"Death is nothing. A simple change in state, and just as simple to reverse. If he wants to stay here, we'll just have to go and get her ourselves." Nightshade looked at her father, already impatient. "Let's get a move on, shall we?" Silver shrugged, and drew his sword. With one swift motion, he sliced through the air and opened a portal to Tartarus, just as he had done earlier. As he and Nightshade stepped through, he called to the others, "This portal is closing in thirty seconds. If anypony else feels like coming, I'd suggest you do so now."
My apologies. Making changes now, was distracted in making the post. Also, Venquis is in the mortal realm.
Obsidian followed them through the portal to Tartarus. "Well Sihana is as good as dead I suppose... Silver being too self-concerned to focus on the real big picture... and me stuck here making sure we have everypony properly balanced in location... Well, at least he'll do some damage in Tartarus... oh... and I realize now I'm alone up here... I should have seen this coming but that doesn't really get me out of the situation does it... and I gave my only weapon to Silver... Well. I'm screwed then aren't I?" (He accidentally made himself an easy target!) The Spirit whistled quietly as Sihana fell. "Lalalala... Let's see... It would be so easy to just let her hit the ground... but where's the fun in that? Mr. Hunter needs to learn that you can't always one shot an opponent... ESPECIALLY one as important to the story as Sihana. Let's see... Ah, right..." The ground below where Sihana would have landed suddenly became nearly a liquid, allowing Sihana to land without much injury, before pushing her back up to the surface of the liquid and it resolidifying. "What's the point of a story if the good guys can actually die before the climax... Plus Celestia isn't even back yet, her, her I wan't to fight myself and we need Sihana to do it for us... because I have to go stop Silver! No Tartaarus for the living, nonono." With that he vanished as he had in the god's meeting place. (that is totally sh*t I would do if I was super powered, without a doubt.)
"Quit whining, you big baby!" Silver's voice came through the portal, and a moment later, a pair of silver gladii, Silver's own weapons, landed at Serketh's hooves. "Try not to hurt yourself with them." A moment later, the portal closed. Silver looked at Obsidian grimly. "Here's the situation: When we killed the Phoenix Queen, her soul was imprisoned in the deepest pit of this foul realm. We need to bring her back. With Dark Plague at the head of Tartarus' armies, the Mortal Realm is doomed. Only the combined power of the Princesses of Night and Day can save Equestria now." Hope sighed. The raid against the demon camp in the mountains had been a success, but she knew that it wouldn't make much of a difference. Outside of Canterlot, every pony that hadn't been killed outright was being enslaved. She had heard horrifying stories from survivors, of ponies being devoured alive, of dead ponies being turned into zombie slaves to serve the demons... it was enough to make anypony lose hope. As she led her small group back to Canterlot, she was distracted by the sight of a bipedal creature standing over the still form of a familiar mare... "Sihana!" Hope knew that any creature powerful enough to bring down a goddess could destroy her with ease, so she signaled to her troops to hide. Before long, the creature left, and she rushed to Ryborian goddess' side. "Don't try to move. I don't know if healing magic works on an immortal, but I'm damn sure going to try."
(The Hunter is essentially a pure evil, insane and rather impatient version of me. Hence the attempted) Not long after the battle between the hunter and the goddess, The Eriborian was just seen flying above the area. She seen Hope nearby some troops and a mare that he could not quite make out. But once he got close enough, his surprise turned into absolute shock. He flew downwards towards the two figures he seen below, creating a ripple in the air as he took off towards the area. Once he landed, he rushed over to Sihana and Hope. "Divines!" Venquis said before looking at Hope and performing some healing magic alongside Hope, regardless if it didn't work on the god. "What in tartarus has happened? "
"You!" Hope slapped the Eriborian so hard that he was knocked several feet backwards. "How dare you show your face here, after all this time! You were supposed to lead the mortal armies against the demons! We needed you! Everything that has happened in the last two months, every pony that has died... IT'S YOUR FAULT!!!" Picking up Sihana's fallen sword, Hope charged at the Eriborian. (For various plot reasons, I'm going with the theory that time moves differently in the Elder Realm. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower. On the Mortal Plane, it's been two months since Tartarus attacked.)
