(My Little Pony:Friendship Is Magic is owned by Hasbro and Lauren Faust, Magic Junk is owned by EpicAeromancer33, the unnamed colt that will appear in this chapter is owned by monkeysarentcool, the Original Characters are owned by me. Now that the disclaimer is done here is the answer for the reference on the 10th chapter. If you watched X-Men Wolverine Origins, the reference was used by Victor Creed also known as Sabertooth who asks the bartender if he got insurance on his bar. Now that's done. Let's continue the chapter.)
Chapter 10 Strife's Lament Part 1
The next day came for the Paradise crew. Pinkie and Magic were awake and baking cupcakes in the kitchen, Dream was busy tuning the strings on his Cello, and Spike was busy cleaning the house. Strife came out his room and heads into the living room tired and exhausted. "Good morning Strife." Dream said to Strife who began to play his Cello in a nice morning symphony. Strife yawns and then says in a sleepy tone, "Morning Dream, so are we going to patrol Ponyville?" Strife asks heading into the kitchen.
He uses his magic to levitate an empty glass cup from the cabinet onto the table, he then opens the fridge and levitated a bottle of tea and poured it into the empty glass cup filling it. Strife then levitates the bottle of tea back into the fridge and levitated the cup of tea towards his lips. He took some sips of the tea and set it down on the counter. "Yeah, it's the same routine." Magic said to Strife while he was mixing a batch of dough in a bowl. He then pours milk in the bowl and continues mixing it. "Are you going to visit Fluttershy again?" Pinkie Pie asks while cleaning some dishes in the sink.
Strife takes another sip of his tea, he then sighs setting it down and says in a relaxed tone, "Maybe, depends…are we switching shifts today?" Strife looks at Dream. Dream thought for a second and then said, "Yeah probably, I'll still be patrolling the east center of Ponyville with Rainbow Dash, Pinkie will stay here with Spike, and you and Magic can patrol the north center of Ponyville." Dream began to strap his Cello onto his back.
Strife finishes his tea and levitates it to the sink and asks, "Pinkie you don't mind cleaning my cup please?" Pinkie smiles and then says, "Sure I'll clean for you." She grabs the cup and begins cleaning it. "Hey, where's Rainbow Dash, is she still here?" Spike asks walking next to Strife. "Well she's still asleep but I'll wake her up." Dream says trotting down the hall towards Dash's room. A knock was heard from the door and Strife goes towards the door to answer it. Strife turns his head towards the window looking out into the morning skies and mutters under his breath, "Same crap every day."
When Spike got to the door and open, he was looking at a colt with a black/purple slightly spiky mane with a dark blue coat. The colt also had red eyes and was a Pegasus whose cutie mark was an envelope with a skull adhesive and fire by the sides of the of the envelope. The colt wore metal headphones on his ears, and Spike heard some music coming from the headphones. "Here's a letter." The colt says in rugged voice handing Spike a letter from his saddle bag straped onto his back.
The colt then flies off not saying another word. "Who was that?" Rainbow Dash calls from down the hallway. She looked tired and slowly flew towards the door next to Spike. "Don't know he just gave me this letter." Spike said to Dash looking at the letter confused. "Well who is it from?" Magic asks as he begins to put dough in a tray into an oven. Spike opens the letter and begins to read, "From Dexilus…" He was cut off after the sound of glass shattering was heard. They all turn their attention towards Strife who was staring out a broken window.
Strife was frozen like a stiff rock making no sudden movements. "Hey Strife, you okay buddy?" Magic asks concerned. Magic taps Strife shoulder once and suddenly jerks his hoof away after Strife snap his teeth at him as if he was going to bite his hoof off growling. 'Did he just growl and almost bite me?' Magic thought to himself looking at Strife shocked.
Strife shook his head trying to get back to his senses. Strife then blinks twice and becomes normal. After that, he backs away looking down shamelessly. Strife starts to speak in a meek tone, "Spike, who's the letter for?" Spike nodded at Strife and looks at the letter beginning to read, "Dear Strife, if you're reading this letter by now, then you already know why I'm getting your attention. I want you to head to the great canyons near Applepolosa. Let's see how much you've grown." With that said Strife had a serious expression.
