the defensive ring. Turning around I could see Luna, concerned and struggling to join me, covered in a golden aura.
"We don't know... Just depends on what shows up we guesses..." I smirked to them, making Luna gape at my answer and Celestia look at me confused.
*BOOOOOOM!* On foot fall sounded... *BOOOOM!* The second foot fall sounded... *BOOOOOOOM!* The third foot fall sounded, closer than the others... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!* The fourth foot fall sounded, with the leg appearing on the edge of the fog covered area. 'Ok... I am officially never going to create a fucking storm again if this shitty fog is going to come back...' I thought to myself as the next leg came into view.
"Can anyone pick up what that thing is!" I called out, not even looking behind me to single anyone out.
"It's... It's... It's... IT'S A HYDRAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Several of the guardsponies yelled, shaking in their armor, and pry pissing themselves. The beast stood before all of us, sixty some odd feet tall and sporting two heads on its upper torso... and no arms to speak of... But what it lacked in arms it made up in with tails, about five of them exactly. The Hydra was covered in deep swamp green scales and had hundreds of spines that trailed down its spinal columns. The heads of the beast were each the same, almost twin like in nature, both beheld yellow draconian eyes, something that would normally be seen in a dark side adept or some such thing. Its maw's were very wide, having the ability to open almost a full 180' degrees... each mouth had over a thousand needle teeth in them, they would have made a great white jealous if they ever saw them.
The beast looked down on all of us with greedy eyes, not those of a hungry predator... but those of a bloodthirsty killer, one that only want to kill... and only for the joy of it. It licked its scaly lips as drool poured over the sides of its maw as it gaped at us. It's tails swung back and forth like a mighty palm tree as its excitement grew, seeing all of the victims before it gave it a sense of sick ecstasy, just thinking of all the death it would bring was making it salivate more.
Standing there before the creature I could feel its dark emotions as they coursed through its sick perverted mind, and it made me green. I even bent over a retched, tossing up several mouthfuls of bile and the remnants of a meal I had eaten before coming here. It's presence in the force was something no normal force wielder could have handled on their own... The miasmic aura that wafted around it was almost deadly, hell I could see most of the Unicorn guards retching on the ground as well, though some of the weaker minded were flat on their faces, unconscious from the onslaught.
"ALL OF YOU BACK AWAY! RUN, GET THY SELVES FROM THIS CREATURE... IT WILL KILL THEE!" I yelled out, snapping everyone out of there force induced stupor, even the Hydra. As all the ponies backed away from the Hydra I ran towards it, leaving Aurora where she stood, half alive and barely able to stay her feet with the thick aura surrounding us. I called on the force to boost my speed, moving just short of a swoop bike. Igniting my green and blue blades, I instantly tossed my green bladed saber at the beast as the left head shot down at me. Just seconds later the blade could be seen spinning down the side of the hydras neck, flaying it open to the outside air. While still running at it I jumped up into the air and cut the creature's head clean off, cauterizing the wound with the cut.
The other head gave a mighty roar as it felt its other half die away. Using what was left of the severed neck as a club, the other hydra smacked me out of the air with it before ripping it clean off its body, spilling hundreds of liters of blood onto the ground. This act surprised the guards and the Princesses, making them gag and cringe at the sight of such a mutilation, more so than when I decapitated the head. A low bone breaking sound could be heard coming from the stump of the neck. I landed against the ground and got up once I heard the interesting sound. Suddenly TWO new heads sprouted from within the confines of the stump, both just as big and gruesome as the one before it.
I called my fallen lightsaber back to my hand, shaking the green blood off the hilt. Taking stock of the situation I could see that I was in a worse position than when I started... Now instead of two head... I had to deal with three... I began to think to myself, trying to think up a way to end this creature. 'Let's see... Cutting the head off spawned two more... But it first had to remove the whole neck... but why... was it because of my lightsaber? Could the cauterizing ability of the blade have caused such a need... Hmmm... Lets test this...' I grinned evilly to myself and rushed towards it, both sabers in hand this time. Seeing me thrown back so easily made Luna cry out in fear, which in turn made Celestia wonder about our relations with each other.
