Unbound

A murmur escaped her as Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes again. Her vision was blurry, and her mind was foggy, though she was gradually coming to her senses.

The first thing she consciously saw was a picture of orange-tinted floorboards. She blinked hard and shook her head before looking around. Her friends were all gathered loosely around her, having been knocked clear to the back of the room. Like her, they were all slowly coming to amidst a sea of groans and mumbles.

“What… what happened?” Rainbow Dash croaked, her eyes still heavy and unfocused. She slowly lifted herself up on one foreleg and peered around. As her vision cleared, she joined many of her friends in staring ahead in shock.

They were still in the living room, or at least what was left of it. The broken remnants of the television, couch, and all other decorations were missing. All that remained were the bare walls full of cracks and holes, now letting orange light poke through instead of the pale glow they had grown accustomed to.

“Ngh… is… is everypony okay?” Twilight asked as she took in their new surroundings.

More than just the layout of the room had changed. It was also hot. Almost unbearably hot. The air itself stung their fur, and they were quickly building up a sweat.

Fluttershy didn’t care much about these changes at first. Once her mind was clear enough to remember what had just happened, one thought screamed inside her head.

“Isaac?!” Her eyes darted around the room before settling on the floor ahead.

Isaac was still lying where he was before, and though the cross was missing, its effects lingered. The boy’s eyes were glazed over with crackling static, which was overflowing and running down his face like the tears the group were so used to seeing.

Fluttershy rushed over, gently shook him and called his name. She called it again, not so gently this time, and then again and again. She wrapped her hooves about his ears and shook him violently, sending strings of static flying and hitting her face. The only signs of awareness from Isaac—indeed, the only signs of life at all—came in the form of ragged, shallow breathing.

"What's happening to him?" Fluttershy bit her lip.

"I'm not sure," Celestia said. She and the others gathered by the boy, worried frowns shared between them. "We never saw anything like this in our time with him."

A creak pricked their ears. They looked up just in time to see a patch of the far wall falling away. Then another, and another. Gradually, more pieces of their wooden sanctuary began crumbling, revealing a massive cavern tinged in red and orange.

“Uh… I think a better question would be, what’s happening to the room?” Rainbow Dash hovered into the air and shrank in on herself as she peered around.

While the ponies circled together and watched the living room disintegrate, Fluttershy paused as she felt something move down her cheek. Holding a hoof to it, she discovered the droplets of liquid static from Isaac’s tears falling off of her and flowing through the air.

She stood and looked down, mouth falling agape as she noticed that the pools of crackling tears formed around Isaac’s head had begun to recede. As if flowing in reverse, they shrank and ran back up the boy’s face. At the same time, he began to twitch and convulse.

Noticing this as well, Twilight watched in stunned shock as white, feathery appendages began violently sprouting from the boy’s back. “Isaac…?”

With a flash of static, his entire appearance changed from the boy they knew to a pale, lifeless visage of blue skin and empty eyes.

“AH!” Twilight and the others flinched at the sudden horror before them. In the next instant, another flash of static returned Isaac to normal.

“Wh… w-what was that?!” Rarity asked.

Luna started to reach a hoof out to the boy, when another flash made her flinch back. This time, a dry, brittle skeleton was left behind, only keeping the strange white growths that the group could now discern to be still-forming wings. “I’m afraid, for better or worse, Isaac is coming to terms with his past.”

As the boy flashed back to his usual self, still panting and shaking as the wings kept sprouting and the static tears kept flowing back into his eyes, the ponies were caught between watching his transformation and the transformation of the room around them.

More pieces of the walls and ceiling fell away, until more was missing than not. Now that they could see out into the space beyond, the ponies’ wide eyes reflected burning red light from a sea of what looked to be bubbling lava. Floating rafts of broken floorboards were dotted around, but other than these vestiges of normality, everything else was flooded in magma. Jagged spikes of rock poked down from the roof of the cavern above, stretching further than the eye could see.

Behind them, Isaac flashed once more to another form: a spectral white being with a wispy tail and haunting eyes still filled with static. In the next instance, it was gone, and only Isaac was left lying there. The wings finished sprouting, and the static trails down his face finished receding back into his eyes.

Finally, with one last flash of crackling snow, the boy was missing entirely.

“Isaac…?” Pinkie spoke. Her jaw still hung slack as she looked around for the boy. “Where did he go?”

