Celestia, Luna, Twilight, and Cadance stared up at the massive behemoth that stood before them in the clearing. The gargantuan creature, standing four stories high and of humanoid shape, towered ominously over the alicorn princesses. The giant was heavily bulked, possessing a dark blue tone of thick skin with various lines of a lighter blue. His entire body was partially encompassed in a substantial amount of rock, particularly covering his left side more predominantly; his left arm being thickly shielded with it. Only the lower right half of his face was uncovered, revealing a glowing white eye and a row of viciously sharp teeth.
"Greetings, strange creatures," The giant calmly spoke to the ponies below.
"Who are you?" Celestia asked curiously.
"I am the Immoveable. The Enduring. You may call me Vorago," he responded.
"Just what are you?" Luna asked next.
"I know only that I am of the earth, and the earth and I are one," he responded again. "I am one with the earth soul. It permeates me, and grants me the power to command the earth. I feel the fury of the battles that have taken place on this good earth. I can command it to take shape and fight back."
"Why are you here?" Cadance asked next.
"I seek worthy opponents against which to test myself, to increase my strength and skill. I offer a fair test to those who wish to challenge me - a test of resilience and resolve," Vorago answered.
"We're listening..." said Twilight.
"If you can withstand my raw power, I will face you in combat."
"How much 'raw power' are you talking about?" Luna asked.
"I will not hold back. I hold the only weapon ever to defeat me within my rock itself: the Maul of Omens. To defeat me, you must acquire it. So, do we fight?" Vorago questioned and stood patiently, awaiting the princesses' answer. They were silent, exchanging looks with one another, but in the end all returned a nod of their heads.
"We fight," Celestia answered for the group. Vorago nodded, and assumed a huddled position.
Music
The princesses could hear a rumbling coming from Vorago. It started softly, but steadily grew louder. The four alicorns took a defensive stance, ready to hold themselves steadfast against whatever Vorago was about to throw. After twenty seconds, Vorago unbundled swiftly, unleashing a powerful wave of magic that smashed into the them. The attack slammed them hard, knocking them back several yards and severely disorienting them. However they managed to regain composure, and Vorago, seeing his challengers survive is initial barrage, grinned and approached them to begin the fight.
"This is going to require extreme skill," explained Twilight. "Allow me to scan the battle for ways to overcome him and provide direction."
"Agreed," the other princesses replied in unison.
"Celestia, you boast the greatest power of all four of us. You keep his attention on you, the rest of us will encircle him to attack," Twilight directed. Celestia nodded and sprung forward, charging her horn with magic. Vorago immediately took to her, swinging his massive arm to strike. Celestia proved nimble, and was able to fling herself out of the way of the attack while simultaneously launching a few barrages of magic. While his attention was drawn to Celestia, the others swiftly encircled him, charging and unleashing powerful magic attacks.
While Vorago continued to throw his fists at Celestia, a simple swing of his arm suddenly released two glowing red projectiles of magic, one aimed at Celestia and the other towards Luna. Despite moving quickly, the attacks locked onto their targets and pursued them. Unable to dodge, the three alicorns braced for impact. Celestia stood strong as the blast hit her, but much to her surprise, it felt merely like a simple shove rather than a magical attack. For Luna, it was the opposite. In an attempt to escape the attack, she moved just in front of Cadance right at the moment the attack hit. The magic delivered a strong blow to Luna, however, the power seemed to transfer into Cadance as well, knocking both alicorns back.
Twilight, having stood from a far distance back, was able to observe both attacks.
"Those red 'bombs' seem to amplify when there are others nearby!" Twilight shouted to her teammates. "If you're targeted by one, then move away!" Just as she said this, Vorago released another magic projectile with a swing of his arm. This attack, while similar in shape to the others, was colored blue instead of red. The attack homed in on Twilight, who braced herself for the impact.
"Wait," she quickly thought to herself. "Perhaps this attack is opposite." Twilight lunged herself forward and positioned herself between Cadance and Luna just as the attack crashed down upon her. Just as she had thought, the magic of the attack dissipated among three alicorns, inflicting only a small push of energy.
"I think he'll only throw the blue bombs at whoever is farthest away," she explained as she returned to her distance. "I'll stay back to draw them."
The battle continued ferociously. Vorago would assault Celestia with his strong melee attacks, and despite her agility, managed to land several hits. Celestia, however, remained stalwart and strong, and quickly recovered from each blow. Twilight, Luna, and Cadance continued their magical attacks, keeping a watchful eye for the bombs and moving when necessary. The battle seemed to be going all too easy for the alicorns, until Twilight picked up on something. Despite being constantly bombarded by their magic, Vorago remained largely unaffected. He continued to power through all of their attacks as if he couldn't even feel them.
"The Maul of Omens," Twilight again thought to herself. "We need to get our hooves on that Maul." Twilight, remembering that Vorago had told them the Maul was within his body, began scanning his back. Her eyes then locked on a black metallic object, just barely protruding from Vorago's upper spine.
