The Citadel

"Excellent work princess, now with that dealt with we can focus on our true goal." Zyzix said joyfully swaying from side to side.

Flurry Heart was limping back to the stairs, her whole body hurt and she was bleeding slightly from her leg again but didn't feel like fixing it. She sat down on the stairs and let out a heavy sigh ignoring what the wisp said, Zyzix's happy attitude was annoying her.

"Can you just let me rest for a minute please, I almost died again." she said in a tired tone.

"Alright, but do not rest for to long I am eager to get to the end of our journey." Zyzix replied.

Flurry leaned back and closed her eyes for a moment just trying to not think about anything and calming herself down. She put her hand on her necklace and gripping it tightly focusing on home and how close she was to it. There was just one more hurdle she had to overcome to reach it. She hoped that whatever awaited her at the top of these stairs was less stressful then anything she had encountered so far. Flurry Heart lay there for a few minutes dreaming of home cocked meals warm beds and a shower. Oh how she longed for a shower, she would almost give her right wing for one right now, with a sigh she opened her eyes and sat up.

"Are you ready now princess?" Zyzix asked.

Looking at her companion floating above her she nodded slightly "As ready as I will ever get I suppose." she said with a sigh.

"Splendid, then let us make haste."

Flurry Heart got up on her hoofs and started to climb the stairs, walking was still a bit painful so she took it slow.

~~~~~~

The stairs where long so she had to take a break every now and then in order for her leg to not hurt much more then necessary. But they where almost at the top now, she could hear the winds blowing as well as an odd rumbling sound. Zyzix seemed to be more and more excited the higher they got and had urged her to move faster whenever she had slowed down to rest her leg.

When they finally reached the top Flurry was stunned by what she saw, she didn't know what she was expecting but it certainly wasn't this. The room was big and round in shape with large black pillars along the wall but that wasn't what stunned her. No the crazy part was that the room had no ceiling and you could see the sky which meant that they where clearly above all the thick clouds now. But sky might have been the wrong way to describe it for it looked more like space, and high above was something that looked like a black hole.

Flurry stood with her mouth open looking up at the very intimidating sight above her with both awe and a bit of fear. Never in her life had she felt so small as she was feeling right now. Zyzix's voice brought her out of her daze that she found herself in.

"That is the portal where everything that comes here is brought through, and it will serve as our exit."

"How do we do that?" Flurry asked.

"Do you see the crystal in the middle of the room." Zyzix said.

Bringing her gaze down she saw the dark red crystal levitating over a pedestal. "Yes I see it." she said.

"That is the construct and I need to get inside it."

"How?" Flurry turned her towards her companion.

"I will enter your sword and then I need you to pierce the crystal with it, and when you do I will handle the rest." Zyzix explained.

"I guess it won't be that simple will it?" Flurry said with a tired sigh.

Zyzix laughed a little "No the crystal will most likely summon some form of guardian to defend itself with."

"And I will not be able to aid you once I enter your sword so you must get me inside the crystal everything else is secondary, do not fail me on this." the seriousness in her voice made Flurry a little uneasy.

"Now lets not waste any more time, bring out your weapon so we can get started." Zyzix said.

Flurry held out her sword in front of herself without saying anything, the wisp quickly flew down and disappeared inside the weapon. She then looked towards the crystal silently floating in the center of the room, she took a deep breath and started walking. Getting closer to the thing she could hear a low hum coming from it, she lifted the sword and trusted it forward. But before it made contact she was blasted back by a shockwave coming from the crystal, she landed on her butt a few meters away. The push she received had caught her by surprise but at least she wasn't hurt more then she already was. She heard a rumbling sound and looked back up and saw the crystal lit up in a deep red colour and began to vibrate. Flurry Heart got up and took a defensive stand as the crystal started to grow several fleshy tendrils. It was both horrifying and disgusting, instinct told her to run but she stood her ground. The tendrils continued to rapidly grow all over the crystal quickly covering most of it in its gray mass. It then began to merge together forming arms and legs as well as bones. Flurry nervously took a couple of steps back as the lump of flesh grew in size.

After a few seconds the thing stopped growing and turned around to face her. The thing was almost five times the size of Flurry it had two large arms that ended with clawed hands. She could see the crystal in its torso behind a ribcage of blacked bone, the skull it had for a head seemed to gaze straight into her soul with its empty eye sockets. It was hideous and almost made Flurry want to flee. But she knew that she had to defeat this monster or she would never see her home again. The hulking beast let out a dreadful howl and began to move towards her, not wanting to get crushed Flurry jumped into the air. Not trusting her leg to hold up in a prolonged fight on the ground she decided to attack from the air since she would be more nimble there. She flew in a circle around the monster to see how it moved so she could figure out the best way to attack it without putting herself at to great a risk.