"I need to go." Strife says in a serious tone as he left the house. "Strife, wait up!" Magic calls flying towards him but he stops his flight after Strife turns towards him glaring at him with an angry expression. "Don't follow me Magic." Strife said in a threatening tone that stopped the pink eyes Pegasus in his place. "I…I'll be back…okay?" Strife says in a sad tone as he summons a shield and leaps on to it, using his magic to fly him away.
"Magic, where did Strife go?" Dream calls galloping towards him. "I don't know but I'm not staying here and letting that snarker go, I'll be right back." Magic said with a serious expression and flew away. "Good luck Magic." Dream said sounding concerned. He was worried about Strife and hoped that Magic could help him.
Spike looks at Rainbow Dash and asks, "Who's Dexilus?" Dash says to Spike, "He's the guardian devil of Wrath. Erebos used to talk to him once in a while, he's also Applejack's guardian devil." Dream comes into the house and says, "I wonder how he knows Strife and why Strife was so angry just by his name being said." He then looks at the others and says, "Don't worry, they'll be back."
In the Canyons near Applepolosa
Strife appears on top of a cliff looking around for Dexilus. 'I'm here but, where is he?' Strife thought to himself. The sound of a hoof stomping the ground perked Strife's ears up causing him to turn around. When Strife turned around he was bucked by Applejack in the face knocking him off the cliff. Applejack walks to the edge of the cliff and looks down at Strife as he plummets, grinning.
"That damn bitch." Strife mutters under his breath with an angry tone. His horn glows and he summons a shield beneath him to land on. When Strife landed on the shield, he then slams it down the side of the cliff sledding down. The wind was gushing through his mane as he exceeded down the side of cliff.
Strife suddenly sees a flash of light coming straight towards him. "Oh shit!" Strife yells leaping off the shield dodging an incoming sword. Strife lands on the ground, rolling so that he would take less damage from his fall. Strife's shield continued down the cliff and was stopped instantly bya pony bitting. The force of the catch caused sand to be blown away with such force that Strife had to cover his eyes with his right hoof. When the sand cleared Strife looks at the pony that caught his shield and gasps. The attacker that fired the sword was none other than Dexilus.
Dexilus spits the shield out his mouth and turns towards Strife grinning. "Hello, Strife." Dexilus says as his horn began to glow making the shield that he caught burst into shards of metal. Strife said nothing and gave Dexilus a scornful look. "What no hello? Or how you been? or even da-" "Shut up!" Strife yells interrupting Dexilus.
Dexilus begins to grin and says, "There we go, thought you were mute since the last time we fought." Dexilus began to laugh. "How long has it been Strife? Two years? Four years? Hell, maybe eight? I can't keep count." Dexilus said still laughing while he began to walk around Strife in a circle.
Strife's horn glows and two swords appear by his side. Strife became cautious and was waiting for the chance to either block or attack. "You're feeling jumpy Strife, you already know that you're not going to harm me or even get a hit on me with those puny damn metal sticks." Dexilus said to Strife as black wings shot out his cloak.
Up above, a floating pink cloud stood out in the sky. Magic was on this cloud watching the stand-off. He had was concern and thought, 'So this is Dexilus…he's an alicorn.' Magic sighs and flaps his wings lifting himself into the air. "Strife seemed like he didn't want anypony to assist him so I'll let him handle this by himself, but if things go too far for him, I'll save him." Magic said to himself.
He noticed Applejack and flew down behind her, landing on the ground not making a sound. Magic used his Essemancy to make himself weightless and sat down leaning on Applejack back to back. Magic began to play around with Applejack's mane, taking care so that she remains unaware ofhis pressence.
Strife still had his swords pointing straight at Dexilus as the alicorn was still walking around him in a circle. The swords followed Dexilus like eyes but they were Strife eyes. If Strife can't see what's behind him, his swords will be able to help him with that.