“He didn’t leave us here, did he?!” Rainbow Dash added.

The sound of wings softly flapping made Rainbow pause her imminent panic attack. She looked up, her violet eyes meeting the familiar, expressive black orbs of their young friend. “Isaac?”

The boy smiled down at the ponies and fluttered to the side, showing off his newly acquired wings. He also had a faint aura of light around him, barely visible enough to even notice.

“Talk about an angel getting his wings…” Twilight noted. She wasn't sure what logic this mental world was following, but its symbolism was very on the muzzle.

“Well, if he’s an angel…” Applejack traced her eyes along the expanse of infernal wastes beyond their lonely island of wood, “I was joking when I said we were already in Tartarus.”

“Haven’t you learned by now that this place has it out for us? You shouldn’t be giving it ideas,” Rarity sighed before gesturing a hoof out at the sea of lava. “What do we even do now? I don’t see a way out of this place.”

“Maybe we’re supposed to fight something again?” Pinkie mused.

“Don’t be ridiculous, darling. We literally just fought something. It would be beyond unfair to make us fight something else two seconds lat—”

Rarity paused abruptly as the ground began to rumble. Out in the distance, a massive patch of lava shifted until a dark shape began rising out of it. Even with how far away it was, it dwarfed the background of this seemingly endless cavern.

The ponies watched the shape climbing higher and higher, their jaws dropping lower and lower as the color drained from their faces. Even Isaac hovered in place, slack-jawed and wide-eyed at the behemoth waking from its slumber.

Three horns sat upon its head like obsidian stalagmites. Beneath each, a red eye with a slitted black pupil gazed out with a palpable sense of malice behind them. Blood ringed its wide mouth full of canine incisors as sharp as a wild dog’s. Boils and veins marred its black skin, which was only partially covered by a tattered piece of blue and yellow fabric near the bottom.

A great roar split the cavern, causing everyone to cover their ears as rocks fell from the ceiling around them and splashed into the lava. Then, as if drawn by the beast’s call, four other figures descended from above.

These figures, dwarfed by the beast, but still nearly twice as large as any of the princesses, floated upon stick ponies with real, disfigured equine heads. Their humanoid forms were equally disfigured in different ways. One gray one with visible ribs, sunken pits for eyes, and cracked skin framing a toothy smile. One green one plagued with sickly, drooping skin covered in growths, a swollen eye, and glowing bile flooding its mouth. One with gnashing teeth and intense hatred in its eyes burning nearly as brightly as its deep red skin. And lastly, a pale one, with a leering skull and a scythe clutched at its side.

Applejack cast a flat look at Rarity. “What was that about giving it id—”

“Not a word! Not. Another. Word!” Rarity squealed.

Seeing the four figures gathered around the beast, Celestia, Luna, and even Isaac felt a dreadful sense of familiarity. They recognized these creatures, though their forms were now larger and more monstrous from the last time they saw them. The four horsemen, harbingers of the apocalypse.

“Sister, Twilight, can you still fight?” Celestia asked, spreading her wings and not taking her steely eyes off their foes.

“I’m afraid we don’t have much choice in the matter,” Luna replied. She lowered herself, wings twitching and horn humming with invisible magic, ready to spark to life at a moment’s notice.

Twilight cringed as her many injuries stung and a wave of weakness flowed up her legs. She quickly suppressed the pain and exhaustion she felt and stood tall. “I’m with you,” she stated before turning to the others. “Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, help the others keep their distance. I don’t know what these things are capable of, but if it’s anything like that thing from the television, I don’t want you guys anywhere near them.”

“But… what about you guys?” Pinkie asked, looking between the alicorns and their young friend with worried eyes.

Before Twilight could respond, another deafening roar rocked the cavern. The ponies looked out, only to pale at the sight of the massive figures starting to move. The four horsemen effortlessly floated forward, while the beast waded its massive body through the lava like a cruise liner through open sea, and they were all heading straight for the group.

Celestia turned to the others, her eyes holding more urgency than they had ever seen from her before. “Twilight is right, all of you need to keep yourselves safe! This battle is best fought in the air!” She took off straight toward the incoming threats.

Luna flapped her wings and zoomed off after her sister. Isaac coasted after them, ready and willing to face these monstrous enemies with his friends.

