Viventis Anathema - Story of a Cursed Mare

As Grimwood continued her hunt for the one who had created the disguising monsters called Homunghouls, she arrived at Sweet Apple Acre, where the apples were almost rotten. The farm looked really forsaken. But more than that, it looked wrecked. That made Grimwood think of an attack.

"I wonder what kind of crude things would had happened here," Grimwood said.

"HALT!" Said a powerful voice from behind her.

Grimwood turned to see who was and saw two unicorn Royal Guards standing in a fighting stance. Grimwood looked annoyed for that, knowing what that was going.

"You are still going to arrest me?" Grimwood asked. "At a time like this?"

"Not this time," the Royal Guard said. "At a time like this we are going to execute you for having put the curse on the entire Equestria."

"I have WHAT!?" Grimwood flinched.

"That's right! You were cause of all of this and we are going to end you!" Another guard said.

"What proof have that-"

"That won't be your concern. Now DIE!!!" The Royal Guard roared.

The two unicorns does the same. The three unicorns briefly flared their horns, intended to use their magic against her. But their action was crudely interrupted by metal spear coming from behind them piercing their brains. The magic dissipated from their horns since the unicorns were already killed by that unexpected attack.

Grimwood was physically surprised this time. She struggled to understand what's happening. One thing can be sure: That is not normal magic-

The spears withdrawed and dissolved into the nothingness. The unicorns' dead bodies collapsed to the ground, revealing a pony being behind them.

A mare was standing in front of Grimwood, wearing her pink bronze armor with her helmet leaving her mouth uncovered.
Grimwood became slightly nervous as she struggled to remain calm. She didn't expected to be save, and, most of all, not like this.

She regained her calm a little and studied the armored pony in front of her. She could see the piercing gaze passing through the smallest bars of the helmet's metallic beak shape visor and going toward her eyes. This intensity was manifesting a tranquil ruthlessness coming from them.

Grimwood could feel them piercing her mental concentration. But she wasn't scared at all. She was just annoyed.

"Look, i don't know why you saved my life, but not get me wrong. You will follow the other
Homunghouls that i have killed until now." said Grimwood.

"Grimwood." said unperturbed the armored mare. "Are you trying to provoke the Homunghoul maker and her forces with that crime of yours? You will not survive their encounter."

"Huh?"

"I know that they were targeting you since Fluttershy assaulted your home. But you cannot expect to win this carnage."

"Are you some undead creature trying to prented to be a good guy?"

"I just pretend that you didn't asked a stupid question like that."

"Hmph... You call her defeat and burial crime? Are you serious? I saw what happened to her and yet this is a crime for you lot?"

Grimwood paused a little, glaring at her in sign of challenge.

"And if i am the culprit behind her death, what're you gonna do about it eh?! Kill me?!"

Grimwood then gestured to her as a provocation.

"Well bring it, armored bastard!"

"The name "Nemesis" would be fine. Besides, you are going to sign a death warranting without even considering about some other possibility."

"Oh?"

"Not that i was expecting anything anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"I learned that you had somehow managed to take down the entire Rainbow Sanctuary by yourself. However, i absteined from give in to such expectation. I am very disappointed with your condition, after all you are only a common delinquent. You're nowhere near as imposing as the rumors say."

Grimwood pulled out her long giant chainsaw from her bag. She stood up on her hind legs and pulled the starting cord to revving it up before pointing it toward Nemesis while looking at her with a aggressive gaze.

"Do you really want to do it?" asked Grimwood with a intimidating tone.

"Before i kill you, i'd like to ask one thing."

"You better hurry."

"What makes you thing that you have some possibility against me?"

"?"

"The difference in power... Should have been evident before. Yet you still try to fight me... I won't even try to warn you. But consider that the Homunghoul maker has many allies and you were also wanted because the Royal Guards think you cursed Equestria. You will not always come out victorious, which means that at some point you will die."

Grimwood lowered her revving chainsaw and studied her opponent. Her motivations were really vague. Were wasn't a single psychotic emphasis in her words. But her murderous instict was present, made evident by her unperturbed eyes filtering through her helmet, though that her glance was a calmer one, completely devoid of bloodlust as her thoughs were deviated to something else.

