The Equestrian Double Gamble

~Summer~

As FC and I headed back, I caught sight of a few ponies, but we were still far enough away from town that there weren’t too many. Still, those we saw freaked out a bit at seeing a dragon pony and changeling just outside of town and ran for their lives.

“Looks like we might have to deal with the Mane Six or the Royal Guard sooner than we thought.”  FC said with a sigh.

“Don’t worry, I got a silver tongue. There’s a lot I can say to keep them from attacking.” I assured. “Well, assuming Rainbow doesn’t just strike the instant she sees us, in which case it might be tougher.”

“Well, that is most likely to happen.  Remember, her good dreams are about beating the snarf out of changelings.  I remember that from ‘Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep’.  I just want to get some lunch right now.  If they find us during lunch, we could always mess with their minds instead.”  FC replied.

“Nah. Screwing with their heads will just give us bad first impressions. I’m thinking if they do attack without question, we can just turn it into a friendly spar. Might be fun.” I said, already imagining keeping up with Rainbow blow for blow. “Of course, when we win, we just offer them a hoof to help them get back up and congratulate them on a good fight. Might stun them a bit.”

“Well, maybe...Hey, I found out I still have my pocket space!  Let’s see, I still have gems in here and blocks.  So we have payment of lunch taken care of.”  FC replied, kind of surprising though he had a pocket space which he could hold stuff in.

“Huh. Well then… You know how much it holds? Just curious since I’ve got one too, loaded up with just my Crescent Rose. And that’s all it can carry.” I asked.

“Yeah, if I remember right, I made this before I became a brony and was into Minecraft a lot.  It use a gem as an anchor point, but the way the gem was created caused a glitch in it, cauisng it to have infinite space like Kirby’s stomach, but also had the ability to duplicate certain types of items like building materials.  I was self sufficient, which meant I gathered all the materials on my own, including mining and smelting the actual materials.  Let’s just say I was the ultimate Minecraft player, when it came to integrating mods into my ideas.”  He said.

“Impressive. Guess we can make our own place later. I’d like to see what you can do, since… well, honestly, I suck at building. I’m better with function than design.” I replied, semi-amused.

“I liked to combine function with design.  I mean, I made the Rainbow Factory while listening to said song on a 10 hour loop in the Attack of the B-Team modpack.  Heck, I even worked on making bases for some of the others in the same modpack. But considering we are all versions combined, that may mean locations have popped up too.  During the RP we were in before, after you left, I came up with the idea of an abandoned settlement that used to be a colony of where I came from that was hidden in the Everfree Forest.  But I would still prefer to build our own house.”  FC replied with some pride.  And that pride was delicious.

“That’d be nice. But uh… I’d rather not go into the forest again anytime soon. Geists are freaky as fuck.” I replied.

“Wait, why are all those ponies running this way? Summer, I got a bad feeling about this. Get on my back, we need to get there fast.”  FC said as he lowered himself so I could get on his back. I hopped on, clinging tightly to him as he took off. As we got close we could see something.  It was the Mane Six fighting something, and by the looks of it, they were getting their flanks handed to them.  I didn’t know what the creature was until FC said it. “Shit, it’s a Geist Lord!”

“Alright. Negotiable, or no mercy?” I asked, pulling out my Crescent Rose with a Gravity Round loaded into it.

“Diplomacy is off the table when it comes to Geist Lords.  They are Geists who have been corrupted by Taint Magic, which makes anything it infects turn extremely aggressive to the point that death is the only mercy to free them from the Taint.”  FC said with a grim expression.  I could tell he did not like killing unless it was the only option left. I however was far less apprehensive about it, something which showed in my gleeful smile.

“Then let’s take it down.” I said, before firing my gravity round, launching me off of FC’s back and straight at the Geist Lord. I swung hard, hoping to cleave at least something off of it as I passed over its head.  It did leave a chunk missing, but it seemed to grow back.  Then I heard FC call out.

“LEROY JENKINS!”  I looked up and saw him hurtling down at the creature, covered in coldfire like a meteor.  I saw the Mane Six move quickly away from it, and decided to get out of the way too as he slammed into it.  It was dazed, so it was the perfect opportunity to strike. Without hesitation, I fired off another gravity round to throw myself at it again, this time aiming to impale it in the head as I charged up a strong fire blast in my horn. It cut right into the creature’s head, causing it to let out ear-piercing scream of pain.  I saw FC charge at it, but it backhanded him into a destroyed building. I punished its split focus instead of crying out in worry though, unleashing my fire blast into its face and aiming down its throat.