Twilight shared a look with the others. A stranger might have seen only the determination in her eyes, but her closest friends could make out the trembling in her ears and the subtle twitch at the corners of her mouth. She set her jaw and gave them a single nod before taking flight.

Watching as the alicorns joined Isaac in facing down the greatest horror the chest held, Fluttershy and the others couldn’t deny a feeling of dread.

However, Rainbow Dash seemed to be staring a bit more intently than everyone else. She took a step forward, sizing up their sizable foes before turning to Fluttershy. “You got this?” She nodded to their three flightless members and the haphazard path of rocks and wooden islands leading across the lake of fire.

“Rainbow…” Fluttershy’s mouth fell agape as she saw a familiar glint of defiance in her friend’s eyes. That same glint she had every time she rushed off into danger to fight some deadly foe.

“You’re not thinking about doing something stupid, are you?” Applejack asked.

Rainbow chuckled and half shrugged. “What can I say? It’s kinda my thing.”

Shaking her head, Applejack sighed, though a slight smile formed at one corner as she put a hoof on the brash pegasus’ shoulder. “Just don’t do anything too stupid, ya hear?”

With a single nod, Rainbow Dash gave each of her friends a last look before turning and zooming off, leaving a multicolored contrail behind her.

Rarity held a hoof to her chest and watched the silhouettes of her friends approaching the giant creatures. “Please be safe, everyone…”

Fluttershy suppressed the urge to cry and instead focused on the task she was given. She turned to the path to safety, perilous as it was, and swallowed hesitantly before spreading her wings. “Come on, girls. We need to get moving before we get caught in this. The others can’t fight at their best if they’re worrying about us.” She waved a hoof, hovering up and waiting near the edge.

While those behind her put as much distance between them and the fight as possible, Twilight and her companions were closing the distance to their terrible foes.

Twilight fought her body’s instinct for self preservation just to keep going in this direction. Every inch of her fur was bristling with the urge to flee, but she couldn’t let her friends down. Hearing another set of wings coming up behind them, she turned her head. She was surprised to spot a familiar cyan shape coasting up to them and joining their flight formation.

“Rainbow Dash…?” Twilight blinked.

Rainbow gave a quick salute. “At your service, Princess Egghead.” She smirked.

Celestia glanced to the side and flattened her gaze. “I thought we told you to stay back with the others?” she asked. Luna joined her in giving the reckless pegasus a flat look. Even Isaac was offering her a disappointed frown.

While having the older princesses chide her gave her some pause, Rainbow still wore some confidence and determination in her face. “In all fairness, you also said this fight was best fought in the air. I figured I could help out, seeing as I am the fastest flier around.” She dropped her smug exterior for a moment and adopted a more sober expression. “Besides that, do you really think I’m going to let you do this alone?”

Twilight sighed, though she couldn’t help but smile as well. However, her already brief moment of admiration was cut short as another roar brought her attention forward.

The three-horned beast stopped advancing as its four minions kept going. It waited and watched patiently, leering at the ponies like a lion stalking its prey, waiting for just one slip before striking.

At the front, the harbingers flew into battle with a zeal that the group hadn’t seen from any creature before. The gray rider of Famine chuckled heartily, its withered smile cracking even further around the edges as it grew. Pestilence threw its arms up and gave a guttural cheer. War shook violently and gnashed with rage. And the pale rider himself, Death, merely face-palmed at his companions and held his scythe at the ready as they charged forward.

“I’ve got Death and Pestilence,” Luna stated.

Celestia glanced to the side. “Are you sure, sister?”

“Indeed. If their smaller iterations are anything to go by, I believe they will do the most harm,” Luna clarified before picking up her speed and coasting ahead of her friends to meet her opponents head on.

Celestia’s features tensed, though she couldn’t afford to dwell on her worry. “Very well. Twilight, you handle Famine. I will take on War.”

“Right.” Twilight nodded. Then, her eyes trailed up to the four harbingers and shifted between them. “Uh… w-which one is Famine?”

“The gray one on the left,” Celestia explained. She then looked over to the pegasus following them. “Rainbow Dash, see if you can distract that beast while Isaac wittles it down.”

Rainbow Dash shared a look with Isaac before settling her eyes on the massive creature and smirking. “You got it!” she replied, zipping ahead with the boy in tow.

While the pair coasted past, weaving around the advancing horsemen to get at the beast beyond, Luna prepared herself as she sized up her opponents.