Acting quickly, Twilight spread her wings and dashed straight up onto Vorago's back. She grabbed hold of the object with her magic and pulled violently, managing to dislodge the piece. As she returned to the ground, she took immediate notice that what she pulled out was not a complete maul, but only the face of the hammerhead.
"It must be in several pieces," Twilight spoke. "This is going to be far tougher than we thought."
Vorago, having felt the first piece pulled from his body, turned to face the purple alicorn. He crouched, and then with a powerful thrust of his legs, hurled himself into the air. Twilight looked above in horror as the massive horde of rock that was Vorago's body quickly descended upon her. Just as Vorago was about to land, she felt herself grabbed by a magical force and snatched from underneath Vorago, just as he landed and shattered the ground.
"Thanks," she said to Celestia upon noticing it was her who pulled her. "I have the first piece of the Maul of Omens here. We'll need to find the other parts on his body and pull them out."
Vorago turned to pursue his challengers once again, attacking the nearest target, who happened to be Luna. He raised his colossal left arm, and with a vigorous thrust, punched downward towards Luna. The night princess proved as limber as her sister, and was able to quickly dart to the side to dodge the impact. Vorago, however, refused to let up, and continued to chase after her, repeatedly hammering at her with his mighty fist. Celestia could see that Luna could not keep up for much longer, so she charged a powerful spell and cast it upon Vorago, who gladly changed targets.
Vorago continued to pursue the alicorns with the same strategy as before, assaulting Celestia with punches while launching his magic bombs at the others. The princesses, prepared for this strategy, immediately began to counter as they had before, until something happened unexpectedly. Twilight casted a spell towards Vorago, but upon contact with his body it immediately deflected off and careened towards Cadance.
Twilight wasn't the only one affected, as any spell cast by Celestia or Luna also reflected and targeted Cadance, who just barely managed to evade them.
"Stop attacking!" Cadance shouted as she squeezed her eyes shut. "I can feel some sort of link between our minds. He's using it to redirect our attacks!" The alicorns ceased their magic as Vorago continued to pursue Celestia. The link with Cadance pursued, but after a few moments, she suddenly felt it slip away. As it did, Vorago stumbled, and fell onto one knee.
"The link is gone!" Cadance yelled to her teammates. "Bring him down!"
The four alicorns grabbed hold of him with their magic, and with all their might, pulled him down into the ground. Vorago resisted with all of his strength, attempting to break the magic and stand back up, but after a difficult struggle he gave out and slammed into the ground. As he impacted, Twilight noticed a small triangular object with a pike fall from Vorago's body. She grabbed it with her magic and pulled it towards her.
"It's another piece of the maul! It looks like it's the second half of the hammerhead, which just leaves the handle," Twilight told Celestia.
"Good, we're almost there," she replied. Vorago, after staying down for a few moments, suddenly thrust himself upwards, breaking through the alicorns magic. The princesses readied themselves for whatever might come next.
Vorago turned to the alicorns and slammed both his fists into the ground. Several feet in front of him, two spots on the ground began to crackle.
"Come, Scopulus..." Vorago grunted. Out of the two fissures erupted two beings. They appeared to be miniature versions of Vorago, standing about twice as tall as Celestia, but were covered in much less rock except for their heads, which were completely encompassed.
The scopuli approached the alicorns, besieging them with swift melee attacks. They were significantly faster than Vorago, and the princesses had a very difficult time attempting to evade the attacks, causing them to take several blows. As the scopuli continued to attack, Vorago barraged them with his magic bombs from a distance, which was too much for the princesses to comprehend. While making sure to avoid full damage from the bombs, the scopuli struck them with a strong swipe of their claws.
"We need to dispatch these scopuli quickly!" Twilight ordered. "Hit them with everything you have!" The four of them surged their magic as strong as they could, forcing it into the scopuli. Their magic was strong enough to push them back, however in their concentration they were forced to ignore the bombs from Vorago, and thus withstood heavy hits.
Within a few minutes, the scopuli were finally defeated, and the alicorns could refocus on Vorago. As they stood facing Vorago, they panted heavily; their bodies covered in a plethora of bruises and scratches. The battle was beginning to take its toll, and Vorago still appeared to be unscathed.
Vorago had ceased his attacks for the moment and stared back at the alicorns. A slight grin came across his face, showing that he was pleased with his opponents thus far. His grin vanished shortly after as he huddled once again. As he crouched flames began to seep from his body and encircle around him, forming a twister of fire. Twilight, still exhausted from the battle, quickly scanned the battlefield.
"He's charging up another form of attack," she explained. Her eyes quickly shifted around the edge of the area, searching for a way to avoid the attack. Her sight caught a large waterfall flowing from overtop a cliff just past the edge of the clearing.
"Quick! Behind the waterfall!" Twilight shouted at her comrades. With a grunt, the alicorns lunged forward and dashed for the waterfall. As they were flying, Vorago flung his arms out, throwing the twister of fire out in all directions, consuming the battlefield. The alicorns got behind the cascade of water just as it was struck by the wall of fire. They tensed up as the bright light from the fire gleamed through the water, but were relieved as they noticed the water quelling the blaze. Once it subsided, they emerged from behind the waterfall, ready to engage Vorago once again.
