Shift woke up paralyzed in some dark building. He could no more feel his body; only a deep, shocking pain. His powers weren't effective on his cage; maybe they blocked his inner magic. He tried to move, only to let out a loud yelp. His body wasn't movable again, he'll have to wait for someone to save him. His forst thoughts went on Crimson... Could he betray him, and take back control on himself after that? Was a breakdown worth it? His body went back to ''normal'', black and white. His eyes kept their shifted colors. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, moaning a little. After a few breaths, his focus was made. His eyes shown no emotion or pain. His thoughts were focus on one thing. The taste of blood. Alicorn blood.
Monarch walked back towards Guardian and Archangel as something was forming on his horn as lightning surrounded it, before a flash of white hit the heroes before experiencing a phenomenal pain. Once the flash wore off, they seen everything in it's affected radius destroyed, like a powerful earthquake had happened within the timespan of a second that threw cars about, caused huge cracks on the road and destroyed homes. Crimson recovered, but this took a huge toll on him. Crimson ran towards Monarch, taking shots at Monarch's exposed torso. The shots simply did no damage at all. Knowing that guns were useless, he switched to his shock gloves as he continued to run. As he jumped into the air as he was about to land a strike, he was caught by Monarch's magic and thrown into a building in a similar manner like Shift.
Shift's building took a large shock, similar to an earthquake. But beeing so focused, he didn't realized it. His body started to fade, while still being consistent, and intangible. He was beeing here, and not. Half of him was in another dimension, or else, it wasn't explicable. But he was now driven by anger, and officially called a paradox. His cutie mark appeared. It was a square-shaped star.
(Feel free to auto-hit Holly/Deadly Nightshade. Being a Timber-Wolf, she has the ability to rebuild her entire body, even after being smashed to pieces. Just avoid any auto-KOs.) As Nightshade took down the last of the soldiers attacking her, she heard Vibrato, whom she had previously thought an ally, call her "stupid mutt" and order a group of soldiers to attack Guardian. Snarling furiously, she rushed at the traitor. Guardian also heard the order to go after him, and chose to ignore his pursuers. He had bigger fish to fry. Drawing his swords, he dove at Monarch, slashing at the rogue Alicorn with flaming blades.
As Guardian came down, Monarch almost effortlessly dodged Silver's slashes and kept him on his toes. As one of his swings missed his head, Monarch ducked below his foreleg and hit Guardian in the stomach as an he shot the Lunar Pegasus like a cannon. The shockwave itself almost acted as a implosion as it sucked up anything close to it for half a second before exploding across the street with a violent shockwave which added to the destruction. This sent Guardian flying hundreds of meters down the road as he made contact with Nightshade, shattering the timberwolf on contact. Monarch wasn't very impressed. After the reports he was given about the society, he expected much more of a fight.
Vibrato and Nightshade were in the midst of battle when she crushed the timberwolve's leg, severely fracturing the bone but to her surprise it got up like nothing happened but before Nightshade had a chance to attack Guardian plummeted down unto his timberwolf.
Archangel seen Vibrato's betrayal and started to take shots at her, hitting and paralyzing her legs. Vibrato did not deserve such mercy that ammunition gave, he was going to literally beat the life out of her. As he slammed both of his hooves together as lightning surrounded them due to his shock gloves, he ran towards her with the hopes of not only disabling her, but keep her alive for interrogation. He even allowed her to stand up before appearing right behind her and knocking her senseless with a single yet powerful electric punch that sent her dozens of meters. "I could have killed you, but you deserve much worse then a quick death. Please, make this interesting for me?"
Guardian quickly got back to his hooves and flew back towards Monarch. The Alicorn was strong, but he was a fool if he thought that power alone would win him this battle. Grinning, Guardian slashed at Monarch again, slicing off the tip of his ear and setting his mane ablaze. Nightshade quickly pulled herself together and ran at Vibrato again, leaping onto her back and sinking her fangs into her neck.
Once Crimson noted for Nightshade to let go of Vibrato due to his shock gloves having a chain lightning effect, Archangel unleashed upon the traitor with dozens spine shattering blows in the face and in the stomach. Once Crimson was finished, he noticed that Vibrato was only just standing. Still angered with the mare’s betrayal, he punched Vibrato in the stomach hard enough to almost kill her. He watched as Vibrato’s eyes lit up as she looked unto the ground as she vomited on his arm before puking blood out from her mouth. She was not only taking a beating, but somehow still resisted. Crimson then levitated the mare’s almost lifeless body to Nightshade for her to finish off. “I’ve had enough of traitors like her, finish her off Holly....” Monarch stood still as the tip of his ear almost instantly regenerated, along with his hair somehow resisting the flames. He had a wicked grin upon his face as the flames suddenly died out as he got into a stance. “My turn” Monarch then delivered a blow to Guardians face that sent the Lunar Pegasi flying like a pinwheel hundreds of meters down the street. Cracking his neck, he then launched himself to the pace of his opponent as he soon got to the same speed as Guardian was as he then obliterated the hero with a fury of blows. To finish him off, he kicked him unto the concrete bridge that Crimson was underneath as it collapsed. Crimson quickly got out of the way as Nightshade escaped. Silver was now underneath tons of concrete. Guardian was the first to harm him, yet alone touch him since his arrival in Equestria. That alone was a major accomplishment. Monarch smiled at his opponent, it seemed that he’s one of the few who could stand hoof to hoof with.
