Dormitabis

If there was ever an image or scenario you could associate with the word: Hell, what would it be?

Would it be the interpreted vision many believe you face after you die?

Would it be the fire that greets you after your retribution and penance is served?

Or perhaps it's seeing something that you love vanish before your eyes, while everything and everyone around you strays away. You are alone... You are in nothing but a wasteland, living only to survive, not thrive.

For one, there is nothing he could associate the word with more than watching the very home he grew up in burn, as the people he walked among its ground with be slaughtered and enslaved. All around him, buildings crumble and burn while two warring factions destroy one another down in the streets.

It's maddening, seeing all of this, and feeling every ounce of pain from it, only mere hours after witnessing the death of a family.

One could say the situation is ridiculous.

A child, no older than fifteen, and barely a teenager, leading a revolution against a controlling organization that destroyed the peace and tranquility of a nation split into four districts.

And that very same child able to use everything to learn, and grow too quickly for his own health only to fight another perhaps a year or two older than him. It was preposterous...

And yet, here we are, amongst the very institution of creativity and unity that started it all.

The sound of rain beating down on concrete and glass was heavy as a raging storm passed over a smoke-spewing city of fire and brimstone. Through the storm, screams and battle cries littered the streets. Each and every block had at least one or two creatures fighting each other, using primitive and advanced techniques to draw blood and gouge their lives away.

On one side, an armada of soldiers and people enhanced with cyber-like technology and metal attempting to retain control over the land.

On the other, a band of tribesmen and crime families rising up to desperately take back their home.

And in the midst of it all, on top of that very same institution, the leaders, the two intelligent children, stood, using the same weaponry to bring this attrition to an end. Their battle held the most tension. Back and forth they went, trading blows and fighting restlessly to get the advantage. One moment ahead, and the next behind.

When they finally had the moment to catch a breath, the Controller had the Inventor held high into the air, his hand clasped around his throat.

"Your struggle is pointless... We have already won..."

The Controller's crimson eyes glared up at the blazer-clad teenager, squeezing his throat as his adversary grasped onto his wrist in vain. Adorned on the Controller was some sort of suit. Streams of metal and wire that connected together and powered some sort of generator on his back. With the Inventor, his arms had various things strapped to them, all combined to pull back and release large gusts of pressure via the pistons that would shoot forward.

Both weapons were worn and used, their chipped edges and rough damage showing that this battle had gone on well into the night.

"The vulnerable stare your nation was in now only invited an attack."

The Controller turned the Inventor towards the burning city, the two of them looking out at the glowing orange hues of the fire.

"While your focus has been on saving your home, my forces have already acted and accumulated themselves within every major governmental power on this planet. They are near to completing their assigned tasks, and once they've reported back, the combined force of all military powers will be unleashed, and the Predonum's true purpose will be fulfilled..."

He turned the Inventor back to him.

"With no one left to challenge my organization, there will be no more wars. Everything will bend to my heel, and we will all live under one major superpower. Security, and a future, over pointless freedom."

The Inventor squinted open his eyes, his hazel-blue orbs looking down at the Controller's crimson ones. Subtly bringing his arm up, he let the makeshift gauntlet on his left arm pulse forward, sending a torrent of compressed air at his face. With a short stagger, the Controller's grip was loosened, allowing the Inventor to kick himself free and slide away from the newest leader of the Predonum. Rubbing his throat, and coughing out the blood scratched out from his larynx, he repositioned his glasses.

"Your ambition won't come to pass! I won't let others suffer the same way I did!"

He grasped the homemade weapons on his arms, tightening them as he clenched his fists.

"I'm willing to risk EVERYTHING to stop you!"

The Controller's glare hardened as he took off his tailcoat, the seventeen-year old tossing it aside to reveal more of the metallic, technological suit underneath.

"Then face me! One! Last! Time!"

As this nation raged with war and violence, another within a separate plain of reality altogether was quiet. The air was brisk, just barely coming out of Winter and into Spring. The wildlife was beginning to arise from their hibernation, and the residents of this said nation were beginning to become active outside once more, cleaning up the mess of Winter and readying themselves for the warm weather once more.

This nation was one of many oddities, and different names as well. The Kingdom of Harmony is said to be the central reference to this country called Equestria.

