The Hunted

Cade opened his eyes and saw only darkness and black fog. “Where the hell am I?” He casually looked around and saw… nothing, just darkness and more fog. He sighed and tried to think of what just happened to him. He knew he felt a sharp pain in his back when Chrysalis threw him. But he remembered a dark voice… was something else there with them? Or was that the devil calling him…

“So what type of creature are you?” a Dark voice came from behind Cade, interrupting his thought. He immediately spun around and looked at what cade assumed was a pony cloaked in darkness. “Well?”

Cade figured he would play along for now, hoping he would get a few answers. “A Human, and before you ask, let’s just say I’m from another Dimension”

The dark figure raised a hoof to his chin and sat in thought for a few seconds and responded “I see, you’re the first being I’ve encounter of your species.”

“That’s not surprising only a few humans have ended up on this world I think. But apparently they have been captured or killed by the princesses of this land.”

“Princesses?” The dark figure was quiet a moment “By chance is that Celestia princess still alive?”

“Hmm I think I overheard that she is, but I don’t quite remember. I actually just came to this world an hour ago…” Cade sat down and tried to take in the whole situation “So am I dead?”

“Hmm so the white witch still lives.”

“Well that depends on you. I have searched your soul and found that you never desired my power, so let’s just say I’m a little interested in you human.”

Cade looked dark figure curiously “What do you mean? Who are you? ”

“You may call me Megalith and I want to offer you a deal.”

Cade slouched back and braced himself for what this dark pony had in mind “Alright I’m listening, go on?”

“Well the deal is quite simple, I will grant you a second chance at life and the power and knowledge to wield me, also you will be able to live your life as you see fit, but when you use my power I will try to corrupt you. If you ever lose yourself to the darkness in your heart, or try to use my power for the sole purpose of glory and fame or try to use power to rule over others, I will destroy you.”

Cade knew it couldn’t be that easy “That sounds too good to be true, what’s in it for you?”

"Well I’ll be able to see the outside world again through your eyes. It’s been over millennia since I last saw it, and I’m very curious to see if you are able to control this power. All the ponies that used this power were all corrupted and forced to fight against the ones they love, or simply were destroyed. It depended on my mood at the time.  So let’s just say this will be an experiment”

Cade shuddered at the thought of fighting the ones he loved … maybe he would be forced to fight all his WAIFUS! but right now, he didn’t have any other option. “Alright I know I have no choice but to accept, so if I obtain this power how would I use it.”

“First, you have to imagine a villain of your choosing, and their power shall be yours, but be warned. The villain’s personality that you choose will begin to blend with yours. The more their morals and values differ from your own, the faster the corruption will be, and if you truly lose yourself to the darkness then you will die. It’s as simple as that.”

“HA that’s actually kind of cool, alright challenge accepted.” Cade quickly ran through the list of villains in his head, thinking of powerful villains whose personality would fit well with his. “I should avoid those who are murderous and those who are ambitious; I imagine those would corrupt me pretty quick… so I wonder if I can use an anti-hero… I doubt they would corrupt me as fast since they never are truly evil… hmm maybe Vegeta? Nah too powerful and headstrong, he’s too determined to fight which is something I’m going to actively avoid… so in that case maybe Virgil? Devil powers may come in handy. Nah his lust for power and his willingness to kill for it would truly be the end of me. I need someone who is a strong fighter that actively avoids unnecessary loss of life and has no self-interes-  … Ah”

Cade smiled “alright I know whose power I want to use for now. Let’s get this over with.”

Chrysalis observed what she assumed was the corpse of the human. As soon as Cade hit the wall, she heard Megalith pierce his body with the horrible sounds of spitting skin and the cracking of bones. She felt a tang of pity for the human but it wasn’t enough to stop her from removing the crystal stone from his corpse. As she approached him, she saw the body twitch a bit and saw a black aura begin to emanate from the crystal. Her expression turned to absolute horror as the crystal began to release massive amounts of pure magic from the body. A dark bubble formed around him as his corpse came back to life.

As Cade slowly regained consciousness he started to feel an insane amount of pain. He's broken bones and dislocated parts of his body before, but what was happening to his body now was a whole new level of pain. He felt all his organs dissolve and begin to reform to better suit the new crystal power source. His bones reformed to be more solid and sturdy and his skin toughened. Every part of his body was remade to suit using a massive power that wouldn’t be possible for the human anatomy to host. His spine was replaced by megalith as well as his heart. The veins in his body now carried a mix of magic and blood. His brain and Megalith were linked as the crystalstone began to change shape and formed itself to replace the muscles in his back to become just as flexible as his former muscle and skin. Because of this transformation Megalith now became the most important organ in his body alongside his brain.

