Chapter 6: What A Vine
In the Everfree Forest, Chase hacked his way through some bushes while Jade, Sunray, Trini, and Antonio followed him, looking for the chasm where the Green Eco crystal is hidden.
As they kept on walking, Chase looked at his medallion as it glowed a sign of purple, indicating the Dark Eco was growing stronger with his powers with a few energy sparking out of it before it stopped.
Jade walked up to her brother with a concerned look.
"Chase, are you sure you can pull through this?" Jade asked with worry.
"Don't worry, Jade. I'll be fine." Chase replied back to his sister while leading the way. "We just need to focus on finding the crystal before Talos' Lurkers do."
"And we'll do whatever we can to get you cured, Chase." Trini added with a determined smile.
"If you're not, then just go back to your jungle." Sunray said with a bitter look on his face while walking ahead of them as they watched him.
"What's wrong with Sunray? I know he's still mad I was gone, but…" Chase tried to finish, but sighed as he knew well why Sunray was angry with him.
"He's just trying to recover after you were gone, Chase." Jade said to her brother gently. "We all know that you were upset after Discord impersonated Grogar after he freed Equestria's dangerous villains."
"Yeah, and deep down, Sunray knows you haven't been in touch after what happened too." Trini added with a gentle look and smile. "We all know."
"Right now, we just gotta find the crystal and get it back to Roby so he can finish the repairs on the speed boat." Antonio said as he, Chase, Jade, and Trini walked off to catch up with Sunray.
"Antonio's right. Right after we left, Nandu Gili did say that the crystal is hidden deep in a cave right near the Everfree Forest chasm." Jade said in agreement as the five pressed onward.
"Let's just hope we can get this done before the Dark Eco destroys the world." Chase said with concern yet determinedly.
(Scene changes)
Unknown to any of them, Talos was watching them from the cauldron with a sinister smirk.
"Yes, but let us see if you can handle my Dark Eco plant." Talos said with a sinister smile. "And this time, you fools won't be able to interfere."
"Come on, guys. I can feel its energy in this direction." Jade said from the flames as she and her family continued onward.
"Good work, Jade. Now let's see where it takes us." Chase said as he unsheathed one of his katana swords and hacked his way through a path to find the Green Eco crystal.
That's when the mysterious hooded figure approached Talos while looking at the flames, watching the Elite Ninja.
"All is ready, King Talos." The figure said as Talos turned to him. "The Lurkers have begun the search for the three remaining crystals. All we need now is to wait for the fools to come right into our trap."
"Good." Talos said as he turned back to the flames. "For now, we will watch how these pathetic excuses of Elite Ninja warriors get past my army."
(Scene changes)
After a few hours of hiking their way through the forest, Chase, Jade, Sunray, Trini, and Antonio made it to a chasm with the river flowing through at the bottom.
"Well, this looks like the place." Chase said as he saw a large cave opening in the ravine.
"And that must be our ticket inside that cave to find the crystal." Jade said as she and her family fired some grappling hooks down toward the upper part of the cave.
They ziplined down and landed in the entrance as they used their magic to retract their grappling hooks.
"You think we should've brought Twilight and the others along with us?" Antonio asked Chase curiously. "We could've used their help."
"They did, but when Kon said this was our job, they needed to get everything ready for the trip to the Continent of Mu." Chase replied back as they pressed forward into the cave.
As they continued to navigate their way through the cave, the five ponies noticed below them was a pool of Dark Eco as most of its energy sparks up a bit.
"Okay, that is disgusting." Chase said with a disgusted look of seeing the Dark Eco.
"That is one ugly pile of gooey stuff." Antonio said, disgusted by the sight as well with the rest of his family.
"If there are more Dark Eco in the south part, why are they starting to spread this way?" Trini asked curiously.
"Well, it looks like after our tangle with the Lurkers and them releasing the Dark Eco crystal's powerful shockwave, it must've reawakened it from deep below the forest." Jade theorized while studying the Dark Eco. "If it continues to get worse, it's only a matter of time before Talos has it all to plague his curse around the world."
Chase glared at the Dark Eco pool before he turned to his family.
"Then we better get ready. Right now we need to find the crystals and see if we can fuse them together to create the Light Eco." Chase said as he and his family jumped over the pool to the other side.
As they rounded a corner, they see a green light shining around the walls of the cave tunnel from the right side. Curious, they ran towards the source to see in the center of a large cavern room was the Green Eco crystal.
"Check it out, guys! There's the crystal!" Antonio said with excitement. "We found it!"
He was about to rush over and get the crystal when Jade pulls him back to her and the rest of their family.