Grimwood wasn't even sure about what she wants from her, much to her increased annoyance.

"It ain't about wheter i'm able to match you or not." said Grimwood. "I just that you, a Homunghoul, suddenly decided to show and kill your disguised comrades... because you wanted to take on me. Isn't your action a act of deception?"

"Believe to whatever you want."

"No, you had to explain yourself. What do you want from me?"

"That's uninportant now. It's not like you'll have your answer, i mean you're going to die here after all."

Irritated by her behavior, Grimwood furiosly charged toward Nemesis with her chainsaw.

"If that's so, i'll just force you to tell me!" yelled Grimwood.

Nemesis makes a smirk in response to her sudden attack, interpretating it as a act of stupidity.

"Hmph. Bring it!" replied gleefuly Nemesis before she stood up in bipedal position.

Before Grimwood could reach her, Nemesis pointed her hoof toward her as metalic mist was coming out of her skin before assuming the form of a solid, sharpened metal spear that lengthens toward the mare.

Grimwood instantly rolled away from the it's trajectory. The spear then withdrawed and dissipated into it's liquid form as another one tooked it's place, already lengthening toward the violet mare. Grimwood continued to roll in circle around Nemesis, avoiding the spear barrage she was throwingat her. Sick and tired to being targeted by it, Grimwood dashed toward Nemesis while dodging the last lengthening spear and tried cut her down.

Nemesis dodged the blow as the metal spear withdrawed inside her hoof. The armored pony and emanated her metallic mist from her skin once more, this time creating a large club replacing her right hoof.

Since Nemesis was near to Grimwood, she quickly delivered a horizontal swing in a squatted lunge with it, confident that she will crush the violet mare with one hit. But Grimwood instantly performed a high jump before the blow could even connect and dived upon Nemesis, trying to shredd her up in a slashing drop, much to her surprise.

"Bastard! How can you even move that faster with a heavy weapon like that!?" exclaimed Nemesis in her mind.

"DON'T LOOK DOWN ON ME, BITCH!" screamed Grimwood.

Nemesis backstepped far away, avoiding herself from being sliced and shredded by the falling attack, resulting her chainsaw to slam against the ground as the mare landed.

The armored pony transforms her left hoof into a pickaxe and swings it toward Grimwood just when she was regaining her balance. The mare bended herself backwards a little bit and avoided her attack. Nemesis forces her large club and pickaxe to dissolve themeselves into their metallic liquid form and backstepped again as the metal mist returned inside her body.

The armored pony remained still, trying to study her opponent before she started to attack again. Nemesis wasn't expecting this innatural fighting ability coming out from a earth mare, and, most of all, not such ferocity she was displaying in that moment.

Nemesis turned her hooves into large swords and dashed toward Grimwood, already attacking her with a relentless sword dance, trying to slashing her. Grimwood was parrying the cutting barrage that undead mare was throwing at her with her chainsaw.

The violet mare started to fight back and performed a horizontal swing with her giant chainsaw. Nemesis ducked, dodging that blow, and lunged toward Grimwood in a attempt to stab her face with her left sword. Grimwood moved her head away from the attack and prevented her brain from being destroyed, but she could feel the dreadful sensation that this attack is going to be followed up.

She could see the sword dissipating into the metal mist and returning inside the armored pony's body, restoring her left hoof to normal. Grimwood turned her eyes to Nemesis' other sword returning to be her right hoof, only for it to immidiately transforms into a giant axe, already going to chop her down with a overhead smash.

"WHOAA!" exclaimed Grimwood as she tried to parry the attack with the chainsaw while trying to
cut down the axe.

The enormous pressure exercized by the giant axe was almost crushing her. Grimwood struggled to stand still as she pushed her chainsaw against it's giant metallic blade with all of her strenght while trying to cut it down. But the giant axe doesn't seem to show any damage.

Grimwood couldn't help, but feel awfully surprised as the giant axe seemed to be impervious to the giant chainsaw's revving blades.

"I cannot cut through that axe! How resistent is that thing?" said shocked Grimwood.

"What a disappointment." said Nemesis with a grim tone.