This Kingdom was not managed by the same creatures the Controller and the Inventor were a part of. These techno-colored beings took on a more... animalistic image. Equine features graced their images, and their species is known by many as Ponies. They were not exclusive to this, as other countries outside of Equestria had species that resembled, talked, and organized like human beings, but showed reptilian, avian, and hybrid traces of mythical entities. Within the Kingdom, Ponies worked together to achieve the harmony Equestria was supposed to be known for. For hundreds of years, maybe even more, they have come together to make a diligent effort, even after the latest plague wiped out an entire sex from their history.

Yes, this planet was known to only show signs of female intelligence. The male populace of these Ponies, Dragons, Griffons, and so forth died upon a plague twelve centuries before the modern day. Despite this, they had the tools to recover. An arcane means of survival that was learned, mastered, and shared to everyone across the planet.

Magic.

Using this, the creatures were reproduced in same sex marriages, the mixture of two organisms' magical makeup producing offspring just the same as if it were the natural way. This is how they survived. All of them.

But two monarchs were unhappy, unsatisfied. They wished for the next era of Equestria to be theirs to lead. Quite frankly, they really wanted to rule the Kingdom altogether, biding their time to formulate the perfect plan, and after decades of planning, they may have just found a way.

One of them, disguised under a white coat of fur and a golden regal dress and ornament, pointed her finger at the grass before her. The horn that jutted out of the top of her forehead, a trait unique to the Unicorn race of Ponies here in Equestria, glowed an ominous golden-green. The magic ran down to the female amazon's finger and she began to trace a shape.

First a circle, then a line through the middle, and finally a letter written in the olden style of language.

The other monarch, whom cast a heavy smog with her natural shadows, illuminated her horn a ghastly, and haunting, cobalt blue. Pouring the energy into the circle, the grass around it began to glow, and the trace began to sizzle. Their plan was going smoothly thus far.

Now, all they needed to do, was wait.

The Inventor launched himself forward once again, having been knocked back by the Controller's impeccable defense. That suit he was wearing was enhancing his movement and agility while also strengthening his punches and kicks.

The Inventor cursed himself for not having picked one of these suits from the many factories he's led the revolution of tribesmen and crime families towards. Maybe, if he had one of them, and tinkered with it, he could have combined it with everything he had and knew, and defeated the Controller with ease.

But he can't dwell on that now. He was here, and he wasn't going anywhere. it's either fight or die, and the Inventor didn't see any way to analyze the Controller's fight pattern and retreat for a tactical advantage. All he had for the weapons he's already made and strapped to his forearms, and that was fine.

Pressurized punches were better than normal ones.

Throwing his left fist forward with an exerting effort, the pressurized wind flew past the Controller as he sent his own into the Inventor's back. Hitting the roof, then spinning rapidly as he bounced, the Inventor was saved from going off the edge of the skyscraper only by the small ledge that poked up from the side. Shaking his head of the daze, he sat up, glaring back at the Controller as he found him right on top of him, ready to strike again.

Widening his eyes, the Inventor dove back, letting the Controller smash out the ledge while he skidded back to safety. Jumping at each other again, the Inventor's eye glinted as he spotted a shift in the Controller's leg. Stopping himself, he quickly leaped to his right, canceling his opponent's fake-out and pressure-punching him back to the center of the roof. Seeing the Controller recuperating, the Inventor reeled up both his arms, pulling back the pistons on his arms as far as they could go. Slamming them into the roof, the flooring gave way, and the two young men fell with the debris to the level below. The pressure sent by the makeshift weapons, however, flung all the massive chunks of rock towards the Controller.

Bouncing off and kicking through the smaller pieces as he descended, the Controller was left wide open for the Inventor to tackle him in mid-air, taking them over the side of the small skyscraper and sailing towards another building.

Keeping himself on top, the Inventor reeled back his fist again and threw it down, giving the Controller that extra push to slam through several flights of the building next to the Predonum headquarters. Falling after him, he expected his enemy to be buried beneath all that he took down with him, but the knee colliding with his gut told him otherwise. Gagging out a wad of blood as he flew off the second building, the Inventor scraped his foot down the side the Predonum headquarters and bounced off to street level when he was low enough. He would admit, he felt some muscles ache and some bones rattle upon touching down, but as his dad always told him: tuck and roll. It softens the landing... sometimes.