I raced towards it, not even paying mind to the searing pain building in my overtaxed body. The Hydra saw me, my blades illuminating my presence like a neon sign, sent two of its heads to deal with me while the rest of its body moved on to deal with the princesses and their guards. Wit hone head going low and the other going high I raced towards the middle ground. The lower head then lurched downwards, slamming into the earth and creating a large ass trench as it plowed on at me. It was going to try and use the dirt to shield itself from my strikes... Much to my amusement. The instant the got in range I dropped my sabers and shot my hands out in front of me, building up a large ball of energy. Once at its peak I ripped it in two and jumped, spinning into the air. When the high head came into reach I hit it point-blank, shredding its lower jaw as the head went reeling back in pain from the mighty force sent against it. As I descended I brought the other blast down on the base of the other heads neck, using its dirt clogged senses to my advantage. The force of the blast escaping my right hands finger tips was like that of a full on swoop bike colliding with a freight train... at full force. The Hydras neck was broken and flattened to a grotesque degree, sending gore and bone out in a wide arc from the small explosion.
With both heads dealt with, and not severed I landed softly on my feet, creating a small dust cloud from my use of the force to slow my descent. Standing there I called my sabers to my hands and headed off again towards the torso of the beast. During my whole show of strength, which really wasn't all that much considering I had been pretty badly beaten before hand, all the ponies were looking on in awe and fear. Celestia was worried, she had seen how I had deftly taken care of her men when she tried to restrain me, she then saw me effortlessly take and levitate all of her forces at one, and now she was witnessing me beat the forever living daylights out of a greater beast, all as if this was a normal day for me. She was more than just a little terrified of the prowess I was demonstrating right then. On the other hand though, Luna was scarred, not of me, but for me... For what ever reason... she could not even fathom it herself at the time why she would be afraid for a creature that, on even his worst day, could take on all her sisters PERSONAL GUARDS and then beat the tar out of A Greater Beast. The princesses guards on the other hand were all just about ready to piss their pants OR run up to him in gratitude... All of which just depended on whether or not he won this battle of the titans.
Getting closer to the, now one headed, beast, I could fully implement my plan... that is if the damned thing didn't replay the SAME FUCKING THING FROM EARLIER! The third head raced over when I was about half way and ripped the other two necks off its body, knowing that I was going to try and keep it from creating anymore heads. I laid on a burst of speed, becoming a true blur as I tried to beat the Hydra to its goal. But alas, I was too late. The beast wrapped its needle teeth around the base of the middle neck and ripped it clean out, dropping what could have been thought to be tons of steaming blood and gore on the slightly muddied earth of Sunny Dales outskirts. This again almost made the Guards Ponies retch at the sight of. I screamed a terrible battle cry as I ran even faster, pouring even more force energy into my body to get there faster.
Running up to a lone boulder I vaulted off of it, holding my blades in an X formation to cauterize the large wound. But I was too late, for as I sailed through the air, less than ten feet from my target, the wound exploded. Two new heads burst out, one of which caught me full in the chest with the full brunt of its skull, sending me flying back almost two hundred feet from the speed of the impact. The other head, somehow having separate orders already, bent back on itself and bit down on the other destroyed heads neck, ripping it from its body as well.
With my impact on the far away gravel road, feeling several bones crack and even break from the impact, I could hear the gore-tastic sound of two more heads exploding outward from the monster's body. Reaching about to find my lightsabers, I noticed that they had not made the trip with me, seeing them still imbedded in the skull of the Hydra head that hit me... Figures. I then did my best to get up, feeling that my left leg was again broken, but at my shin instead of my thigh, so standing was a little bit of a battle. I could feel the fear of all the ponies that were with Luna...