As the distance between them closed, Pestilence hovered ahead of his brothers and coughed up a toxic green ball of bile. The disgusting mortar sailed through the air in an arc, coming down straight at Luna. She effortlessly coasted to the side, allowing it to fall into the bubbling lava.

“Hah! It will take more than that to fell me, you abomi—” Luna cut off as a vile stench hit her nostrils. She coughed and put a hoof to her mouth. Looking down where the smell was coming from, her eyes widened as she saw more projectiles and a cloud of odor rising out of the lava where the initial attack landed.

“Gah!” A yell escaped her, and she clutched a freshly made cut along her side. One of the smaller balls of toxins had found its mark before she evaded. Clenching her teeth, she glared at the diseased horseman, and the pleased smile on its disfigured face.

However, her anger quickly shifted to concern as she looked around. Somewhere in her evasion and pained flinch, she lost sight of the pale rider. It was nowhere to be found ahead of her.

A cold chill ran down her spine as a shadow fell over her. She eyed to the side, just barely spotting a glowing glint of red in the shape of a pupil. She gasped and pushed her wings to flap hard, rising as high as she could in one motion. High enough, that the scythe slashing across only clipped a few hairs off her dangling tail.

Luna whirled around to find the grinning skull of Death staring at her, a maddened hunger for mortal blood gleaming in its empty eye sockets.

As the matron of the night did battle with two harbingers, Twilight and Celestia flew side-by-side and focused on theirs.

The two remaining riders, War and Famine, flew toward teacher and student without hesitation. War held a boiling rage in its inky black eyes, while Famine’s cold, hollow sockets radiated the insanity that starvation brought.

Twilight turned to see Celestia giving her a nod before her mentor broke off to the side. She drew a stiff breath through her teeth and faced her own opponent head on. While Celestia cast a bolt of flame at War to draw it away, Twilight came to a hard stop a dozen or so feet away from the grinning corpse of Famine.

An unhinged laugh barely reached her ears over the bubbling lava below and the sounds of battle around her. Famine chuckled to itself as it waited for her to make the first move. Impatient, it decided to strike first.

A volley of dark, coagulated blood bullets shot from its mouth, spreading out toward her. Twilight barely dodged to the side in time. Looking back and readying her horn for a counter-attack, she flinched as she found the emaciated face of Famine closing in on her, rapidly flying forward on its stick pony.

Twilight yelped, startled at the horrific sight so unexpectedly close. She raced the energies in her horn toward a different spell and let loose a blast of kinetic force around herself.

The shockwave caught Famine and sent it hurtling backward through the air several feet. It teetered back as its hobby-horse stopped, flailing for a moment as if it would fall off before correcting itself and shaking its head. For a moment, the constant grin it sported creaked into an angry scowl.

An explosion briefly caught Twilight’s attention. She looked up, only to flinch again and dodge out of the way of an approaching line of projectiles. However, as she soon realized, the projectiles weren’t aimed at her.

Overhead, Celestia flew and curved around while War chased after her. The crimson harbinger growled and produced a large bomb with a skull on it, which it then tossed ahead at her with great force.

Celestia pulled to the side hard, avoiding the eventual explosion. She then course-corrected out of the way of an indiscriminate spray of projectiles sent flying from within the bomb.

"I've always hated war. How fitting that the concept personified should hate me just as much!" Celestia whipped around in the air and pointed her horn at the rider. She fired a solid beam of gilded light, which struck War and carried it clean off its horse, across the air several feet, and then smack-dab into a stalactite dangling from the rocky ceiling.

After the beam died down, War shook its head and pried itself off of the stone outcropping. It looked down to its smoking form before grinding its teeth and yelling. Holding out its nubby hand, it summoned its stick pony back to it and went astride before zooming off toward the infuriating alicorn.

With the princesses doing battle behind them, Rainbow Dash and Isaac made their way up to the great beast waiting patiently.

Looking over to Isaac, Rainbow found him wearing more than a bit of trepidation on his face as they coasted ever closer to the towering monstrosity. She flashed him a confident smile. “Don’t worry, kid. Just get in some shots where you can, and leave the rest to me,” she explained before zipping ahead.

Isaac watched as the cyan pony boldly flew up to the beast’s face. Its three eyes converged on her like a buzzing fly before a giant.