Cade felt the pain lessen as the transformation came to an end. His mind began to clear from the pain as he felt a new sensation: Magical power and a ton of it. He smiled wickedly from the new sensation of magic flowing through him.  He brought his arms up and clenched his fist as he felt the difference from his original body. Stronger grip and more muscle control, check. He looked up his right arm and saw the newly toned but not overly built muscle, check. He noticed something wrong… shirt? ... He slowly looked down and saw all his clothes were gone. He sighed and began to focus on his hammer… Wait a second

“Jesus megalith did you have to remake everything! ... Though Mandingo be damned!” Cade was too busy checking himself out, praising the work of the crystal to pay attention to Chrysalis. Though once he was done he slowly looked up at her and saw her completely stunned. “I can’t believe she actually sat there all this time… man I love story book villains. Why do they sit there and watch their enemies power up.”

Now that Cade finished transforming, Chrysalis finally snapped back to reality and glared at the human. “I don’t know what just happened, but you should have stayed down if you knew what’s good for you.” Cade smiled as he was completely unimpressed by her threat “You know what Chrysalis? You’re lucky I ended up with Megalith, if you tried to use its power it would have killed you, so if YOU know what’s good for you, you would just turn around and walk out of here while I permit it.”

Chrysalis responded with an evil laugh “You can’t fool me human! Only the powerful and strong willed can wield Megalith.” She lowered her stance and prepared for battle “Now you leave me no choice but to take it from your body, now be a good little boy and die for me”

Cade just stood there, sat there with a smirk on his face and waited for the changeling queen to attack. “Good I’ve been wanting to try out this power, I hope you make this interesting” “Focus Cade”

He flinched slightly with the new voice in his head “What? Who’s there?”

“You know who I am, you wished to use my power” the voice said calmly

“Ah I see, that’s kinda cool, I figured your personality would blend with me, not have a separate voice in my head”

“Enough, focus on your enemy, don’t underestimate her”

Cade focused back to reality just as she was charging a beam, his eye’s immediately became crimson as she launched the attack. She watched as the beam pierce his chest and smiled wickedly at her victory, but her victory was cut short as his body dissipated into crows. The crows scattered around and flew around blocking her immediate vision, her eyes widened as she had never seen this type of power. She quickly looked around herself and saw him nowhere in sight. Her feeling of panic doubled as he heard his voice come from above her. “That was kinda scary, almost didn’t dodge that in time.” She looked up and saw his standing on the ceiling, looking smugly at her with his arms crossed.  She turned to face him she noticed something different, his new crimson eye’s with three tomoe next to the pupil. “How did you dodge that!” she demanded. Cade smiled and waved a finger at her “I’m not the kind of guy who explains his tricks.”

She growled in frustration, and began to charge another beam, Cade leaped down right next to her and prepared to land a heavy punch to her face, but in a flash black light she vanished from his side. In that instant Cade was thrown completely out of his element. “Impossible she didn’t have teleportation magic in the show!” he quickly spun around and saw her facing him charging another beam. He quickly analyzed the path of the attack and took one step to the side as she launched the beam, dodging it by inches. Cade responded by bringing his hands together and let his instincts create the hand signs needed for his attack “Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu”. He raised his right hand to his mouth and fire erupted from it, blasting toward on the changeling queen. She threw up a barrier spell and blocked his attack as it exploded against the shield which covered the area in smoke. As she predicted Cade came rushing through the smoke and once again tried to land a heavy blow to her, which she responded with another teleport. Cade landed and slid across the floor, one of his hands on the ground spinning him and slowing him down. She laughed triumphantly “Is that all you got human? You’re so predictable. Do you honestly think this is the first time I fought your kind? Please, I’m just getting warmed up; you stand no chance against me.”

“Huh that just happened.” Cade stood up to face her “ I figured she would have fought like she did vs Celestia on the crystal empire episodes…I mean all she did last time was try to magically muscle through her opponent and stood still hoping she would win… just how different is this world? And how the hell can she predict my moves, she doesn’t even know what I’m capable of!”

“You’re telegraphing your attacks, and your chains are sloppy, let me fight her, my way is more efficient than yours.”

“Wait don’t you know the deal I made with Megalith? If I let you take over, then we will probably die by him or be forced to fight the ones I love. let me handle this Itachi, if I can’t beat the children storybook villain then we are totally fucked, especially if we have to fight anything tougher.”

“I see…Fine you will remain in control, but know this, just because you have my abilities, doesn’t mean you know how to use them. If you want to win then I hope you will heed to my advice when it comes to fighting…”

Cade smiled a half grin, obviously enjoying his first fight “Hell yeah man. Lead the way”