( I'm going with that theory. It might have been 2 months in the Mortal realm, but only 2 hours or even shorter might have passed in the Elder Realm.) Just as Hope charged put his hoof on the changeling's arm and pushed her towards his leg, tripping Hope over almost comically as he watched her fall onto the ground and disarming her in the same process. Now that she was disarmed, Venquis pointed Moonsaber at her neck. He was not amused... "Shut up.." Venquis replied in a deathly tone. "You need to understand that I'm not responsible for this. By the time I left in the Elder realm after the invasion by Tartarus and the meeting that we were invited to join, two months had passed. Two months here is Two hours in the Elder Realm. Just be thankful that I came here alive." The Eriborian replied, wiping away some of the dirt from his armour. "Oh, and one more thing.” Venquis began, gripping Moonsaber an inch closer to her neck to ensure that the message he was sending had sunken in. “If you EVER attack me again, make sure your first attack counts. Because you won’t get a second. Now...get up and stop acting like a child." With that, Venquis went back over to Sihana to attempt to heal her.
Hope quickly got up, horn glowing as she prepared to attack Venquis again. "Liar! I'll kill..." She was interrupted by a voice inside her head. "That one speaks the truth. The days in the other place are not the same as the days in this place. He can be trusted. He is Pack-Friend." Hope lowered her head, and her horn stopped glowing. "Fine. If you trust him, I trust him. Come on out. We need to get the Goddess someplace safe." A pair of Timber-Wolves, Holly and Hemlock, emerged from the bushes. The Timber-Wolves sniffed at the body, and Hope sighed. "Hemlock says this magic is unnatural and strange. There's nothing we can do for her here. We need to get her to Canterlot. Princess Luna may be able to help." Tossing the Ryborian goddess unceremoniously onto Venquis' back, she began walking away in the direction of Canterlot. "Let's get moving, Razona. We have a lot of ground to cover before dark. Don't forget her sword."
Obsidian pointed in front of them, while Silver had looked back at him. "We have company. Not friendly." The Spirit now floated in front of the trio. "Can't have you three getting to Miss Celestia. Nope. To quote someone who was far better written that all of you, "You shall not pass!"" He lifted his hand and snapped. "First, let's deal with Nightshade's nasty plot altering!" Nightshade's mouth vanished, and an iron clasp covered her eyes. "I'm... pretty sure her power is voice controlled and not telepathic... Boy I hope so, or I'm gonna have to keep doing that. Now... you two." He turned towards the other two with a seemingly sadistic smile.
"Nightshade's mouth reappeared, and her eyes were uncovered." Silver laughed, and as he drew the Blades of Tartarus, Nightshade's mouth reappeared, and her eyes were uncovered. "The real Dreamer would know that I can use the Edit too. I used it to alter my corruption level in Serketh's mansion. But, then again, you're just an echo." What he did not mention was how difficult it was for him to use power, or how much it took out of him. "The power of the Edit was from my voice. I commend you on your excellent strategy." Nightshade spoke quietly, without a hint of anger in her voice. "Of course, now that you know the nature of the power, I'll have to change it." She laughed. "I've been looking forward to this since Page Five." Reaching into the ground, she pulled out a spear made of pure fire, and flew at the Spirit. Silver, grinning malevolently, was right beside her.
Both of them passed through The Spirit like he wasn't even there. "The simple property of solid matter colliding with other solid matter... plus the plasma of the spear causing transition of excessive heat energy into a solid. I negate both of these effects and you just look like fools. There's a reason I'm "The Spirit" you know... but... maybe you should try again, seeing as your way is blocked by some very, very hard air." A wall of smoke appeared behind them, blocking the path they would have been taking had the spirit not shown up. "That smoke is as solid as a mass of titanium, I assure you... Now lets see if your story changing counts as a property of universal power, or magical..." He pulled out what looked like a demonic tome, and the pages flew out of it in an atom pattern around him. "I know this is over the top, but I love a good show!"
"A spirit, eh? Well, who ya gonna call?" Nightshade's spear was suddenly transformed into a complicated backpack and gun device, which she immediately fired at the spirit. "Hopefully," she thought to herself, "he won't notice that Dad and Obsidian are on the other side of the wall."
"Spirit is figurative... Geez you are kind of simple... Ah, it is universally manipulative! Ok, I can work with that... Universal rules are my favorite type... wait. Where is... Oh dammit. Did you do that while I was reading! Ok, let's fix this mess. New source of gravity!" Suddenly a force equivalent to 20g's pulled Obsidian and Silver onto the wall. "I don't have time for those two to go anywhere, so if I accidentally break some of their bones, oh well, they'll get better. Really though. I'm not all to interested in fighting... just trying to stop you." The wall rotated in place, bringing Obsidian and Silver back onto their side, and the force started taking effect on Nightshade.