Their fear was something terrible, well for those that do not feed on such emotions for power. Their fear was intoxicating and it was flowing freely into the force. So, I drew on it, all of it, taking for myself as I charge one of the biggest attacks I had used yet on this planet... Far stronger than I had used on the Manticore when I first got here. As the fear flowed in I added my own emotions to the mix; Fear, Hate, Greed, Pride, Jealousy, even Love were filtered into it. I had closed my eyes as I collected all the power mine and the ponies emotions granted me, but in having my eyes closed... I did not see the dark Aura that had come to rest upon my very being. I had taken on the look of a specter, something that lived in shadow and killed for the thrill of the hunt. I then noticed something peculiar... The cries of victory that the Ponies had been shouting at me... had died down.
Opening my eyes I could see why, my skin had gone pasty grey, my hair; as it had gotten in my eyes, was black, instead of its normal brown and red. Seeing this I recoiled in my head, seeing these changes... struck me. I cursed in my mind and reminded myself of the promise I had made upon that dead child's bed... How I had promised to change... And now I was presented a chance.
Calming the powers raging around me I called on other emotions to bolster what power I already had, though what I brought were stronger than what was there. Loyalty, compassion, kindness, understanding/knowledge, peace, These things overpowered my baser instincts and created something of a whitish grey aura around me, seeing as my darker feelings still tainted my power. This abrupt change made the ponies look on in differing degrees of confusion. Though Luna and Celestia were both the most disturbed by my surreal change.
I then grinned as I felt my power skyrocket, leaving my old levels behind... So I turned to the monstrous thing that had been silent throughout this whole ordeal. It was now less than fifty feet away, all five of its heads looking on at me in disdain for ignoring it.
"AW... Big Bad Ugly sad that I didn't give him his present..." I gave it a pouty face, not really noticing the higher/deeper duality to my voice. I then dropped the façade and gave it a smirk of a predatory grin.
"ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" All five heads roared at me, making my smirk widen into a full-blown sneer as I lifted my hands up towards it, spreading my fingers out like there was wet nail polish on them.
"You have come here to kill those innocent in the ways of life and living... In the name of the Living Force... MAY YOU RETURN TO DUST!" I bellowed out, releasing the pent-up energy from the very tips of my finger tips.
Purple lightning arced from my fingertips, racing through the air at super sonic speeds. The first arc smashed into the longest lived Hydra head, searing scales from its hide as the plasma arced up and down its neck at random intervals sending puffs of steam as it came into contact with the bare tissue below. This made the neck and head spasm uncontrollably as the energy set about over stimulating the nervous system in the beast. The second arc smashed into two of the other heads, making them spasm, which in turn made them twist around each other for some odd reason or another. At this they then started to sear themselves together, seeing as the plasma was melting their scales together and burning them. For some odd reason the liquids produced by the heads when they reproduce is rather flammable... making for an interesting fire works display of color; reds, blues, greens, yellows, purples, and even whites burned on their scales.
"INSUFURABLE MONSTER! I can sense the deaths of thousands in your life force... IT CLINGS TO THEE LIKE THE PLAGUE! NOW THOU SHALT DIE LIKE A RABID DOG!" I bellowed, taking note of how my voice resembled that of a corrupted being... but without the decided evil tone to it. Unbeknownst to me all of my erstwhile allies were sitting behind me gaping in awe at the feat of magic I was performing on the giant gecko... Hydra, Gecko... wha's d'ah difference? Both Alicorns were now fearful OF me and were shaking slightly at my use of such deadly force.
The rest of the purple plasmatic lightning collided against the rest of the hydras body, with mixed results ranging from; small fires, to pealing the scales of its hide, to explosions on certain areas that had more of the flammable viscous fluid on it than others. The main head, after several seconds of unrestrained contact, started charring in places, melting the skin off the muscle and muscle off bone... The giant monster was writhing on the ground, its tails and necks flailing about as it took millions of volts of electricity and several tons of Plasma to its frame. Its screams of agony swept through the village and the surrounding countryside, making all who heard it cover their ears and cringe in sympathy or pain. This all carried on for the better part of ten minutes, of me pouring constant power into the beast hoping that it would soon die, and of everyone else staring at me in wonder; trying to figure out when I would run out of energy... or when I would stop the needless torture of the hydra and just kill it.