"Hold up, Antonio." Jade said with caution. "We don't know if we're the only ones in here."
"She's right. The minute we get this crystal out of here, we might be facing some serious trouble." Chase said in agreement with his sister.
"Plus, there could be Lurkers crawling around here or who knows what is coming right at us." Trini added with concern.
"Well, we're not gonna just stand here and do nothing about. I'm getting that crystal." Sunray said as he rushed over to get the Green Eco crystal, which his family took notice.
"Wait, Sunray! Come back here!" Chase shouted as he, Jade, Sunray, Trini, and Antonio rushed after him.
Just as Sunray was about to grab the crystal a huge vine grabs a hold of him, making his eyes widen in surprise before he was tossed back to his family, knocking them to the ground as they grunted in pain.
Suddenly the ground cracks a bit before four more vines burst out along with a huge plant like monster.
Its body consisted with very large vines, thorns coming out of them, its head had blue leaves sticking out from the back, blue tongue, sharp fangs in its mouth, and yellow eyes with black pupils.
"Uh oh." Antonio said in fear as the monster growled at the five ponies and roared out viciously.
"What the heck is that thing, Jade?" Trini asked in shock as the five ponies stood on their hind legs, aura hands replacing their front hooves, and they dished out their respective weapons.
"It looks like a plant monster combined with the Dark Eco." Jade said in shock. "It must've awoken and got affected by the source of the crystal's powers along with the substance!"
"We're gonna have to take this thing down if we're getting the Green Eco crystal!" Chase said to his family while glaring at the monster.
"Good, then let's go weed-whacking!" Sunray said with a smirk.
"Tree trimming!" Trini added with a smirk.
"Gardening!" Antonio shouted with a smirk. "Boom! Haha! I just blew your minds, right?"
Sunray just shook his head in annoyance before he charged at the Dark Eco plant monster as it tried to swat him aside with its vines.
Then Sunray jumped to a wall and landed on one of the monster's vines when one of them whacks him away as he yelped in surprise.
Antonio and Trini charged at the Dark Eco plant, only for them to get wrapped up in one of its vines as it tossed them aside as they screamed in fright.
Soon it turns its attention to Chase and Jade, who were already prepared to take the creature.
"Alright, Jade. Heads or tails?" Chase asked his sister while he and Jade glared at the Dark Eco plant.
"Heads, Chase!" Jade said as they two charged at the monster, who tried to slam them both with its vines, but they dodged them.
Chase jumps on to one of the vines and kicks the Dark Eco plant in the face, making it roar in pain as Jade dives down before kicking the beast in the head, causing it to shake it violently.
The monster regains its focus as it snarled at the Elite Ninja, who charged straight at it. As soon as the Dark Eco plant focuses its eyes on Chase, it whips one of its vines at the alicorn stallion, who slices it in half as some of the Dark Eco spews out wildly. The fives ponies used their magic to shield themselves just as the Dark Eco plant heals itself up with a new vine replacing it, shocking the five in the process.
"It grew back? No fair!" Antonio said with a glare as the Dark Eco plant roared out at them.
"It appears that the monster has a regeneration ability to heal itself." Jade said while looking at the monster in concern.
"Any idea on how we can stop it?" Chase asked Jade, hoping there might be an answer for their problems against the Dark Eco monster.
Jade looks at the monster for a moment before she spotted the Green Eco crystal wrapped up in its vines. Realizing what was going on, she figured it out instantly.
"Guys, maybe this creature is already under Talos' control of the Dark Eco. If he's figured out by now that we're after the Eco crystals, he probably already knows what we're gonna do." Jade said with concern.
"Well, whatever he has in mind won't make us back down." Chase said with a determined look. "Let's see if we can get the Green Eco crystal away from his monster pet's path."
"Right!" Jade, Sunray, Trini, and Antonio said in unison as they charged at the Dark Eco plant as it tried to crack the whip of its vines at the four ponies, who dodged them.
Jade jumped up as she whacked the Dark Eco plant in the head a couple of times, Trini uses her kunai to slice through some of its vines, Antonio whacks the monster's head and face with his nunchucks, and Sunray stabs his sais in a few of the vines as the monster roars out in pain before whacking the four aside as they yelp in pain.
Chase glared at the monster and charged at it as it whipped its vines at the alicorn master, who dodged and jumped his way through them. He attacks the Dark Eco monster in the face with a few kicks and uses his swords to zipline down to get the Green Eco crystal.
Eventually, he lands down in front of the crystal, cuts the vines in half as the crystal exposes itself, puts his katana swords in his sheaths, and glares at the Dark Eco monster.
