Blooming Talent 2: The Apple Falls Far

Glass shattered and stone crumbled loudly as Goten was pushed through the nearest window by the transformed Equisbane; the phoenix horse hybrid let out an eagle-like cry as he lunged out after the injured Super Saiyan with his flaming wings spread wide. Everything seemed to move in slow motion through Goten's eyes as the two tumbled down the side of the golden and bronze palace wall.

The demon-like Equisbane moved to punch Goten straight in the gut, and reacting at the last second, the latter brought his knee up in defense to block the blow. This did not prevent any damage however; Goten's dark blue jeans ended up with a hole in that area, and the knee itself suffered a burn from his touch. The heat radiating off the immortal alone was enough to give him a tan, but his touch was like being poked with a branding iron.

Equisbane used his other arm to grab at Goten's face with his molten talons. The Super Saiyan couldn't move quick enough to block it with his gold plated arm weighing on him; the normally not-so-heavy-to-him metal was peculiarly heavy and the immortal grasped his head.

Goten felt his head slam into the ground before the burns, and the ground caved in where the duo had impacted, kicking up much dirt and grass.

Wait, grass? Had he been slammed to hard, or was he not in the desert anymore? He quickly kicked the fire spawn in the gut and rolled away a few feet before flipping back to his own feet.

Taking a quick scan of the surroundings, he found it was neither case. The combatants had landed in some sort of private garden of some type. It looked like something one might find in the Canterlot royal courtyard. It even had a small pond of clear water.

There wasn't much time to see much else; Equisbane lunged forward with quick swiping motions. The immortal was quick for his size, but even wounded and weighed down, Goten's Super Saiyan speed was still faster. He ducked and dodged under every attack until Equisbane touched the ground with his palm.

Flames erupted out in three separate lines, lighting the greenery ablaze with an orange glow. They converged on him and shot up in a geyser fashion where he'd been standing two seconds ago, startling Goten momentarily. The chase didn't end there; the lines of fire leapt up off the grass as if they were living snakes pouncing at their prey. Goten jumped and flipped numerous times to avoid becoming 'well done.'

His feet found themselves on a wall, and he launched himself off of it with full force, causing the flame snakes to miss and explode upon the golden surface harmlessly. Making a beeline for Equisbane, the Super Saiyan reared up a punch with his sword pierced arm. Equisbane snapped his talons, causing a pillar of bright and blazing flames to erupt from the ground, but Goten was moving too fast, and the fire missed its target; the Super Saiyan bullet did not. Goten slammed his fist into Equisbane's flaming skull, causing it near completely shatter apart with a loud crunch as he was flung back several feet. Goten sustained a pretty bad burn from the kamikaze like move, but he kept flying forward, rearing a kick which connected with Equisbane's torso, doubling him over.

Goten wasted no time with his next move; in a flash, he was behind the fire spawn, his palm outstretched and aimed for the head. He let loose a large ki blast that exploded magnificently against Equisbane's head, reducing it to ash. The body fell like a wet mophead to the ground quickly.

"That's one less obstacle..." He breathed heavily to himself. "Now to--"

He stopped and stared in horror as the headless flaming body started to get up.

"What the...?!"

As he stared in shock, the flames erupted from the open neckline, and formed into a sustained flame inside which pieces of Equisbane's skull rematerialized and snapped together perfectly. In few seconds, the immortal looked good as new; completely unharmed in fact.

Equisbane cracked his new neck experimentally as if making sure everything was working correctly. Once satisfied, he turned his red eyes on Goten once more.

"You shouldn't count your chickens before they hatch." He said dully.

"What..? What the hell are you?"

"Nothing special." Equisbane answered. "Just an immortal created from science and too much curiosity."

"An..immortal?!" Goten exclaimed, saying the words himself in case he'd heard wrong.

"That's right. But I must admit, your power is impressive; much more impressive than your wife's in her current state."

"Apple Bloom?!" The Super Saiyan gasped, anger starting to rise in him. "What have you done to my wife?!"

"I had an encounter with her in the desert. It wasn't much of a challenge to be honest."

Goten had heard enough, and launched himself through the air towards the monster. "I'll make sure you pay for hurting her!"

"I don't doubt that." Equisbane grunted as he sustained two hard jabs. "I'm not as strong as you are, and you'll probably punish me quite a bit. But it's all about time, Super Saiyan."

"You're right!" Goten yelled, punching out at full throttle. "Your time has run out!"

His final blow connected, and sent Equisbane reeling into a wall above the pond. He fell into the clear water, causing steam to explode out from it, nearly obscuring everything. Equisbane gasped and moved frantically to get out of the water; his form returned to normal. But he wasn't completely normal; aside from being wet, he had a large bruise where Goten had just drilled him. The Super Saiyan found this strange; why had he reverted back to normal, and why was the bruise not healing?

"Damn.." The horse known as Equisbane grunted. "I shouldn't have gotten wet...not now.."

