I had been frozen for so long.
I couldn’t feel anything. Not physically, at least.
I could still feel emotion, sure. Though I never really felt much besides RAGE. That wasn’t unusual. Sometimes it sucked, but you get used to it. Or at least, I did.
I don’t know how long I had been frozen for. A thousand years? Two thousand? More? I didn’t really care anymore.
I’d been totally alone this entire time. Just me and my RAGE. I hated different things from time to time. My own stupidity for trusting that creepy vendor. The blank, bare walls of the room I was kept in. The dim lighting. The blue tint that everything had due to the crystal I was encased in. But most of all I hated the Crystal Empress, the one who’d trapped me. She saw me, the strange being that I was, and that I made her subjects afraid. Saw me burning buildings, hurting people. She instantly saw me as a threat. I didn’t even get a trial. She just froze me on the spot, and then threw me down here. Probably didn’t even give me a second thought.
I hate that insipid cow more than anything else. More than my circumstances, more than that merchant, more than my own stupidity. One day, I will get out. I will get to the surface. I will find the Crystal Empress. And I will BURN HER until all that remains is ASH.
*******
A small shadow crept out across the deserted halls. It flew though it old chambers searching for its target. It finally came to a locked room as a smile formed in its darkness. Magic covered the door breaking, its several locks slowly until the door opened with a dreadful creak. Inside was his prize. Something his predecessor had locked away and forgotten. Something he could use to keep the pink Alicorn from finding that cursed heart. “Besides, even if he is as uncontrollable as those tales say, I’ll just manipulate him and destroy him when he no longer of use,” the shadow thought.
With a glow the crystal cracked as it burned away in the darkness. The figure within the crystal started to glow. It’s eyes seemed to be burning, like small embers in the crystal. The shadow started to laugh as the crystals broke apart, revealing his prize. “Avatar of Rage,” the shadow spoke in a low, menacing voice, “rise.”
The figure was quick to rise on its two legs, and attacked the shadow, which dodged instinctively. The fires however burned it still grazing its side. “Who are you?” the burning figure asked in a voice that was like fire--coarse, raspy, somewhat high but not excessively so, and filled with hatred.
“That doesn’t concern you,” said the shadow. “However, I have a proposition for you, if you would hear it.”
The burning figure considered the shadow, before saying, “Speak, before I change my mind and reduce you to cinders.”
“I know of your hatred for the crystal ponies,” said the shadow to the burning figure. “I will allow you a chance to unleash it on them. Do whatever you wish to them. Kill them, maim them, burn them. Anything. Just keep their attention away from me.”
The burning figure was suspicious of the shadow. It didn’t seem particularly trustworthy, but the offer was almost too good to refuse. Still, though…“What’s in it for me?” the burning figure asked. “What incentive do I have to trust you?”
The shadow chuckled ominously. “I give you a chance at revenge and you ask for more still? You drive a hard bargain.” The shadow thought for a moment before saying, “What more could you want?”
“A means of returning to my home would be nice,” said the burning figure. “Failing that, protection. Weapons. A little place to call my own, preferably away from the locals.”
The shadow wasn’t going to give any of that. However he didn’t need this burning wraith to know that. “Very well,” the Shadow said, “you will have what you want.” The shadow said moving to the hallway. A smile was on his face.
*******
The blizzard had finally subsided for the group as they came to the Crystal Empire. “Finally, the Crystal Empire! And we seemed to have gotten here before Sombra,” a white unicorn stallion said, putting away his winter weather outfit in a pocket dimension.
“Yes but it’s strange, he should be here by now,” a pink Alicorn said.
Suddenly, a great fire shot from the top of the Crystal Palace. The crystal ponies immediately panicked, for everyone knew the tales of the Avatar of Rage, or Spirit of Vengeance as it was sometimes known. It was a story told to young foals to scare them into behaving good. “Eat your vegetables, or the Avatar of Rage will get you.” “Stop throwing a fit, or the Spirit of Vengeance will take you away.” “You’d better watch out! I heard the Avatar of Rage is in a bad mood! If you’re not careful he’ll burn you to a crisp!” Never did they imagine him to be real.
“PATHETIC CREATURES!” it shouted in a demonic voice. “YOU WILL FEEL MY WRATH!” It leapt from the tower and landed in the square, the ground cracking beneath its heels.