“Hey, ugly! Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to stare?!” Rainbow defied death and self-preservation and flew directly into the beast’s face. She kicked out her hind hooves, landing right in the squishy center of its center eye and causing it to flinch shut.

A deafening wail of pain came. The beast growled up at the annoying insect before it and lunged forward, its maw open wide and its jagged teeth chomping down. Rainbow Dash squeaked fearfully and took off like a bolt, getting clear well before the bite could connect.

The lava below churned as the creature shifted around to follow Rainbow. Her speed easily outmatched its clumsy size, though it was persistent.

Spotting his opportunity, Isaac closed in and began firing at the beast’s obsidian skin. Such a sight made his efforts at fighting back look futile, and while he felt woefully ill-equipped to handle this titan, his tears did steam and sizzle against its form.

Eventually, the beast stopped spinning around trying to keep up with the pegasus. It shifted its menacing stare to Isaac and rotated to meet him. The boy shrank back in the air and trembled. Seeing this, Rainbow Dash flew between him and the creature and waved her forelegs, hoping to regain its attention.

“Over here! I’m the one you want! Why don’t you leave the kid alone?!” she shouted.

In response, the three red eyes glanced at her. However, before she could fly off again, it opened its mouth and began sucking air inward. Both Rainbow and Isaac felt a tremendous pull that began sucking them toward the beast’s maw.

“Woah…!” Rainbow Dash turned and began flapping her wings hard in the other direction. Even with her wingpower, she barely managed to keep ahead of it.

Isaac struggled to fly sideways out of the vortex. He looked back, frowning at the danger his friend was in and trying to think of a way to help her, when his eyes suddenly widened.

Further out in the cavern, Twilight, Celestia, and Luna all looked up from their own battles as a sizable gust of air blew past them. They were stunned to see flame from the lava below getting pulled into the air and sailing toward the beast’s mouth, directly toward their cyan friend.

“Rainbow!” Twilight exclaimed. Then, another series of blood bullets drew her attention back to Famine. She cringed and shielded herself. As much as she wanted to help her friend, her hooves were tied.

Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth and struggled just to make any distance from the beast. She looked ahead at the fireballs flying toward her, cursing internally. Weaving sideways, she managed to avoid each flaming projectile, though some got close enough that her fur scorched on their way past and into the gaping maw behind her.

Over time, more and more flame got pulled up in rows and columns, creating a midair maze that she had to navigate. Even with her speed, she came closer and closer to either hitting a flame, or falling back to the point of no return and getting sucked into the beast’s mouth.

The sucking pull lessened and eventually stopped as the creature’s mouth closed. Rainbow Dash flinched away from the roiling flame floating mere inches from her face. She wiped the sweat from her brow and breathed a sigh of relief.

Turning to see what the creature was doing, she paused, initially confused. Its head was bowed, eyes closed in deep concentration. Glowing red lines circled up its horns, thrumming with some kind of energy.

“Huh?” Rainbow tilted her head.

Meanwhile, off to the side, Isaac stared warily at the beast. Suddenly, he gasped as the realization of what was about to happen dawned on him.

Further out in the distance, across the lake of fire, Fluttershy and the others were still hopping islands of debris, desperately trying to get away from the dangers of the battle raging.

Fluttershy finished setting Rarity down on a larger platform before turning to check on their friends. She could see Twilight and the royal sisters struggling against the harbingers, and beyond them, she could barely see Isaac and her fellow pegasus dwarfed by the great beast.

Then, within an instant, Rainbow Dash vanished from view amidst a massive beam of devastation shooting from the beast’s open maw.

“Holy hayseed!” Applejack raised her head to watch the beam soar over them. Before, she had been intimidated by the beast’s massive size, but now she was thankful that its mouth was several feet above them.

“Sweet Celestia!” Rarity exclaimed as she turned and watched the beam annihilate any rock formations in its path. Spirals of crackling red energy encircled the massive laser. She could feel the power coming off it even where she stood. She didn’t know much about battle magic, but she could tell that if anything was struck by the beam, it would be instantly vaporized.

However, while her friends were staring at where the beam was going, or the monster it was coming from, Fluttershy was stuck staring at a single point in space. A point in space, now enveloped by radiant fury.

Her body started shaking, and tears gathered in her eyes as she stared at that single space, where just moments before had been her childhood friend.

“DASHIE!”