"So Strife let's see…how much you've grown!" Dexilus yells as his horn glows and six swords appear by his side. Strife uses his magic and shoots the two swords of his at Dexilus. Dexilus uses two of his swords to block Strife's swords then fires his remaining three. Strife gasps becoming defenseless and summons two shields and two swords to block Dexilus swords. Strife fires his second sword at Dexilus after having his two shields and first sword blocking Dexilus's three blades.
Dexilus grins and then vanishes appearing to Strife's left side. The unicorn gasps but, he couldn't react towards Dexilus's movement in time after the alicorn swung his right hoof smacking hard into Strife's face knocking him away across the sand. His swords fell to the ground along with Dexilus's swords.
Strife recovers his from Dexilus's blow and gets up from the ground spitting out blood. He then glares at Dexilus with hatred burning in his eyes. Strife summons four swords and shoots them towards Dexilus who ends up dodging each one and began to laugh. He then teleported in front of Strife and then hoofs him straight in the face and Strife's horn was quickly grabed by Dexilus and slung away into the air.
Strife then quickly summons a shield in the air ahead of him and lands on it, balancing himself and causes it to fall flat on the ground. Dexilus smirks as his horn began to glow when he stomps both his hooves on the ground causing a trail of piercing spears to burst out the ground heading towards Strife. Strife summons another shield floating in the air and leaps onto it while it was still floating. When Strife did this, the spears missed him and stopped at the shield he left on the ground.
Strife sighs in relief and then glares straight at Dexilus gritting his teeth in anger. "Lily's Requiem!" Strife shouts summoning six swords that formed a circle formation in front of him beginning to rotate. In the center of the rotating swords, came a spark of blue electricity. Then the spark of electricity began to spark faster and faster till it was forming into a blue lighting beam.
"Take this!" Strife yells firing a blue lightning beam straight at Dexilus. Dexilus grins as his horn glows a bright light engulfing his body. The beam of lightning struck Dexilus causing a massive explosion to shake the ground and make a loud, thunderous noise.
Applejack becomes shocked and mutters, "Master Dexilus." Magic peeks his head, looking past Applejack's shoulder, and saw a huge cloud of smoke coming from the spot where Strife's lightning beam struck Dexilus directly on impact.
'How does this alicorn knows Telummacy like Strife, and how does he know Strife to begin with?' Magic thought to himself and went back to playing with Applejack's mane. Strife stared rapidly ahead scanning for any signs of Dexilus. He knew this move didn't work but it had to do some kind of damage excluding the ground he obliterated.
Strife looks up and his eyes widen in disbelief. Twenty thousand swords were coming down from the sky. "Damn it!" Strife said in an aggravated tone gritting his teeth. His horn glows as multiple shields appear surrounding him. The swords all came down stabbing the ground and shields. Some swords bounced off, some got stuck, but none got through the shields.
When the sword barrage was finished the area Strife was on had swords laying everywhere. The shields were blown away by Strife in a violent matter. Strife was mad and summons floating swords. He leaps onto each sword going higher and higher into the air. The swords were being used like a ladder, allowing Strife to get into the sky and after Dexilus.
'Why is Strife leaping onto his swords?' Magic thought taking a peek again past Applejack's shoulder. 'Holy crap, that's a lot of swords, axes, and spears.' Magic became surprised seeing the countless amount of sharp weapons coming down towards Strife. "Stay up there all you want!" Strife yells summoning a shield and kicking it with his back legs. The shield headed straight into the sky towards Dexilus who was standing on a cloud with his horn glowing.
Dexilus summons a sword in front of him pointing straight at the shield. The shield crashes into the sword stopping by the hilt of the blade. The shield began to glow a red symbol of a capital S. "Hmmm." Dexilus looks at the shield surprised. Strife smirks as he dodges each weapon that came towards him. Strife began to leap onto Dexilus's blades, using them as ladders heading towards Dexilus. "Now take this, Link Detonation!" Strife yells as the swords he summoned before were now glowing red with the same capital S just like his shield.
Dexilus's eyes widen as the shield and swords shoot a red beam connecting to each other forming a straight red line. "Now, blow up!" Strife yells as the red beam blew up, engulfing Dexilus in the red colored blast as it turned the sky red. Strife was falling down looking at the massive red blast. "I got him." Strife says smirking but, that smirk vanishes into a shocked look when Dexilus bursts out the red blast with his horn glowing.