Getting back to his feet, the Inventor looked up, seeing the Controller coming down from the building himself, landing on the other end of the block. Taking a breath, the two of them ran at each other, pouncing off the pavement when they built enough momentum. Bringing them attacks together, their fists collided, and sent a shockwave outwards. Knocked back from the blow themselves, they used what was around them to fling themselves back at each other to keep the fight going. With each pass, another wave of might shook the windows around them. One would punch or kick towards the other, resulting in that wave as they guarded or parried to repost.

The Inventor was the next to strike, but instead of blocking, the Controller ducked to the side, fixing to retaliate while the Inventor was surprised. This turned out to be a moot maneuver, as the Inventor put up his other arm and backpedaled with the hit he took. Keeping his arm up, he awaited the Controller to approach, then punched him into the ground, head-first. Raising up his boot, he hit nothing but dirt as his opponent jumped to the side, then came back to kick him in the jaw. Spinning with the momentum, the Inventor pressure-punched the Controller back once more, and as they were about to collide again, both attacks missed their marks, and accidentally squared them in the face equally.

Flying past each other and crashing either onto a car or into a light post, they were slow to get back up, one of them even fall off the car and onto the ground. Shaking and quivering from the damage taken, the Controller's suit began to spark and fidget with its power on the back while the Inventor had to take off one of the weapons tied to his wrist. Left crippled on both sides, only the Controller had a way to recover from his new disability in the suit.

Opening up a panel on the front, he pressed three buttons on the inside, sending a signal back to the headquarters he ran. Looking up as the last satellite attached to the side lit up with a bright red beacon, power began to transfer like battery life from the building into the Controller's damaged suit, jumpstarting several systems while the Inventor struggled to get onto his feet.

Left on a knee, and unable to continue, he hissed out more blood, dripping it from his lip, as he stared up at the man who ruined his home, his family, and his livelihood. With all that power going into his suit, he knew he couldn't salvage this fight, not now. He had nothing to regenerate his own wounds from, or help him walk and run like the Controller did. He was much more advanced, and that always had the Inventor at the mark of defeat.

Only one in ten different scenarios saw him coming out on top, and when he rolled the dice, it was clear he didn't make the gamble turn to his favor.

With a burst of energy coming from the battery on the back of the suit, the Inventor smacked up against the car behind him, groaning as more red liquid bled from his head.

Slinging himself off the hood, his arm hung over it as he wearily blinked at the Controller, who was now walking towards him with a glowing red mechanical suit encasing his body. The metal had to have been hot. There's no way it wasn't, and yet, it didn't faze his adversary, especially after sustaining all those wounds during the fight they had.

The Controller strode towards him, taking one step at a time slowly as to not push himself. Behind him was his army, the members that blindly followed his ideal of false unity under an iron influence. As he drew near to his last obstacle to the new world, he uttered out with the slightest strain in his voice.

"You never stood a chance to begin with... Not now, nor when you first opposed me."

He ushered around him, once again ushering to the destruction caused by this feud.

"All of your attempts to escape my grasp have failed, just as your attempts to stop me have failed... And now..."

He gently grasped his enemy's shirt, lifting him up into the air.

"You will be buried along with this pathetic revolution."

*SHING-!!!*

A sharp blade shot out from the wrist of the suit that overlapped his knuckle. Tossing the Inventor into the air, the Controller aimed for his head, then struck like a viper.

*SPLETCH-!!!*

The blade dove straight into the Inventor's cranium, carving up his left cheek and barely missing his eye before the steel dug deeper into his skull, just barely grazing his brain by mere millimetres. Despite the shock and trauma... the Inventor lived, and was horrified to, as when he was thrown over the Controller and onto the ground, he couldn't move a muscle, nor even blink correctly. He only watched as they brought forth the leader of the tribe he recruited, restraining her by her arms as the snapped spear she wielded was thrown down beside the Inventor.

The Controller looked her over before chuckling, his laughter rising into hysteria as he zipped to her and gashed the wristblade right through her jugular. Sawing in and out violently as he laughed, the sprinkles of red splashed onto the Inventor's face, his fingers twitching as he tried to do something, anything...!