"WOULD YOU JUST DIE ALREADY! YOU FOUL BEAST! DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!" I cried out, several tears of blood trickling down my cheeks as the power coursing through my body started taking its toll. No more than five seconds after saying this I dropped down to one knee and cried out; the pain almost insurmountable and the will to keep going finally dying within me. I collapsed forward, landing on my hands and knees in the process. I could feel the beast was unable to move, having a trillion volts of electricity running through it made it almost impossible as it twitched about uncontrollable.
Suddenly the twitching of the body stopped, making me look at it in wonder, seeing as I could no longer feel it as of that moment in the force. I could hear the soft clacking noise of hoof and claw falls as two beings, whom I recognized as Luna and Aurora, walked towards me. I then proceeded to fall on my side and groan in pain, making them rush over to me.
"Dearest Corpus... Art thou severely injured?!" Luna cried softly, she was keeping her raging emotions in check, trying not to let her anger and fear control her actions right then. Even though... I could feel her anger and a light touch of hate in her Aura... Not much but it was there, So was her worry and anxiety... though I could not fathom why.
"Darth Corpus... What the hell did you do?!"Aurora asked in ancient Avian, she was no where near as worried as Luna, nor did she have anger and hate tearing into her. She was afraid, afraid of what I could have done to her had I not held up to my end... She was humbled and very confused as to why she was having thoughts of compassion towards me. Granted I could not tell what these thoughts were, but I could tell with the ting of such she left in the force that they were there.
"We art fine... Dearest Friends... Though that maniacal... Bloodthirsty DEVIANT over there... Should be dead..." I stated calmly as I rolled onto my back, looking up at the two concerned faces before me. "As to what we did... WE defended thou from a beast of such that would have given one of the Lesser BEHEMOTHS a run for their credits, or bits... in a fight... We could FEEL his blood lust... It is what affected thy Unicorn Guards... For that we art certain... It had a miasma so thick that it even made us sick..." I concluded.
"Dearest Corpus... How art thou able to call upon such power..." Luna asked cautiously as I struggled to regain my footing, leaning on the two women for support, using their quadrupedal forms to better stabilize myself. I leaned on Luna before pushing off and using the force to keep my body upright. I smiled warmly to them both, causing both women to blush for whatever strange reason... Yeah I was dense back then, go figure...
"Dearest Friends, Luna and Aurora... We art a master of arts that have been around longer than this planet has lived... We have just called upon the easiest of our abilities to slay thy foe before thou..." I laughed in my mind as I saw them gape in understanding, seeing their flabbergasted faces made me smile slightly.
"Aurora... We have yet to thank you for the help you gave us... We know that the guards shall see thee as an enemy of the state... To which we ask... Would thou like to become our newest apprentice... Thou dost not need to be able to use our powers... For there was once a great swordsman that could take on an army... granted the old bastard had four arms and the ability to crawl up any surface... But tis beside the point... Would though have us as thy teacher?" I would not see such a gifted swordswoman be declared a threat if I could handle it... Seeing as I was in a life debt to an immortal goddess that could move the moon and perform much stronger magic's than I.
"I-" Aurora was cut off as I suddenly jumped into action. I had felt the life force of the Hydra suddenly comeback to it, making it come fully awake and attack us the second it regained its barring's. Which was pretty damned fast. I shoved both Luna and Aurora out-of-the-way, making sure that Luna had secure hold of the child before doing so. The lead head then came crashing down upon me, swallowing me and a large portion of the earth under me whole.
I was later told that many of the guards and both Princesses were in shock at how easily I was 'Dispatched' at that moment. Granted I had saved three lives, but it was still a one in a million to have had that happen...