Chapter 10: Light Vs Dark
Within the flea market store, a low grumbling was heard as a person got up following their flight through the air and landing in the store.
"Oh ow, that really hurts," Matthew groaned as he rubbed the back of his head, "I've always hated flying...ow...and that...ouch...makes me really hate flying. Oh I'll feel that tomorrow."
Shaking off the daze and shock of flying and crash landing with only a few scratches, Matthew got to his feet and looked around.
"Where in Celestia's name am I?" He looked over to a nearby cash register and saw a lone female clerk there, "excuse me, but where am I?"
"You're at a Flea Market sir," she answered with a shakiness in her voice.
"Hey, you don't need to be scared of me, I'm a normal human..." he looked down and groaned, "with damaged weapons that can't be used. Ahh dangit." Sitting in front of him were his damaged paintball gun and bow staff, snapped into three pieces, "better them than me." He looked back at the clerk, "how far away am I from parliament?"
"About seven blocks away from there."
"Seven blocks?!" he cried in alarm. "Dang that King Sombra can really throw. Oh he's going to pay for that."
"Matthew? Matthew, are you there?" cried a voice from nearby. "Blasted radio, it doesn't beat scrolls sent by Spike. Where are you Matthew?"
Matthew found his wireless headset on the ground, somehow still in one piece. He picked it up and placed it into his ear, "Rainbow Dash? Is that you?"
"Finally!" came the reply, "and yes it's me, where in the name of Celestia did you go?"
"I got blasted about seven blocks away from your location. I'm scratched up, but I'm not down. Give me some time and I'll get back there."
"Well you better hurry, cause there's more of these creatures surronding us, and now Sombra's got a shield around himself that we can't break. Twilight and Starlight tried, but it was useless."
"Alright, keep fighting back and I'll be there."
He looked around the store, hoping to find something he could use to fight his way back to the government buildings. Finally, he spotted something; a set of swords in a glass case.
"Hey Miss, how much are you asking for these swords?"
"You...ca...can take them...Sir...you don't...need to...pay," she said with the same nervous tone she had shown before.
"No I'll pay, how much?"
"Ten dollars each."
"Only ten dollars?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He placed two ten dollar bills onto a nearby counter, then put down another ten.
"What's that one for?"
"For what I'm about to do."
Using his own right fist, he punched the glass, breaking it into pieces. It's not something he would normally do, or want to see anyone else do as it would result in injuries, as proven with cuts, but it worked as he was able to grab the swords. He brought them out and did a small examination of them. They seemed to be perfectly balanced in his hands, then he swung them around a bit.
"Well I've been needing an upgrade for a while, and these will do nicely." He put on the straps for the swords and slid them in.
"Sir...what...is going on out there?" asked the clerk.
"Trouble. My advice is stay down and stay hidden, if you have to, hit the monsters hard, but don't hurt them too badly. They are still people after all."
He walked out of the store through the smashed windows and looked around at his surrondings. It really did look like a scene from a horror film combined with a ghost film. Matthew sighed, "guess I better start running," and that's what he did.
Back at parliament, the rest of the group were struggling as more and more monsters appeared. All the while, King Sombra sat on a make-shift thrown, surronded by his shield spell. Despite the Prime Minister's pleads, alot of the area was being trashed.
"This ain't going so well," groaned Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy smacked another monster down, only to discover two more coming her way. Starlight got one, allowing Fluttershy to smack the other one, "we really need some help."
"Is anypony there, over?" came another voice.
"Isn't that Patrick?" Sara asked as she shot at another monster.
Twilight perked her ears in the direction of the voice and listened; "can anypony read me, over?"
"It is Patrick, but how is he talking to us through the radio?"
Shooting her way towards the Marauder, Starlight dived into it and grabbed the radio, "this is Starlight Glimmer, Patrick is that really you?"
"We're through!" she heard a cheer before getting a proper answer, "yes it's me, and I'm not alone. Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Shining Armor and the rest of us are here too."
"Well I wish you were here..." there came a deep rumble from above as something landed on the roof, "excuse me one second." She poked her head out and shot at the monster, sending it flying away from the big vehicle, "as you can guess, we're up to our ears in monsters."
"Yes we know," came the voice of Emily, "we got the info thanks to Celestia's portal magic."
"Portal Magic? That's it! Princess Celestia, if you can open up a portal, and Cadance uses her love magic, maybe we can transform the humans back into their normal selves." She paused as she heard more pounding, it was coming from Rarity banging many into the ground, and Rainbow Dash, along with Fluttershy, were smacking many out of the sky, "and we're going to need somepony to perform healing spells on them afterwords."