But it was no use. His body couldn't move. His joints wouldn't respond. He could only lay there, helpless to fend for himself or save anyone else. The tribal woman was yanked free from the blade and slammed onto the ground, her corpse sliding up next to the freedom fighter as the Controller stood victorious over the two of them.

"Ah... I can't think of a more fitting end for you, my adversary. You, who has watched his whole family receive humiliating and painful deaths, follow them to Oblivion. It's funny, really... After all..."

The Controller kicked over the tribal woman's body.

"Is there anything more painful than seeing those you love die?"

The Inventor's eye twitched as the brimming grief and swelling hatred pumped a single ounce of adreniline back into his body. Utilizing his chance, he used his newfound strength to struggle up onto his knees. Grabbing the part of the spear with the bladed tip, the Inventor turned to the Controller, who was walking away with his army in front of him. Seeing the battery on his back, he knew only one way to end this now. If he was going out...

*GASH-!!!*

He was taking the Controller with him.

The army spun around as they heard the creaking of metal and sparking of live and loose wires. High voltage surged from the battery pack on the suit as the bladed tip came out of the Controller's chest. The Inventor couldn't hear much due to the trauma he sustained, but he could swear he heard the sound of the Controller's screams just seconds before his suit exploded, and all that power erupted outwards, eviscerating the army before him, and blasting the Inventor backwards.

*KRRRAAAAA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM-!!!!!!!!!*

"Yes..."

The white amazon felt it. A surge of energy that writhed with a certain level of negativity. An entity, a morsel, that embraced the darkness that they have as well. His feats were impressive... No, they were more than impressive.

They were perfect.

The amazon shrouded in shadows lifted up her hand, feeling that negative air and sensing the accomplishments of their selected target. A cunning soul that has made something from nothing, and was able to band together even the most hardcore of rivaling families. To top that off...

He also won a war, at such a young age.

Both monarchs glanced at each other and grinned. They had found their catalyst. With their wills set on the symbol etched into the grass, they stepped back as the magic they've culminated reached through space, nabbing the soul of this individual, and pulling him here, to their world. The white monarch mad absolutely sure, double and triple checking, that the ritual would work as intended. In order for the utmost minimum resistance, they had to ensure that he remembered nothing from his past. They would forge a story for his origins later, but for now, they had to focus on simply getting him here.

As the ritual was nearly complete, the symbol began to glow more and more brightly. So much so that the entity of shadows had to retreat, and the one covered in white fur put a hand up to block the light.

The aftershock of a devastating explosion came with the creature that they summoned. Such a powerful force of combustion sent even them backwards. Setting up a small barrier, the white amazonian monarch awaited the blast to pass before lowering it and returning her attention to the spot she and her companion cast the forbidden summoning spell.

As per to her instruction, the magic had been cast, and reeled in the subject they so desired.

"How marvelous... The ritual worked...!"

The shadowy mare returned, eyeing the younger, collapsed figure with curious, glowing green eyes.

"Interesting... This creature is quite ancient in the scriptures of Equestria. I remember seeing something like him in the Crystal Empire Archives back when I was still on the throne. I believe they call this thing a... human"

The white mare rose an eyebrow at this, but shook it off as the "human" before her was injured, and bleeding out by the second. Kneeling down in front of it, she lifted up his head, grimacing at a nasty head wound that only the sharpest and finest of blades could cleave. The fact that SHE winced at it was a testimony to how grave and precise the cut was.

"The human is injured. I doubt he will make it back before he withers his life force away."

She summoned a screen in front of her, which aimed at the human's chest and showed his heartbeat. As the minutes went by, the heartbeat slowed with his breathing. The other monarch, watching with curious eyes, had an idea pop in her head.

"We have seen this human's wavelengths, and how much negativity is stored within his mind, his soul, and his heart."

"Yes. And?"

The mist around the mare flowed like a stream towards the human's slack jaw, seeping into his mouth and down his throat. As it sank into his inners and reached his chest, his heart began to glow a bright purple.