"Okay, creep weed! This ends now!" Chase said as he grabs the crystal and jumps away from the Dark Eco plant monster, who roars out viciously.
Chase, Jade, Sunray, Trini, and Antonio managed to regroup with each other as they glared at the monster. Then a humming sound was heard, coming from the Green Eco crystal as the five ponies turned to it and it was channeling into Chase's aura hands, shocking them in the process.
"Hey, what's going on?" Chase asked in surprise as Jade noticed that the Green Eco energy was somehow healing most of the Dark Eco energy in his medallion.
"Chase, it looks like the energy is healing most of your medallion. Looks like we may have a shot at this if we all channel it too." Jade said with a determined look to stop the Dark Eco plant.
Seeing that Jade was right, Chase gave a determined glare, ready to put the monster in its place.
"Alright, let's see if we can give it a shot. All together, hurry!" Chase instructed as the five ponies placed their aura hands on the Green Eco crystal, allowing them to have it channel inside their bodies as they glared at the Dark Eco plant monster, who looked nervous about this.
With more than enough power in them, they fired five Green Eco beams at the Dark Eco plant monster, striking it in the chest as it roars in pain. Then it was engulfed in green flames before it exploded into dust.
Once the dust died down, the place where the Dark Eco plant monster stood was gone. As soon as it was gone, Chase, Jade, Sunray, Trini, and Antonio sighed in relief.
"We did it! We got the crystal!" Antonio said with excitement.
"Hold up, Antonio." Trini said, getting Antonio's attention. "We may have the Green Eco crystal, but we still need to find the other three before Talos' Lurker army gets a hold of them."
"Trini's right. We need to get this back to Roby and the others so we'll be able to sail across the ocean to the Continent of Mu." Chase said with a determined look. "Now let's go."
As Chase, Jade, Trini, and Antonio walked out, Sunray still glared at Chase angrily.
"Yeah, well, if you had been able to come back and be prepared for the threat for almost a year, then maybe you'd just been in touch with us." Sunray said disdainfully as he went to catch up with his family.
Once the five ponies left the cavern and went back outside the Everfree Forest, more of the Dark Eco started to come out through some cracks, indicating that the curse plaguing the world has almost arrived.
(Scene changes)
Watching them from the cauldron, Talos and the mysterious hooded figure observed everything. Even though that Talos was angry at the Elite Ninja from getting the Green Eco crystal from his Dark Eco plant monster, he witnessed his substance already flowing out of the cracks into the Everfree Forest.
"They fight better than expected." Talos said with an amused smile as the hooded figure just looked at the five ponies with a glare underneath his hood.
"Pure luck, sire." The hooded figure said when the Demodragon generals arrived.
"What is it?" Talos asked while turning his head to them.
"Talos, we have located the statue of the Black Dragon. It is located in the swamp just outside of Rock Village." The first Demodragon general reported as Talos smiled sinisterly.
"Excellent, Aguila. Send a sqaudren of Lurkers to the swamp and retrieve the statue." Talos as Aguila and the other three generals bowed in reply before they walked away to find the Lurker army.
Once they had left, the hooded figure approached Talos.
"Even if those fools think they can stop us, they still have a much longer way to go before the Solar Eclipse begins, my lord." The hooded figure said as Talos turned to him.
"Patience, my student. Once they realize they have fallen into my real trap, the crystals will be mine." Talos said while watching Chase, Jade, Sunray, Trini, and Antonio from the flames as the five ponies began to make their journey to Mount Aris. "And you will have your vengeance on what those five did to you."
"Yes, sire." The hooded figure said as a mechanical noise was heard and out from the hooded figure's cloak came out a prosthetic leg made out of metal. "Soon Chase will know what happens when they've learned to never mess with..."
He paused for a moment before his prosthetic hoof removed his hood, revealing himself to be known other than an old face from the past: Celtic Shanyu.
In addition to his appearance, Celtic's left eye was bloodshot with a few scars going down his right cheek.
"Celtic Shanyu." Celtic said with a sinister chuckle.
Talos smiled sinisterly as Celtic walked away to make the preparations for the Solar Eclipse.
Author's note: Hey guys,
Here's chapter 6 for the story. I did a few surprises on this one along with having Celtic Shanyu return on siding with the Demodragons as well as the Elite Ninja fighting the Dark Eco plant on getting the Green Eco crystal as the first monster battle. When I get him to explain how he survived, it will be worth it. I'll be back to update some more soon enough. Sorry that I had written it a little short, but I did my best on this one. Hope you like it.
Peace out!