Although they were far away, the group could still see the Avatar of Rage in all his hellish glory. His garb was somewhat reminiscent of neighponese Ninja, yet it was also different. His black hood and metallic-yellow mask hid his face well, leaving his burning eyes as his only discernable facial feature. His chest plate, greaves, and elbow-length fingerless gloves, were all somewhat insectile in design. There were large spikes on his gloves. There was an amber gem in the middle of his chest plate. Two swords were across his back, the claw-like protrusions at the bottom of the hilt sticking over his shoulders and making him look even more intimidating.
He slowly rose to his feet, then looked to the group. The fire in his eyes intensified. “CRYSTAL EMPRESS!” he shouted as he pointed at the pink Alicorn. “YOU WILL BURN! YOU WILL KNOW THE RAGE OF SCORPION!”
Author's Note
This is the beginning of a displaced fic co-written with NewUnitedEmpire! Sorry if there are any errors!
Not sure if Scorpion will eventually be available for crossovers or not.
As usual, can't guarantee regular updates, but we will try!
And in case you can't tell, it's Scorpion from Injustice: Gods Among Us.
“Wait what?” Cadance asked, looking at the being in front of her.
He didn’t reply, but rather thrust his palm at her. Before the ponies had any idea as to what was going on, an elaborate kunai with a chain trailing behind it was flying straight at the pink Alicorn.
Shining Armor, on instinct, raised a barrier around them less than a second before the kunai impacted itself in Cadance’s chest. When the weapon struck the wall of magic, it embedded itself slightly, creating a spiderweb of cracks.
Suddenly, the fiery figure vanished in a small fire that faded not long after he had. The ponies looked around for him, but he was nowhere to be found. “Where could he be?” Cadence asked herself quietly.
Her question was answered when his fist hit the back of her head and sent her flying through the cracked barrier, shattering it and causing Shining Armor to pass out from the magical feedback.
The shadowy form of Sombra laughed as he flew up to the Crystal Heart. He saw the Princess of Love getting attacked by his new “ally” and knew his time was now.
Cadance looked past the fiery figure and saw Sombra move to take the Crystal Heart. She looked at her husband, unconscious on the ground behind her. Then she heard the heavy footfalls of the fiery figure. She looked up and saw him standing before her, his arms ablaze yet seemingly not being negatively affected by the flames.
“You encased me in crystal and left me like that for a millennium,” he said. “NOW I WILL EXACT MY VENGEANCE!”
Cadance realized where all this was going. Her horn glowed as the flames washed over her. In a flash she appeared behind him dusting herself off. “Look, I think you’re mistaken, I have no idea who this Crystal Empress is.” Cadance said. A fist was her response which she dodged by flying up. ‘Okay, looks like I’ll have to fight…I should have paid more attention to those combat training sessions,’ Cadance thought to herself.
Cadance gathered up magic and formed a sword in her hand. She landed and held the blade at the ready. Her form was sloppy, revealing her lack of training. Scorpion looked at her and barely managed to restrain his laughter. This would be too easy.
‘Here I thought she would be more prepared like all those years ago… strange.’ He set his suspicions aside he got into a fighting stance, and beckoned her to make the first move. Cadance gripped her sword and slashed at his chest. Scorpion easily dodged and quickly disarmed her. “Is this some kind of joke?” he asked as he swept her legs out from under her, causing her to fall to the ground. Once again, he set his arms ablaze and prepared to burn the one he perceived as his archenemy. He planted his boot on her chest and was about to do what he’d been waiting for since the day he was encased in crystal...
Unbeknownst to both him and Cadance, Twilight Sparkle had been watching them silently the whole time. She had meant to intervene, but right when she opened her mouth to do so her brother’s shield was shattered and the intense feedback almost caused her to black out and greatly weakened her. She had just regained enough energy to trust herself to call out.
“W-wait!” She yelled just loud enough for the fiery figure to hear. She was surprised when he paid attention and turned to face her.
“And why should I?” he asked impatiently.
“Because she’s not the Crystal Empress!” Twilight called in a shaky voice, still weak. “The Crystal Empress was killed by Sombra, just under a thousand years ago. The one you have at your mercy is Cadance, Princess of Love.”
Suddenly everything was making a lot more sense to Scorpion. The Crystal Empress, from what he could remember, had a certain aura about her, one of cold authority and hidden motherly instinct toward her subjects. This pony, Cadance as she was apparently called, was nothing like that. In addition to the fact that she apparently had no combat prowess to speak of while the Crystal Empress had clearly been much the opposite, her aura was teeming with love for all ponies, even those she didn’t know. Even a being such as Scorpion himself.