As Nemesis continued to press her axe against Grimwood's chainsaw, she turned her left hooves into a metal lance and thrusts it toward her. Grimwood performed a long jump backwards, avoiding both the lance and the giant axe the hit her, resulting the second weapon to stab the ground. Grimwood could exploit this moment to counter attack, but then a sudden rattling noise coming from her weapon prevented her to do so.

Her chainsaw is stil revving, but the rattling noise keep reverberating through it, and the blades seems to be very worn down. Grimwood became really nervous about it's conditions, and she was right. This timing cannot be good, especially since Nemesis had already pulled her giant axe out of the ground and dissolved her lance.

"T-that is disgusting..." said incredulous Grimwood. "That it's a shitty moment to start cracking!"

"Your long giant chainsaw is breaking." said Nemesis. "I'm not that predictable like your previous victims. You should had died peacefuly. That is the price of your stupidity. The metal that now resides inmy bloodstream is known as Belgentum. It come from the ruins of the former Crystal Empire. I guess that what i told you about you being no match for me was right."

"Tch!"

"Normally, somepony sane in his mind would give up, but i'm sure that is not you case. Figures."

"I have not intention to let you win, you know."

Upon hearing that words, Nemesis looked at Grimwood with a disgusted glance.

"You must be literally naive to think that you can take on the maker like that. You cannot even
defeat me. T... To think i'd end up facing such an idiot...! Enough, i'll just finish you off now...!"

After that, Nemesis rotated the blade of her giant axe and immidiately performed a huge horizontal
swing to give the coup de grace to Grimwood.

Despite her chainsaw being battered, the violet mare quickly dodged the blow with a squatted
lunge toward Nemesis and managed to cut the non metal covered part of her right hoof with vertical
slice from below, amputating it for good, resulting her giant axe to fall to the ground with
the attached said hoof.

"GYAAAAAA!"

Nemesis screamed in pain as her blood spured from the severed bone of her cutted hoof. But she wasn't just
staggered by pain, but shocked as well. She wasn't expecting this unequine ability to react.

Grimwood was going to finish her off with a horizontal swing.

But before this could happen, Nemesis mustered all her strenght while she clenched her teeth
to ignore the horrible burning pain, and thrusted her bleeding, severed part at Grimwood
as liquid metal came out from it, mixing with her blood, and creates a metallic spear
that instantly stretched toward Grimwood, piercing through her chest.

Grimwood's face contorted in pain and her eyes widened in shocked surprise. She wasn't expecting
that coming. She loosed her grip on the handles of her chainsaw, making it falling to the ground.

Blood was coming out from her mouth and her sight was starting to blurr, slowly.

Nemesis withdrawed her metal spear and made it dissipate in the liquid form before returning
it inside her body, resulting Grimwood to fall violently to the ground.

Her body started to convulsing as her blood was gushing out from both the pierced sides. Grimwood cannot even
tell if her heart was pierced of not because it was still beating in a very slow rythim.

She forced herself to rise her head toward Nemesis' covered face while struggling to not loose her
consciousness.

Nemesis looked at the bleeding violet mare for a moment and then grabbed her own right hoof attached
to the giant axe, that dissolved into the metal liquid and returned inside her body after being
in contact with her.

"Maybe i had indeed understimated you. You were indeed some sort of innatural monster, and yet you seemed
to much natural." said irritated Nemesis. "I had thought that, sore Grimwood, you were just a small fry.
I was naive. And, while it angers me, it is not you i am angry with... rather my own misjudgement. I shall
take this wound as a warning."

Grimwood was barely listening as her hearing and sight started to falter. Her consciousness was fading away
in response to her bloodloss.

Nemesis put her severed hoof nearby her cut part and concentrated her eyes into that point until it
started to weld itself, regenerating before Grimwood's eyes. This left her speechless.

"Not even think that the Homunghouls and their maker will play by the rules. You will encounter
pretty much everything that would have the pontential to kill you." said Nemesis.

"Y... You..! Guuurgh!" said weakly Grimwood as she coughed blood from her mouth.

"I will leave you with this handicap. I hope that you can settle the score with her, if you can
survive this... Goodbye."

After that, Nemesis returned into her four legged position and turned around before walking, leaving
Grimwood to her eventual demise.

As the violet mare forced herself to crawl, her consciousness was immidiately sinked into the
dark as she passed out.