He didn't have any kind of scratch on him. Strife's horn glows about to cast a spell but a sudden jolt of pain struck him causing him to cough up blood. "Damn it, I used too much of my Telummancy." Strife mutters as he tries to cast a spell again. Dexilus spots the blood Strife coughed out and grins like a maniac.
Dexilus vanishes and appears behind Strife ramming both his forelegs into the left side of Strife's stomach, he then vanishes and appears doing the same technique again but this time into the right side of his stomach. Dexilus began to repeat this as the two got close to the ground. Strife coughed out more blood for each blow Dexilus landed on him.
Dexilus began to laugh as he appears in front of Strife and grabs his horn with his right hoof and flies straight down. Strife was powerless against Dexilus and couldn't break free from the alicorn's grip on his horn. "Try to survive Strife!" Dexilus yells as he got towards the ground but instead of slamming Strife straight into the ground he drags him through the dirt causing not only a trail of dirt and sand to form but, also cuts and scratches to appear on the unicorn's coat.
Dexilus saw a large rock up ahead and throws Strife towards it. Strife saw the rock he was heading towards and begins to cast a spell. He collides with the rock destroying it and a dust cloud forms around the area the rock was at. Dexilus lands onto the ground and slowly walks towards the dust cloud. Dexilus stops in his tracks, his horn glows as he clears the dust cloud revealing Strife surrounded by shields that were broken and bent.
Strife was still alive, but he was severely injured and on the ground struggling to get up. If the shields hadn't protected him from the impact could have been fatal. Strife feels another jolt of pain in his body and coughs out more blood. Dexilus began to grin and then says, "Use too much of your power huh?" Strife says nothing as he piercingly glares at Dexilus. Dexilus only chuckles and summons ten swords around him pointing straight at Strife.
Strife knew he didn't have a chance of protecting himself from the next attack. He was unable to cast a spell or even move away. He stood there awaiting his death. Applejack grins at the sight of Strife's struggl. "He's done for." Applejack said.
Magic peeks over her shoulder and spots Strife about to die. 'Oh, he's about to lose, well time to go.' Magic thought to himself as he stops playing with Applejack's mane. "Looks like I have to go now, bye." Magic said to Applejack, startling her. Applejack quickly turns around seeing only a pink cloud that had the form of a Pegasus smiling and waving before it vanishes. Magic was gone and all Applejack could say was, "What the hay was that!"
Dexilus grins and fires the swords at Strife. Strife shuts his eyes and waits for the sword's impact. "YOU'RE COMING WITH ME SNARKER!" Magic's voice perks Strife's ears up. He opens his eyes and looks left seeing Magic flying towards him and grabs him and flies away, causing the swords to miss their target. Magic and Strife were already gone, and all Dexilus could think about out loud was, "The fuck!" He was left dumbfounded on the current situation that had just happened.
-On top of a mountain far away from Dexilus and AJ-
Magic set Strife on the ground and lands next to him. "That was close one." Magic said to Strife looking at the sunset with a smile on his face. It was evening now and the great canyons along with the setting sun made an orange tinted sky, casting a beautiful overcast among the canyons. The scenery was so beautiful. Magic smiles at the scenery but his smile goes away after he looks at Strife who was staring at the ground.
"Why?" Strife asks in a muttered tone that Magic was able to hear. "Because, you were about to be killed, that's why." Magic said to Strife. "Hey, Strife…that alicorn, did you know him from before?" Magic asks Strife who remains quiet.
Magic ignores his silence and asks him another question, "How does he even know Telummancy like you? He seemed to be more of a master at it." Strife still remains silent which now annoyed Magic. "Strife don't stay quiet, you know how I hate that." Magic says frowning at his friend. Strife's mane layed flat casting a dark shadow over his eyes preventing them from being seen.
Magic was about to speak however he silences himself when he saw a teardrop drip to the ground coming from Strife. "Magic, am I crying?" Strife asks in a non-emotional tone that made Magic remain silent and nervous. Strife gave off a soft chuckle and slowly looks at the sky. "I told you…not to follow me." Strife said to Magic, beginning to chuckle again. "Strife, if I hadn't followed you, you would've been dead." Magic says to Strife.