“And this Sombra, what is his goal?” Scorpion asked. He had a feeling, but he had to be sure…
“He seeks to take the Crystal Empire as his own,” Cadance answered. “He will do this by destroying the Crystal Heart. Either that or corrupting it with his magic. And by the looks of it, he’s almost done. We WERE meant to stop him, but then you intervened. Now the Empire is doomed.”
[Scorpion P.O.V.]
Finally I realized what was going on.
Sombra--the one who I’d thought was my saving grace--the one I had so idiotically trusted--had played me like a fiddle.
He had tried to trick me into almost killing an innocent mare.
I was FURIOUS.
“SOMBRA!” I called out. The writhing mass of shadow that was beginning to take the shape of a unicorn stallion looked at me, shocked. “I TRUSTED YOU! I WAS STUPID ENOUGH TO TRUST YOU, AND YOU LIED TO ME! NOW YOU WILL BURN!”
The arrogant prick only looked amused. He solidified and floated down and stood before me. His skin was a sickly gray, his wicked, curved horn blood-red. He conjured a sword made of black magic and pointed it at me as a challenge. He chuckled a bit, and smugly said, “Try me.”
“And I never had any intention of helping you. Besides, I defeated the Empress in combat, something I recall you failed to do,” he taunted as the shadows forming around him created another weapon--an axe--in his other hand. “What hope do you have against me?” Sombra asked as he disappeared and reappeared swinging his axe. I dodge at the last second, alarmed at how close it came to taking my head off.
“You’d be surprised,” I said as I fired my spear at his chest. It flew straight and true, and due to its weight and momentum, when Sombra tried to parry it, he failed, and the kunai buried itself in his chest up to the loop that attaches the blade to the chain. Instead of blood, black smoke oozed from his wound.
He growled, seeming to be more annoyed than hurt. “GET OVER HERE!” I yelled as I yanked back, bringing him close. When he was in front of me, taking a moment to recover, I gave him an uppercut to the jaw, the impact sending him flying.
The landing shocked him, and he took a moment to pick himself up. Every moment he wasn’t trying to hit me gave me an opening, and I capitalized on that. While he was getting up, I conjured flames below him and set him alight. He screamed in agony and fell back to the ground. Unfortunately, these weren’t my best flames--I was trying to save my power--so they went out quickly.
Sombra didn’t bother trying to stand up this time. He just vanished in a poof of black smoke, then reappeared standing up, a look of rage on his face.
The message was clear: he was done playing around.
Good. So was I.
Two dark tendrils shot out from his back and into the ground, causing dark crystals to spring up all around us, forming an impromptu arena. Another two shot out and went to me and two more followed them. The ground below my feet turned to crystal, preventing me from sidestepping.
Sombra was trying to seal me in and make it so that he could take his sweet time with me. However, he neglected one very important detail.
He began casually walking toward me, sword in one hand, axe in the other. He threw the sword at me as though it were a javelin, and just before it impaled me, I teleported behind him, leaving a small, fiery vortex where my body had been, and punched him in the back of his head. Hard.
His body flew into the crystals he’d tried to use to trap me, and was cut up quite badly by the sharp edges. Some of the points broke off and embedded themselves in his skin, causing more smoke to ooze from his body.
Again he disappeared in a poof of smoke and reappeared before me. He conjured his weapons and threw them both, the sword flying straight, the axe whirling end-over-end. Instead of teleporting, this time I drew my swords and simply blocked, causing the weapons to fall, disintegrating into black smoke just before hitting the ground. I was growing tired of this fight, so I simply lunged at Sombra and slashed him diagonally with both swords, drawing an ‘X’ across his chest.
Then, apropos of nothing, he started laughing a deranged, sick laugh. Looking very much worse for wear and about to fall over, a mad gleam in his eyes, Sombra teleported away in a poof of black smoke and didn’t reappear where we could see him.
“I must admit you do put up a good fight, but here’s the thing.” The shadows on the ground moved up, taking form. Soon I was surrounded by a dozen clones of Sombra, each armed with a sword. “I am not the run-of-the-mill pony opponent,” they all said at the same time in his voice
Author's Note
Things escalate!
Let me know if you find any errors!
Also make sure you give NewUnitedEmpire some love!