Wet? He was mad about getting wet? Goten widened his eyes in realization after a moment of thinking on that. He'd reverted as soon as he hit the water, and his bruise wasn't healing now that he wasn't on fire anymore. Water; his weakness was water.

"Some immortal you are!" He shouted. "I'll end this now, and get my son back!"

Above the carnage, Midas put the last piece if his golden battle armor on; the design lines glowed vibrant blue with the Legacy Suppressor, and the emperor moved with revitalized vigor.

"Nurse," he called out to the horse that had just galloped in. "Take the children to their room and lock the door. Keep watch on them."

"Yes my lord!" She replied, following the order without question.

The little horse squirmed and cried as the nurse took her away. "Daddy!"

"Sorry, sweetie." Midas told her, transforming into humanoid mode with loudc clanks and servo noises. "Daddy's got to go to work."

Immediately, he jumped down through the gaping hole in his wall, and fell towards the garden below.

Goten was about to throw a ki blast at the disabled Equisbane, when the heavy metal thud sounded right behind him. He turned and was instantly smacked away by a golden metal backhand. As he rolled across the garden, the sword snapped in half inside him, ripping through his tendons and muscles, causing him to cry out in pain.

He stood up quickly as he could, but was lariated into the golden wall behind him by a rocket propelled Midas. The emperor transitioned into a choke, and dragged Goten's head through the outer wall by his neck, rending the gold plating if the surface asunder. He tossed him away after, and followed up with a leap, driving his large mechanical foot into Goten's body, crushing him and causing him to cough up blood gratuitously.

"Its pretty fortunate that your injured, Goten of Equestria." Midas said, picking him up over his head and bring him down on his knee in a backbreaking motion.

He let the Super Saiyan slump down, but then grabbed him by his golden hair and started to beat his face mercilessly with his large mechanical fist.

"Even Equisbane wouldn't be able to beat you if you were onbe-hundred percent." He continued. "But lucky for us, you're a very stupid rescuer."

He flung Goten into the air, and punched him away many feet, causing him to land hard on the rocks near the still steaming pond. The thin air near there made even harder for the injured Goten to breathe. He was pretty sure one of his lungs had collapsed, along with a few ribs being broken, and that was just what he could feel through his lightheadedness.

Equisbane limped back away from the area as Midas approached. Goten slowly started to roll onto his knees and hands, spitting out his crimson life force.

"My..son..." He breathed, trying to get airborne to get to Carrot. "My..my boy..I have t.."

"Where do you think you're going?" Midas condescended.

He put his wrist forth and shot two cables out, which wrapped themselves rapidly around the dying Super Saiyan. A split second later, his body was ablaze with vibrant blue electricity as Midas zapped him from afar. The metal blade still in pieces inside his body conducted it painfully through his right half, and he screamed in pain, unable to move as his muscles stiffened.

But Midas didn't stop there; using the cables, he swung back and brought Goten back down to the ground into the pond. The sparks really started flying then with the water conducting the electricity all throughout his body. He silently screamed underwater for several, awful, painstaking seconds before his golden hair returned to its normal jet black and his eyes rolled into the back of his skull, the darkness finally taking him.

Once Midas could no longer feel him struggling, he tugged hard on the cables, and pulled the unmoving half-saiyan from the pool. Detaching them from his wrist, he moved closer; his golden metal feet clanking with each step. Equisbane limped in closer as well to examine the defeated warrior.

"You should dry off and heal your wounds, Equisbane." Midas said, turning to his bodyguard.

"I will in a moment, my emperor." The immortal horse replied. "I just want to know if you are alright."

Midas nodded reassuringly. "Yes, old friend, I'm quite fine thanks to you. The Legacy Suppressor is running through my veins as we speak. I feel great."

"That is good, then."

There was a silence before Midas spoke again; a more curious tone to his voice.

"You told him you fought his wife. Is this true?"

"Yes, my emperor." Equisbane said. "I encountered her at the mines. Shed convinced the dogs to desert us and leave the empire."

"You stopped them, yes?"

"I burned the village down, but a young pup and Misses Bloom herself escaped me. They'd been giving her some of the Legacy Suppressor..."

Midas' face grew a few shades darker at that. That meant she wouldn't be completely disabled by the Legacy Killer he'd injected her with for awhile. Her immune system surely must have built some form of resistance by now if shed been exposed to the medicine. She would still die without a steady stream of it, of course, but not as fast as he would like.

"If Goten is here, she can't be far." He said. "Do you know where they went?"

Equisbane shook his head. "Not specifically. I only know they headed east."

"That's lead enough. Once you're healed, I want you to go out easdt after her. Kill her and the pup as quick as you can. We can't have anymore interference like this."

"Speaking of, what will we do with him?"

Midas looked down at the still half-saiyan thoughtfully before answering. "I have a plan for this. Don't worry."