Guardian crawled out from under the rubble, covered with lacerations and bleeding profusely. His right wing had been dislocated, and three of his ribs had been broken. Despite his injuries, he was still holding his swords. He slammed his wing into a nearby post to force it back into place, and took to the air again. "Was that your best? I'm disappointed!" Guardian flew down to a broken fire hydrant that was spewing water into the air and plunged his blade into the torrent. As the water struck the enchanted blade, it was instantly boiled away, creating a huge column of steam. It was then a simple matter to form the steam into cloud, which was then flown up to a transformer on a nearby power line. With a quick slice of his blade, Guardian smashed open the transformer box and used the metal in the sword to conduct a massive amount of energy into the cloud. Pushing the newly formed storm cloud, he flew at Monarch once again, striking the Alicorn with dozens of bolts of lightning as he flew. As Guardian was keeping him distracted from the front, Nightshade was circling around for a brutal surprise attack of her own. The exact instant that Guardian came within Monarch's striking range, the Timber-Wolf jumped onto the Alicorn's back, tearing his left eye from it's socket and tossing it into the air, where it was disintegrated by a bolt of lightning from Guardian.
Still surrounded by the chain lightning Vibrato stood up broken and dazed but nowhere near finished, "So you wanna dance" She said to Crimson, She coughed up a bit of blood which was understandable in her condition, "Lets lower the tempo shall we".Vibrato began to emit her usual frequency but the vibrations began to hum lower and lower which instead of effecting the nervous system she played with the digestive system instead, Making Crim vomit all over the rubble he was standing on.
While otherwise unharmed, Crimson looked at Vibrato shortly after her frequency affected him. Before she could even blink, Crimson was right infront of her as the lightning on his gloves and it's power was increased almost ten fold, well over lethal range. With a single blow with his hoof, Vibrato was shocked with a million volts. However, the dark red unicorn did not stop from there. Within the timespan of ten seconds, Archangel had hit Vibrato with at least twenty extremely powerful blows that only only grew stronger with each hit, but would have been enough to paralyze her entire body. She was close to breaking point, she would either collapse onto the ground unconscious or die. These choices no longer cared to Archangel as he performed a helix jump over Vibrato's body, switching to a powerful revolver as he landed with the gun right behind her heart at point blank. "You've picked the wrong stallion to deal with missy..." The revolver then shot Vibrato from point blank with his 'mercy rounds' as she collapsed to the ground. If he aimed for her head, she would have died. However, Crimson felt it necessary for her to survive for interrogation and so shot her heart. Due to the very nature of the ammo he was using, only headshots were lethal. However, the ammo destroyed the nervous system of anything it hits. Monarch quickly regenerated his eye socket and his other parts as the lightning surrounded him. All he did was laugh as lightning bolts hit him, causing no visible damage. All of a sudden, the very cloud around him disappeared in an instant as Monarch suddenly threw Nightshade and Guardian high into the air. Monarch then fired a beam of magic directly at both the heroes which exploded with the force of a tactical nuclear weapon above the city. He wanted a fight, he sure as hell is going to get one. As soon as the explosion blew Guardian away, he caught him in midair and threw him at the ground. Monarch then proceeded to deliver blows on the Lunar Pegasi, laughing like a maniac everytime he heard a bone break or a muscle exploding. Every punch created a crater that grew deeper and deeper until the crater started to fill up with water, indicating that he's hit a pipeline. Monarch then stood infront of Silver's body as a cement mixer being driven by two surviving militia started to cover the hole Monarch caused. Monarch began to speak, his words echoing in Guardians head. "It seems our little game is at an end. I quite like you, you seem to have the rare ability of being able to not only harm me, but fight me to a stand still. My eyes are going for your leaders, these....princesses that this nation holds dear. I'm Equestria's reckoning, and you will know my name is Monarch." Soon, the hole was covered with cement and water. Monarch then took one of Silvers swords from nearby and dug it deep onto the concrete, causing it to set almost instantly. Monarch then disapeared, with the remainder of the militia soon leaving as well. He messaged Vibrato telepathically. "Our job here is done, return to HQ. If you survive...."