"I know some healing magic," said another voice on the other end. It sounded like Moondancer, "and with Princess Luna and Prince Shining Armor helping, we can heal them all."
Starlight sighed, "three years in a row you come to the rescue Moondancer, and we're grateful for that."
"Where's Matthew?" asked Ryan, "is he fighting the monsters with you guys?"
"Oh uh, well he uh went for a little flight."
Matthew continued running through the streets until he stopped to catch his breath, "now I know why I'm not in action movies, it takes alot out of me," he said to himself.
"HELP!" cried a young female voice. It was coming from up ahead.
"Oh now what's going on?"
He ran to the source of the screams. He looked inside a barber shop and found a young girl, probably no more than seven years old, cowaring in front of three different monsters, all with razor sharp claws.
"Please, don't hurt me!" cried the little girl.
But the monsters didn't back away, they merely continued walking forward.
Matthew shook his head, and pulling out his new blades, he charged into the shop. One of the monsters raised a claw, ready to strike the young child, but was suddenly stopped by Matthew's blade.
"Hurt a young child? Not on my watch!"
He lifted his right leg and kicked the creature in the stomach, sending it back a bit. Now this gave Matthew room to be a shield between the child and the monsters.
"Well, who's next?"
The second monster charged in, swinging it's claws at Matthew, but he dodged many of them before stopping it with his blades again. He jumped up, spun around and kicked it in the chest. The third monster charged at him, to which he blocked him, but it instead grabbed his arm and lifted him off the ground. The little girl grew nervous, but Matthew wasn't. He smirked, launched forward and kicked the monster under the chin. This forced the beast to let go of him and fall back. The first monster charged at him again, but Matthew slid underneath the beast and kicked it in the back of the legs, before getting up and kicking it down with another kung fu kick.
Before he could get his bearings, Matthew was grabbed from behind and lifted off the ground again. He shook his head, and elbowed the monster, forcing it to let go of him, but before he landed on the ground, he managed to spin around and kick it in the stomach, which sent it flying towards the window, breaking it and sending the monster outside. The two other monsters snarled at Matthew, eager to hurt him again.
"Sorry, no haircuts today, but I do have something else for you," he smirked.
The little girl had her eyes closed during most of the fight, and even after hearing her rescuer say that, which was followed by pounding sounds, and more smashed glass. The snarls of the monsters became faint. She heard footsteps coming her way.
"You alright little one?"
She looked up and saw her rescuer. Matthew got down so that he was at her eye level, "it's alright, you don't need to be scared of me. I'm just a friend here to help you."
"Were those real monsters?" the little girl asked with the same worried voice he heard in the flea market.
"Sadly yes, they are people turned to monsters by a dark force, but you're safe now. Those ones won't be coming back. Now, where are your parents?"
"They went out there." And the little girl pointed out the smashed windows.
Matthew suddenly realised that he had been fighting the girl's parents, and most likely the barber too, "Oh. Well, shoot. Okay, do you have any other family members that look after you? It's not really a good idea to stay here."
"My...grandma can look after me."
"Okay great, so where is your grandmother's place?"
"She's down the road to the right and one block away from here."
Matthew got to his feet and looked, there were no monsters in sight, but that didn't mean it was completely safe, and there was no way of knowing if the young girl's grandmother was still human.
"Alright, I'll take you there, and once we find your grandmother, you both stay down and hidden out of sight. Now let's go."
He picked up the little girl, holding her in his left arm while still holding the sword in his right hand. They made their way into the streets, passing many abandoned vehicles and empty buildings. They reached an intersection when suddenly, they heard a roar and moments later, found themselves surronded by transformed human monsters.
Matthew groaned at the mess around him, "oh Horseapples!"
Celestia's horn lit up, and within moments, monsters were sent flying towards them. Cadance was ready with her spell, and joining her were Minuette, Lemon Hearts and Twinkle Shine. Some though still wanted to get away, but Patrick, Ryan, Emily and Zoe were ready as they surronded the area with their own weapons. For air support, Gilda and the old school bullies who used to tease her, Fluttershy and Rainbow would knock them out.
"Get back you beasts!" shouted Patrick and smacked them.
"Please don't hurt them too badly," he heard a voice over the radio, "they are still good people in there."
"Is that..."