~FC~

That fucking hurt!  I looked around inside the destroyed building and what I saw made my blood run cold.  There were dead ponies, and the shadowfire lingering on them and the cut wounds told me that the Geist Lord was responsible for this.  Something in me just snapped. I was sad about killing the Geist Lord before, but now, there was no mercy left.  I felt my rage begin boiling inside me, and with it, Darkness pulsed in my veins. The Geist Lord was about to have a bad time.

(cue Waters of Megalovania)

~Summer~

I heard a loud shriek.  It sound like a changeling, but it seemed more angry and dark. Then a black blur burst out of where FC had crashed into.  It hit the Geist Lord like a freight train, dislodging my blade from its head.  I turned to see what had caused it, and what I saw freaked me out in similar, yet different way Geists did.  It looked like FC, but it was black, the wings and tail were different, the hair went from black to light grey instead of black to blonde, and the eyes were a solid sky blue.  The black made it hard to see the edges of it, like I was looking into a void, the wings like true dragon wings, and the tail didn’t look like a pony tail, but instead was like a dragon tail, with several sharp spikes on the end and two large ones that looked for slicing.  It was unnerving to look at.  Then pure black tentacles came out of it, like some eldritch horror. I stared for a moment, before realizing what I was looking at.

“...I can work with this.” I stated, more to myself than anything.

“Could somepony PLEASE tell me what the BUCK is GOING ON?!” Twilight shouted in fear as she stared at FC too.

“Very crazy things!” I shouted before rejoining the fray, launching myself with yet another Gravity round. I took note of that one being my third in the six-round clip.

FC let out a literal mental barrage, and by the looks of the Mane Six holding their ears, they heard it too.  He rapidly slashed at the Geist Lord, his claws and tail leaving deep wounds and bits of bone flew off of it. I myself sliced away at its eye, inflicting blindness and massive pain to it with my own flurry of attacks. Hearing that there was a dead child among this thing’s victims brought up a primal rage in me that increased my wrath tenfold.  Then I saw FC bring his tail down right on the creature’s head, cleaving it, and saw its eye go dark.  It stopped floating in the air and fell, unmoving. Then in a flash of particles from the Assassin’s Creed Loading screens, there was no trace of it.

The Mane Six walked up to me and FC. “Who are you two?” Twilight asked… no, demanded, fear making her voice quiver.

“My name’s Summer Dash, and this is FC. No need to worry about us, we aren’t here to hurt you.” I told them.

“Yeah right, that’s what they all say.” Rainbow challenged, clearly not believing me.

“Then here, let me prove it.” I challenged back. In just a few swift motions, I switched out the Gravity clip on my Crescent Rose for a Fire clip, and aimed it at her. “If we wanted to hurt you, you’d already be dead. The reason you’re not, is simply because we aren’t genocidal maniacs. We want friends, not enemies.” With that said, I put up the weapon. They had all paled in fear at me, taking a step back. Putting back on a cheerful smile, I offered them my hoof. “Now then, how about we actually settle down and talk things out?”

“Yes, talking would be much more preferable.” Rarity agreed, looking pretty stunned by my rapid transition between hostile and friendly. I felt someone poking my mane, and turned to see Pinkie curiously looking at me.

“...What are you doing?” I asked, slightly disturbed by the way her face held no expression.

“Why isn’t your mane changing with your mood? You seem to be like me, emotion wise…” she asked. I stared at her for a second. Then I used my changeling magic to turn into her.

“I dunno, Pinkie. Is this better?” I asked. Pinkie blinked and looked up… and up, and up, and fell over. Did I forget to mention I had made my mane about ten or twenty times as puffy. Rainbow laughed at that, dropping out of the air for a bit. I smiled, happy to have removed the tense atmosphere, before turning back.

FC came up beside, now back to normal, but I had some questions about that form he used, but that could wait later. “I am going to check for any wounded in any of the other destroyed buildings.”  He said before going off. Fluttershy was quick to follow him, clearly concerned as well.

“Oh! W-wait for me!” she softly called out, fluttering after him. I watched her go for a minute, before turning to the rest.

“So, uh… anyone up for lunch? The Geist Lord kinda interrupted that.” I asked.