Silver flew away from the wall, annoyed. The extra gravity was not enough to hold him, but the sudden change had been enough to surprise him, and he had fallen into the trap. "Nightshade, would you please deal with this annoyance? Every minute we waste is another minute the demons have to break Canterlot's shield." Nightshade yawned. "Neat trick. It would be even better if gravity still existed in Tartarus." She giggled as everything that wasn't attached to the ground began floating. "Twenty times nothing is nothing, Spirit. Now, let's see about that wall..."
"My goodness this is annoying... I'm literally just stalling you, so we could all just save time by not fighting. I'll just let you go back about your business once the story has progressed... Honestly. All we need is Sihana to heal enough to come down here and raise Celestia herself. It's... it's really not all that complicated. Don't ask me WHY the story has to go that way. i can't tell you... so... Y'know. Why not sit a while." Chains shot out from the wall and pulled Silver and Nightshade onto it. "Falcon!" Obsidian charged at The Spirit and slammed head first into his side. Obsidian rebounded off him, and was quickly grabbed in chains as well. "Oh... I did not expect him to stay in place..." "I never liked momentum anyway. So, are you going to be rational and play along with the story how I want it go, or are we going to have a "change reality till one of us quits" contest?"
"You believe me as the God-Killer. While I like that at least one person believes I am all powerful but I am not. I am just one of his four horsemen. Known only as the Vanguard. Now If you excuse me." She moved her demonic arm as the chains regrew this time made with some strange mystical organic material which replaced the chain and become one with the slaves necks. The chains formed right back to her hand as she stood strong. "Well then I guess, its time for me to bid you adieu." She fired four orbs of demonic energy and a singularity at Jack and began to charge up to teleport away. However Darius was closely nearby noticing some red flashes he sped through the air landing on the chains of some of the slaves. he pulled out his sword and began slashing but like any organic goopy material it reformed. but he continued slashing away at it. The vanguard turned to Darius and spoke before her charge was complete. "Darling, do you really think the more you slash the more it will work. Well even if it did the organic material has already bonded with them and it wont be long until they are consumed by the glorious love of the God-Killer. Now toodles." With that said she teleported away just before 6 of the 20 chained slaves chains were reformed leaving them behind. "Hey jack, now what do you suppose we do with these guys."
Jack slid his cape up, diffusing the demonic energy and singularity to protect himself. When he pulled it back down, the Vanguard was gone. He turned to Darius and sighed. "Well... I suppose as mindless half-slaves, if we can bring one of them to some sort of mind reader we'll be able to get the location of where this "Vanguard" is hiding... If you want to try that, I believe it's our best hope for tracking down the god-killer... who is her master..." He thought for a second. "One of his four horsemen... there are three others. Send out this info out anyway we can. The more that know this, the better. Who knows how much damage 3 more of those could be doing."
"I know a psychic down in Trottingham so i'll go and take them. I just need a cart as they seem pretty out of it to walk at the moment. While I do that you better head to Venquis or the Elder realm to report on this stuff." He then collected up the organic chains and slowly began walking towards a nearby trade post. Dragging the corrupted slaves hooves through the dirt and leaves.
Venquis went over and levitated the Yukobana into a spare sheath before heading towards Canterlot. The trip would have been impossible to make in one day by hoof, but the duo might have made it there by midday tomorrow. If they were given the chance to fly however, it would have taken a much shorter time to arrive at the city. As the hours began to pass, the chances to arrive at Canterlot were slim. However, the two mortals and the near dead goddess rested underneath a cave besides a a cliff trail with the city of Canterlot in the horizon. However, the city was still at least a day away. "We need to rest for tonight. Traveling in the cover of night while Tartarus is around would be suicidal for us. We set up a campfire and we'll take watch every few hours." Venquis replied before looking at Hope. "I know that you not trust me at the moment. That's normal. But we need to take this seriously if we are going to make it there alive. ----------------------------- The Hunter reappeared inside of a building in another realm. The building appeared much like a Victorian era home, with a huge staircase as the centerpiece of the entrance. As soon as he entered, he noticed his superior nearby. "The Spirit saved her life. It's going according to plan..." The Hunter said to his master. The Master kept to the shadows, his face been unseen. "Excellent..." The Master replied. "Just as I wanted. The moment Celestia is brought back, we make our move. All Four of you need to distract the gods while I trigger the switch" "And what happens next?" The Hunter replied with an eyebrow raised "Then it's merely the end of them. We're expanding onto other dimensions. With the gods and divines wiping each other out while making them weaker, there will only be one god. One ruler of the Omniverse. One...Master to rule them all."