Strife, shedding tears, looks at Magic calmly and says, "Why…why didn't you leave me there, so I can handle him by myself, alone? Why do you always have to get into my business when I tell you to butt out? Why are you always there, to make my life harder as it is?" Strife's calm expression turns into an angry expression fill with only hate and pain.
"The times when I want to handle things by myself, you come in and I nearly get my head cut off because of your damn abrupt foolishness." "Hey my foolishness isn't always abruptly." Magic says interrupting Strife. Strife only gritted his teeth and glares hatefully at Magic and says, "Almost left out your damn interruptions, whenever I'm stating out a fact." Magic was about to speak but stopped, seeing Strife staring back down at the ground.
"Magic…" Strife says in a sad but also hate filled tone. "I hate you, you are no friend to me, and you are no ally to me. You are just a reality warping degenerate, who smiles all the damn time not giving a two piles of shit about the world around you." Strife says glaring again with hate at Magic.
Magic was in disbelief at the words that came out of Strife's mouth. Strife continues to speak, "Do you even see what is going on? Even if you can, it won't make a difference that you're still trash to me. Magic…I would love to see you die just because of your damn antics. You want to know why I wish this could happen to you Magic? Why hold this much hate for you? Why I harbor so much of it all towards you?" Strife grits his teeth and stomps right hoof on the ground mad.
Strife then yells, "BECAUSE YOU NEVER LISTEN TO ME! YOU ALWAYS FIND A WAY TO GET IN 'MY' WAY! You've always been doing this since we met." Strife's eyes began to shed more tears, he shuts his eyes biting his lower lip hard, not caring about the blood that began to seep out.
"Why can't you just listen to me and stay out of my way!" Strife yells at Magic but the next thing Strife hadn't expect to happen was getting hoofed in the face by Magic, knocking him back to the ground. "Shut your damn mouth!" Magic yells as he went towards Strife furious, his eyes glowing red and filled with anger.
Strife's insults went too far as Magic pins Strife to ground and began to hoof him in the face left and right. "Do you even know what you're saying!" Magic yells, continuing his assault on Strife. The unicorn Telummancer spat out blood when Magic hit him harder. "You ask me why I do this, well you want you know why Strife!" Magic yells at Strife.
Strife didn't fight back or even try to stop Magic from his continuous assault. He stood silent, taking every hit, the blond maned Pegasus had been giving him. "Because Strife, I worry about you! You are my best friend! You're my teammate! You're my ally! If you actually fucking thought about it, it would make sense! If you put it all together…" Magic yells swinging his last hoof into Strife's face as he was huffing out.
"If you put it all together…you are my brother." Magic says in a painfully sad tone. Strife's wavy mane blocked his beaten face, he was crying. Strife was staring at a spot of blood he knew came from him. His eyes suddenly widened after feeling a liquid like substance drip onto the side of his face. Slowly turning his head, Strife looks at Magic shocked. Magic was crying. Strife felt the guilt that his friend carried. Magic never would have wanted to do this, but it was his fault that he made him do it.
Strife then spoke in a sorrowful and weak tone, "M-Magic…I'm sorry…all that stuff I said to you." Magic opens his eyes looking at his beaten friend waiting for him to finish his sentence. Strife began to speak again, "I never meant it, I don't hate you, I don't want you to die, I don't want to lose you, and I don't want to be alone again anymore. I'll lose my mind. Ever since we became a team, I thought you'll always be in the way of my missions but you were only in my way at those times because you worried about me and wanted to see me safe." Strife started to lose conscious but, he still continues. "Magic, I'm…sorry." Strife said to Magic passing out as he whispered the last part of his sentence. Magic shut his eyes smiling and says in a sobbing tone, "You idiot."
To Be Continued
(HAZAH! First part of the chapter is done WOO HOO! Anyway, thank you EpicAeromancer33 for editing and thank you readers for reading. I wish you a good 'ol day of having fun in what you do, I know I am. Now I must BARREL ROLL AND AWAY!)