~FC~

I worked through the rubble, avoiding the house I crashed into.  Seeing those ponies murdered like that helped remind me what we were fighting against.  But since Fluttershy decided to come along, I avoided it because her seeing that would have probably given her a heart attack.  So far, I haven’t found anymore ponies who were killed, plenty of wounded.  It seems the paramedics were taking their time to arrive.  I found a earth pony mare with lacerations on her hind legs, so I had to carry her out.  Fluttershy had found a young unicorn colt whose horn had been broken.  There weren’t many wounded, so I guess a lot got away from the monster.  I lowered the mare to the ground once we got out of the wreckage, making sure not to aggravate the wound.

When Fluttershy brought over the colt though, it looked like that horn couldn’t be healed normally, and I saw that she could see that too. “I can heal his horn, but just don’t freak out at what I am about to do.”

“O-okay…” She hesitantly agreed.

With that, I bit down on one of my forehooves, puncturing the bottom of it, so the blood could come up.  I then put my forehoof to the colt’s horn, using the other to hold the broken piece to the rest of it.  I focused, the blood wrapping around the breaking point before seeping in and sealing it together, the horn fixed, like nothing ever happened.  I sat down, a little bit tired out.  The colt hugged me and said thank you.  I gave him a warm smile, despite being tired out.

“O-o-oh… m-my….” Fluttershy whimpered at the sight of my blood though. Next thing I heard was a thud as she fainted.

“Oh, buck.” I simply said.  Then the paramedics arrived, taking the injured earth pony mare to heal her.  I told them about the dead ponies before they left to look for more survivors.  With that, I decided to join back up with Summer.  I carried Fluttershy on my back as I made my way back and used a Mind Speak spell I had learned.  <Hey Summer, where are you at?>

 Summer giggled over the connection.

<Okay, I will be right there. Fluttershy fainted when she saw me use my otherhealing factor.  You know, the one that I can heal others with my blood if I bite my hoof?>

 she said, taking a serious tone.

<Thanks.  Also, are you surprised that I am using something besides the Hive Mind to communicate to you this way?> I said with a smirk.

 she asked, surprised.

<Yep, It is called a Mind Speak spell.  I tend to use it in my dragon form or other forms that have trouble speaking vocally.  You kind of got a taste of it when I went Darkling form on the Geist Lord.  It is also good for throwing your voice somewhere.>

<That would be Darkling form.  Back home, I made it to be used in a RP called “Project Restart”. Basically, it involved creatures called Darklings, which were creatures of darkness that had a hive structure.  They came in a meteor, and they kind of traveled from planet to planet, like a swarm of locusts.  They almost devastated Equestria, which kind of forced ponies and changelings to make an alliance and escape to space, making a Lunar Base.  These creatures could only be hurt by weaponizing white light.  They did have a queen, but the main villain was a male darkling that was extremely powerful and took on the form of a pure black alicorn.  He was called the Fearling.  He kind of turned me into this.  You know the Greek legend of Prometheus, mostly the punishment actually?>

 Summer said, and I caught the impression of a blush from the link.

<His punishment was that he was chained to a rock and an eagle would eat his liver from his body every morning and it would grow back.  The Darklings used my healing factor against me.  They used me as a renewable food source.  The ate my innards to survive when they couldn’t catch any ponies to eat.  The Fearling ate my heart, gaining my healing factor somehow, and caused it to be weakened, and some of the darklings took my innards to their queen, causing new varieties of darklings to be born from some of my powers, causing me to lose them.  I escaped, and after awhile, I had sacrificed myself to save some of my friends from one of the varieties caused by my pain.  An Alpha Hunterling, a large angry version of a certain darkling type that could detach their body parts and throw them at their enemies.  It had the power of my strength.  I woke up and ate the remains of the Alpha Hunterling, as there was no other food to help heal me.  The Fearling used the newly ingested Darkling blood to turn me into a darkling.  He nearly made me kill my friends, but I broke free of his control.  I hunted down one of each darkling mutation and got my powers back, except for my healing.  I had to kill the Fearling for that.  That is the story of how I got my Darkling form.  It seems to happen when I get extremely angry or protective of my friends.>

 I felt her shudder through the connection.

<That is the downside actually.  It didn’t happen to me, but I became the one who it happened to, memories and all.  That might be the downside of getting all versions of the character, you get all their emotional baggage, but sometimes it helps make them into a better person.>

 Summer said bluntly.