Just as before, Vorago charged them with his melee attack and magic bombs, but now he added yet another unique attack. As the alicorns attacked, Vorago summoned four figures of stone around him. At first they looked like ordinary mounds of rock, but they soon began to shape shift, each one taking the form of one of the alicorns. After their summoning, the princess noticed their attacks were no longer making contact with Vorago's body, but were instead fading into nothing as they got close. At the same time, the stone clones suddenly began moving and lunged forward, copying and casting the same magic of their living counterparts.
"I guess we need to destroy these clones," Twilight hollered in a panic. Each alicorn turned to engage a stone clone. The clones demonstrated to be easier opponents than the Scopuli, and were quickly dispatched. However, their magic attacks proved unavoidable, and the princesses were forced to received heaps of their own magic attacks, leaving the alicorns even more battered and bruised than before.
With the clones destroyed, they returned to combat Vorago; their attacks now being effective again. As Vorago continued to be struck, Twilight noticed another piece of metal fall from Vorago's body. She grabbed it with her magic and pulled it to join the other pieces.
"The handle!" Twilight cried joyously. "It's the final piece of the Maul of Omens!" The four ponies beamed as they had finally accrued the weapon needed to defeat Vorago. However, noticing that his defeat was nigh, Vorago went into a panic. He began frantically jumping around the battlefield, fissuring the ground beneath. After a few jumps, the ground beneath gave way, and all five of them fell into a cavern below.
They landed on a thin strip of land; each end falling off into an even deeper cavern. On one side landed Vorago, and on the other landed the alicorns. Each of them regained their composure and turned to face each other. Vorago immediately began frantically barraging them with his bomb and melee attacks. Celestia, Luna, and Cadance charged their magic as strong as they could, and began countering his attacks, while Twilight stood back and began to assemble the maul.
The alicorns fought valiantly, and managed to push Vorago back along the strip. However, the alicorns had spent almost all of their energy in the fight so far, and were soon to give out. Cadance was the first to fall. Having taken a blast from a red bomb, she was blown back and knocked unconscious, leaving Luna and Celestia to continue the attack. With a strong swing of his arm, Vorago managed to strike Luna with unparalleled brute force, throwing her back and knocking her unconscious as well.
Celestia summoned all of her magic, and with one powerful burst, struck Vorago square in the chest, causing him to stumble back and put him just at the edge of the cliff. Celestia attempted to strike him again, but only stumbled to the ground panting heavily. She had expended all of her magic, and had no attacks left in her. Vorago, on the other hand, was still as strong as ever and managed to stabilize himself. He approached Celestia to strike her with a final blow.
"Celestia! Catch!" Twilight yelled as she hurled the now completed Maul of Omens at Celestia. She turned quickly and caught the handle in her mouth as Vorago's massive left arm came crashing down. With the last bit of strength she had left in her body, Celestia swung the maul as hard as she could, striking Vorago's arm with incredible force, shoving it to the side and immobilizing it. Celestia continued by running up Vorago's arm, maul in mouth, and swinging once again, striking him across the head. Though shaken, Vorago brought his right arm up and grabbed hold of Celestia as she began to fall. Celestia, however, was not about to be stopped. With all of her might, she swung the maul in a vertical arc, and struck Vorago square in the eye, leaving the maul lodged into his face.
Vorago was stunned; his entire body immobilized. His grip released Celestia, dropping her to the ground. He slowly fell backwards, plummeting into the deep cavern below. Celestia lay still on the ground as Twilight quickly ran to her.
"I think we did it," Twilight told Celestia.
"It appears so," Celestia replied, barely able to speak. The two smiled at each other, but it was short lived. They soon heard a rumbling coming from the deep. They looked over to the edge, and gasped as they saw Vorago emerge from the dark; the maul no longer lodged into his face.
"You have done well," Vorago spoke. "This has been a most pleasing encounter."
"How are you not dead?" Twilight inquired.
"I may be stopped, but not destroyed. I will simply reform in new earth once more," Vorago explained. "For defeating me, I shall give you a reward." Vorago extended his arm outwards and held out a strange object. The object was a wand of some sorts, about the size of an alicorn horn. The handle was decorated in a strange golden rock, while the wand itself glowed a fierce white and blue with floating shards of crystal surrounding it.
"What is this?" Celestia asked as she took it.
"It is the Seismic Wand. A powerful weapon from the depths, it can be used to increase your magical strength to incredible levels. When we next fight, you would be wise to use it. I must now return to where I came from, but I look forward to combat with you again." Twilight and Celestia nodded and smiled as Vorago vanished back into the depths.
"It's probably best we keep this hidden and safe, until a time comes that we actually need it." Celestia explained as she looked over the wand.
"Agreed," complied Twilight. "But first let's get Cadance and Luna some medical attention." Celestia nodded, and the two picked up Cadance and Luna, and returned to the surface.