"Yeah it's the Prime Minister, and we've already told him they'll be fine," said Sara. "If you have to, use brute force."
"Whatever you say Sara." And on that note, he smacked another beast with a bow staff of his own.
Once Cadance and her team had done their job, Moondancer, Luna and Shining Armor healed them up so they wouldn't feel any pain, then they sent them back through the portal back to Ottawa.
"Run away from here!" shouted the Prime Minister. "And don't come back till given the all clear!"
The people who had been transformed back nodded and ran as fast as they could. All the while, screaming as monsters tried to get them. Rainbow Dash swooped in and smacked them away. Thankfully, they didn't have to go too far as they found military personal with vehicles of their own. Besides providing her with the weapons and big red truck, Sara's father sent in teams that could bring people out of the dark dome, but only once they had positive thoughts in their heads, as told by Sara after getting in.
The Prime Minister suddenly cried, "My family! No!" Sure enough, there were several monsters coming towards him, and they were his family.
Starlight suddenly had an idea, "hey Trixie, remember what we did back in the changeling hive? See if you can do that here, and send them to Equestria."
Trixie didn't need telling twice. She blew a whistle, which got the monster's attention. They charged at her, but she disappeared within the smoke and appeared near the portal. They charged again, and like before, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke and sent them away. They came through less than a minute later, and this time they were humans. The Prime Minister ran up to his wife and children.
"Dear, what is going on?" his wife asked.
"We'll explain later, but right now, you need to get out of here."
"Come with us Daddy," said the youngest child.
Twilight heard this and after hitting one more monster, called out to the Prime Minister, "you can go with them, we can handle things from here Sir."
"Are you sure Ms Sparkle?"
"I'm sure, we've dealt with worse than this before."
The Prime Minister wasn't so sure if he should leave them on their own, but in the end agreed to go. Pinkie Pie and Sara provided protection for the family until they reached the military vehicles.
"Mr Prime Minister, we will get you out of here," said one of the soldiers.
"And when you get out, tell my dad I said thank you," said Sara.
"Will do miss."
There came another roar as five monsters appeared, ready to hurt the people in the military vehicle. Pinkie Pie though was ready. With cannons still coming out of her mane, she aimed and shouted, "here's a little mudcake in your eyes." The cannons fired and hit them in the face, knocking them out of the sky and slamming into the ground. They were then lifted by Starlight Glimmer and taken to the portal.
The Prime Minister's wife looked to him surprised.
"Yes Honey, it's all real."
The military truck roared into life and they set off. At the site, Twilight noticed King Sombra groaning with each transformation, "he's weakening, we're winning you guys!"
Starlight looked firmly to her teacher, "don't start counting your victories till you've got them."
Rainbow smacked three more monsters down, then flew down to her friends, "where the heck is Matthew? We really need him."
"He's probably run into trouble. You better go find him Starlight."
Starlight didn't need to be told twice. She turned and ran off into the direction Matthew had gone, leaving the others to fight on their own.
Back at the intersection, Matthew had somehow managed to already knock down seven monsters, but not without getting a few scratches of his own. Now there were only five left. The little girl was now hiding in an alleyway after Matthew cleared a path for her, and allowing him to bring out his other sword.
The little girl watched as the swords blocked the claws, punches were thrown at the faces of these monsters, and Matthew kicked them more times than she could count. One monster charged at him, but Matthew blocked him and prepared to punch him. His crystal suddenly glowed and as his fist met the monster's stomach, they were sent flying away. The other monsters stopped and stared at Matthew. He was just as surprised as they were, but he shook it off and looked to the others with a look of, 'who's next?' They roared and flew away.
"What in the name of Celestia was that?" Matthew asked himself.
"Can we go now?" the little girl asked shakily.
"Huh? Oh right, yes let's go."
Holding onto the little girl's left hand, he lead her all the way to the building her Grandmother lived at. They knocked at the door, and after twenty six seconds, the door was opened, revealing an elder woman in her sixties.
"Grandma!" cried the little girl and ran up to her.
"Oh sweetie, you're okay. Where are your mom and dad?"
The little girl didn't answer.
"It's okay, you're safe now." She looked up to Matthew, "thank you for bringing her here."
"Glad I could help."
The little girl looked up to Matthew as he got ready to leave, "please safe my mommy and daddy. Please," she begged.
Matthew showed a caring smile, "I promise you, I will safe them and you'll be reunited with them. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," and he moved his arms in tune to the Pinkie Pie Promise. He saluted to the little girl and her Grandmother, then ran back into the streets.