"If I can tweak it just right, and give this little morsel the right push,I can turn all that negative emotion into physical magic. His body will heal naturally, and he will be spared of dea-"

*C-CRICK-!!!*

The human's body flinched inward as his body convulsed, his eyes opening and arms pulsating as he began to writhe in place. The white mare, backing away, glared at her companion.

"You fool! What did you do?!"

"W-What is this?! This is not magic! It can't be!"

"My fellow Queen! What have you done?!"

The two backed up again as the prowess the shadow pony unleashed burst from the human's body as a light show of purple and black. Bolts of electrical magic arced from the human as he began to flail and flop around more wildly, his cries of pain turning to gurgling, vibrating howls of growling, like a distorted Timberwolf backed into a corner with a broken leg.

As the human flipped onto his back, his howling turned to a full-blown roar of anger and hatred as the magic the monarch unveiled poked and prodded at his chest. In one swift moment, that power exploded from his chest, sending flesh and some sort of black ooze everywhere.

Not wanting to get it on them, the two royals retreated once again, watching as it all seemed to slither and attach to the young human's body. The said human continued to flip and freak out, gnashing his jaws and slapping the ground with every turn as the ooze covered his body. The more it did, the more it seemed to change. The liquid became some sort of amorphous goo, taking shape around the human as if it were a template. Rows upon rows of teeth, some of which protruding from areas that weren't even inside the human's mouth, made themselves present as the body grew bulkier, and taller. Way, WAY taller.

The white amazon grew slightly fearful and worried as the folly of her companion had not only unlocked, but amplified a series of grief and hate so powerful that it rivaled her own. It showed, because the bigger and stronger those emotions are, the same traits apply to the magic within.

And this thing stood ten feet tall, at least.

"You halfwit! Do you have any idea what you've done?!"

She backed up as the sludge had two misshaped eyes open at the head of the now-humongous abomination.

"Curse you! DAMN you! Because of your mistake, we have to retreat!"

"Retreat? I hardly think so. We can still-"

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!"

The two turned back to the newly-formed beast as it ripped open a mouth onto its face, showing where the rest of the teeth that sank into the ooze went. A long, snake-like tongue lashed out as the creature's body tensed, tendrils spewing from every angle of its upper body.

To be quite honest, such hatred and anger could even scare the two monarchs standing before it.

The two monarchs, without even thinking nor hesitating, turned tail and either seeped through the shadows, or flashed away in a quick blink of a light. They dared not try to capture the human, nor lure him away into their clutches now. The shadow mare's mistake had cost them the chance to renew the long-lost male demographic of their dominion, and thus, they have pull back and rethink their plan.

As for the creature, its gurgling and growls continued as it fell over onto its claws and knees, panting hoarsely as its own body leaked onto the forest floor. For a moment, the human had his mind intact. It felt as if he was still in control, and his body was only covered by a physical representation of his resentment and vexation. When he first saw those claws in front of him... he didn't know what to think.

Then came a sharp pain, like an alarm. Not so much a growl, but a pang, as if you have a headache in your stomach. It was... It was hunger, but not the typical hunger that required food to satiate. This... This required something else.

His mind felt as if it warped, and his attention was drawn to the noises coming from the northern ends of this forest. His mind raced as to the possibilities. Noise equals civilization; civilization means people, and people... people...

"Huuuuuunnnggeeeerrrrr..."

People meant food. The Inventor stood up, struggling slightly with the new weight that has been put into his body as a consequence for the larger mass and muscle. Each step he took forward sounded like a curb stomp someone had to put their all into, and his vision sometimes blurred as he neared the delicious scents of other animals. They smelled... They smelled like horses, but... but they were delectable nonetheless.

His warped mind would enjoy acquiring his food. His tongue snaked out of his horrific maw as he reached the edge of the forest. Staring into the town, he spotted several figures wandering about towards the center of town. What were they? Their figures don't match other humans? They have cute little muzzles, and some were... flying? He even saw horns sticking outta their foreheads.

What the hell was going-

"Huuuunngeeerrrr..."

He felt the pang in his stomach again, this time worse than before, as his misshaped eyes glared forward, his tongue lapping across his teeth as his more sinful urges clouded his vision, and warped his mind further. Taking his first step out of the foliage...

"Feeeeeeeeed..."

He made his way towards the town.