Guardian, more dead than alive, crawled into the burst pipe mere moments before the concrete hardened around him. After swimming through several hundred yards of raw sewage, he emerged from a drainage pipe several blocks away. Following a quick rinse-off at the first hose he found, he returned to the spot where he had last seen Monarch and recovered his swords. Nightshade had already rebuilt herself by this time, and was waiting for him. He got on the radio and called Archangel. "I've learned what I needed to know about Monarch. When you're done dealing with the traitor, I'll be waiting back at HQ."
Vibrato was lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood, Her body was to heavy to even get on one hoof, "What are you gonna do with me?" She asked barely looking at Crim
Shift heard the signal coming from his ear-plug. ''Our job here is done. Return to the HQ if you survive.'' He lost is focus. His ears dropped. ''Don't tell me... We've lost...'' He didn't cared about pain anymore. He hadn't even had his chance to fight! His focus returned quite quickly. ''They've seen nothing yet...'' He activated the ear-plug, connected to Crimson via a private chanel. ''Crim, it's me. Forgive my foolishness earlier. I'm coming right-on. Where are you?'' When sayin =g this, his body started to take colors. Soon, the black turned to deep purple and the white, pale yellow, his left eye red, his right eye blue, he was ready to show them all what he was capable of. What equestria once feared. He shifted with his shadow, the rings following him in the paradoxal-other-dimension-thingy. His shadow was a deep purple, had a long-brimmed hat, and two revolvers with hoof-inserts. After six years, he finall returned. He finally won against himself, Bright Darkness.
Archangel placed two handcuffs for Vibrato to restrict her movements on both her forelegs and rearlegs. He took out a cloth and tied it around her mouth to remove her ability to speak. "Your going to talk to us about your choice to assist Monarch, and exactly what are his motives. Since you happened to be so close to him, you're going to tell us everything. If you don't talk, I'll kill you and I'll find out myself." Crimson then got the message sent from Shift and responded. "I have our traitor. Im behind the rubble that was a bridge apprihending Vibrato. Requiring assistance to escort her back to HQ. We need her alive."
Shift laughed, and slowly stood up. His voice was low-pitched. ''Alive? Nothing's alive, my dear friend. But i promise i'll do my best to help you: that **** Almost killed my vessel. You'll kill me later, honey.'' Meanwhile, in Bright Darkness's mind: Bright Darkness felt releived of some weight, but he didn't knew where he felt releived. His body was surrounded by golden rings. His last memories were pretty shady: A laboratory, him stepping on a big machine, then darkness. But... Confortable darkness. A darkness he called home. And a low voice, yelling him to kill. To hate. To show them what was blood able to. The truth behind everything. Behind the alicorns. But... He couldn't remember what exactly. He felt sleepy... His surrondings were all dark. In fact, he was floating. He wasn't breathing. He wasn't living. Death, death everywhere. Beatifull, cold, frigid death.
Lifepool didn't see much of any fight. much to his dismay. He was stuck at base being a test subject for effects that could be used against monarch. with little to no knowledge about him though it was hard. After a dozen tests he relaxed for a bit to allow himself to heal to full strength and walked upstairs to the main meeting hall.
Shift jumped out the window, and landed like a 3 foot high jump. He started running towards Crimson, passing through a few crashed objects. He could feel Bright Darkness waking up. He wouldn't have much time, so no management. And, in the WCS, he'd just die. He soon came into view, and decided to make his entrance. He jumped over a few debris, making an aerial move of some sort, before he landed by sliding down a metaic pipe that came out of the ground. ''Hey there, sweet Lionheart. It's been a long, long time. I hope you'll contain yourself enough, we don't want to kill that hostage now, do we~?''
Despite his injuries, Guardian was able to make it to Zecora's cottage in the Everfree Forest without any difficulty. The Zebra took one look at him and sighed. "You may be extraordinarily strong-willed, but one of these days you will get yourself killed!" "Maybe, but not today. I need your help with something." "I should say so! Wait by the door. I don't want you bleeding on my floor." Zecora rummaged around through an odd assortment of bottles and vials, and returned with a small brown bottle filled with a foul smelling liquid. "Drink of this, my bat-winged friend, and instantly your wounds will mend." Guardian drank the potion, and, just as the Zebra had promised, his body began healing. As soon as he was healed, Zecora sighed again. "You did not come here just for healing, so come inside and tell me with what we are dealing." "A rogue Alicorn. Very fast, very strong, and a magical healing factor beyond anything I've ever seen. I need a way to weaken him." "To weaken him... I have a thought, but you will only get one shot..." While Guardian was at Zecora's, Nightshade was helping Archangel move the prisoner.