"Take care young man," said the Grandmother.
Matthew went back to running in the streets, but stopped when he heard his radio crackle into life, "where are you Matthew? We need you here and now!" shouted the voice of Rainbow Dash.
"How about you stop shouting before you make me go deaf? I'm seven blocks away, I'm coming back and should be there soon."
"That's what you think," said a voice that sounded similar to his own, yet somehow dark. He turned around and gasped to see another version of himself, only this one had blood red eyes, fangs on both ends of his mouth and scatches on it's face. "You're not going to get away, I'm going to kill you first." He reached behind him and pulled out two swords of his own.
"Hold those thoughts, I got something I need to do," Matthew said into his headset. He grabbed the handles of his swords and pulled them out, "let me guess, the dark magic set you free from me."
"Yes, along with some power from the crystal around your neck. It's more helpful to me than you, but it won't last forever, so I guess I'll have to destory you, and then I'll take over."
"You wish numb-skull."
Matthew charged in, and so did his dark side. The swords clashed as both Matthew and the dark side swung at each other, though it seemed the dark side was just a bit stronger. He swung his blades so much that all Matthew could do was jump out of the way, and watch whatever was behind him get cut down. The dark side also seemed to be faster than him, and knocked Matthew off his feet. He swung his blade down, which was blocked by Matthew's own sword.
"You always were weak compared to me, now you'll fall because of it."
Matthew looked down and smirked. He lifted his right leg and kicked his dark side off of him. Getting to his feet quickly, he swung his right sword first, then his left sword swung, clashing with the dark side's blades. He pushed down, trying to break the blades, but he was stuck in a stale-mate. The dark side tried to kick him, but Matthew dodged kicks left, right and center. The dark side smirked, and without warning, made Matthew's blade fly away from him, allowing him to kick Matthew down onto his back again.
With the two blades in his dark hands, the dark side prepared to strike again, showing the same evil smirk he'd always shown. He rose the blades, ready to end him, but was suddenly hit by a powerful beam of light. Matthew looked to the source and found Starlight Glimmer coming towards him.
"So should I ask how he's out?"
"Nope."
"Why he wants to kill you when it could destory the body?"
"It would only get my spirit, not the body."
"Dark magic?"
"Yep."
"Just fight him?"
"Yep."
Starlight helped Matthew to his feet, then they charged in. The Dark side was still smirking, but he wouldn't be for long. As he focused on Matthew, Starlight got him from behind. When his attention went to Starlight, Matthew kicked him from behind. He swung his blades, cutting down a lamp post, making it fall on top of a car and sending electrical wires flying wildly in the air.
"Starlight, the wires!" Matthew called.
Starlight nodded and grabbing them with her magic, sent them in the dark side's direction. He had no chance to move as they smacked him and shocked him for a good few seconds. He struggled for a bit, but soon got the wires away from him and charged at Matthew again. Starlight charged at him, but he was ready, he changed direction and kicked Starlight, sending her flying towards another car. She banged into the door and fell to the ground. Matthew ran to try and stop his dark side, but could only watch as this went on. In his own anger, he pounced onto his dark side's back and started pounding him on the head.
"Get off of me you little brat!" The Dark side tried anything to get Matthew off his back, but he seemed to stay stuck to him like glue and pounding him on the head. As he weakened, Matthew got off and kung fu kicked him up and down six times before a seventh kick made him fly through the air for a brief second before crashing down to the ground hard. The dark side groaned as Matthew picked up his own blades and pointed them right at the dark side, "go ahead, finish me."
"No," Matthew said firmly. "Unlike you I'm no monster. You can return to your spot, and you stay in there. And so help me, if you try getting out again, I may just let Twilight or Starlight turn you into a science experiment."
The dark side groaned and admitted defeat, disappearing into a dark mist which went back into Matthew.
Once he was gone, Matthew ran over to Starlight. She groaned as she got up, "now for sure I'll be feeling that in the morning," she groaned. "Is he done for good?"
"I wouldn't say that, but for now, he's under my control. And he'd do well to remember that." He helped his unicorn friend to her hooves, "we can't waste anymore time, there are probably dozens of monsters at parliament by now."
"Actually, it's all under control."
"Say what?"
"Just follow me, and I'll explain." And Starlight started walking off, but Matthew didn't move.
"Uh Starlight, how about you tell me now and use teleportation to get us there?"
"Oh right, silly me, I forgot about that."
Matthew could only roll his eyes at that.