The creature seemed sluggish but it was following her with its gaze as she flew. Suddenly it opened its mouth and half a second later a white hot beam shot out, Flurry just barely dodged it with a roll. It chased her with the beam forcing her to make all kinds of evasive maneuvers to not get burned to a crisp. She could feel the heat from it as she did her best to avoid it. Eventually it stopped and let out another howl as if angry it didn't hit her. Slowing down a little to not exhaust herself to quickly, she could feel the smell of burnt hair, looking behind she saw that the beam had scorched her tail. Both angry that her beautiful curls where burnt and a bit jittery at how close it had been to hit the rest of her. Throwing a defiant glare against the big lump of flesh, Flurry Heart then went on the offensive before the brute could fire its beam thing again. She made a bold dash towards the enemy, it tried to grab her as she got close but Flurry quickly dodged the massive hand. And with a precise strike with her sword she severed the arm at the elbow causing the monster to recoil in pain. Flurry made a quick turn to attack again, she came in low to try to avoid detection aiming for the crystal within its chest. When she got close enough she trusted her sword forward but unfortunately her strike glanced of the creatures rips as it moved it body.

"Damn it." she cursed as she flew up in the air again to look for another opening.

Looking over her shoulder at her enemy as she rose into the air her eyes went wide and she had to quickly make a dive as the creatures severed arm came flying towards her. The limb just about missed her as it flew past her and into the wall, she did a little tumble in the air before regaining control. Flurry had not expected the thing to throw its own arm at her like that, who knew what else it might try to do. The monstrous beast let out another ear shattering howl as it shambled in Flurry's direction. Not wanting this thing to dictate the pace of the battle she flapped her wings and went for another attack. As she approached her opponent it once again opened its mouth to fire its beam attack, Flurry had to make a sharp turn to the side to dodge it. She could feel the heat from the beam as it chased her yet again, she pumped her wings hard to stay ahead and avoid a fiery end. She could feel her stamina draining faster then she had hoped as she flew in a big circle around the room. On top of that all her injuries hurt especially the one on her stomach whenever she twisted her body. Flurry Heart knew that a she was not in the best shape for a prolonged battle at the moment, and the longer this took the higher the chance was it would end badly.

She needed to stop this thing from shooting it fire beam at her somehow and get the upper hand again. Brainstorming for ideas she came up with a plan that might work, without delay she set out to execute said plan. She charged her horn with magic and made a sharp turn up into a half loop over the beam and going the other way. The monster barely had time to react before Flurry shot of a magic bolt and hitting it right in the face and interrupting the fire beam. A smile appeared on her lips as her plan seemed to have worked. Not wanting to waste her chance she turned to fly towards the large abomination while she fired of a few more magic bolts in quick succession. The magic attacks didn't seem to hurt the thing but it did seem to distract it enough for Flurry to get close. With a scream and a trust she sunk her sword deep into skull of the beast with a loud crack. Black sludge oozed from the gash she made, she ripped out her sword and stabbed it in again making more sludge come out. The creature let out a low groaning sound before collapsing on its back, Flurry Heart landed beside it with heavy breathing.

"Did I kill it?" she asked herself in a quiet tone not really dareing to believe it.

Beside some odd twitching it sure looked dead, a rush of happiness hit her like a train at the realization that she should be able to go home now. Unable to contain herself she began to jump around and cheer, the relief she was feeling at this time was euphoric. She danced around for a minute before she remembered that she had to stab the crystal with the sword. Quickly she scrambled up on top of the large body of the beast until she stood on the ribcage looking down at the red crystal within. She took the sword in both hands and trusted it downwards, she didn't manage to pierce it, the thing was clearly harder then it looked. But a small crack could be seen on its surface so she just had to give it another go or two. Flurry raised her sword again and was just about to make another stab when she was violently hit from behind sending her rolling several meters on the floor.

As she came to a stop coughing and gasping for air and with pain all over her body and confused to what just happen. She could taste blood in her mouth and there was a sharp pain in her right wing which made her really worried. A rumble could be heard and a moment later a loud howling roar like something was very very angry. Looking up from where she lay on the floor her heart sank, the hulking monster was clearly not dead as it rose to its feet again. Ignoring the pain in her body she got up as quickly as she could. Her opponent wasted no time and slammed its hand into the ground with a loud bang, it then lifted a chunk of the floor and thew it at her. Thinking fast Flurry Heart caught it in her magic, it took a lot of effort to slow it down to a stop. Once she did however she used her magic to launch it right back at the enemy with as much force as she could manage. The creature probably didn't expect that to happen since it didn't try to block or avoid the incoming projectile and instead got hit in its upper body making it stumble. The thing quickly recovered though and started advancing towards Flurry with an angry growl.

Not wanting to get caught Flurry Heart spread her wings intending to leap into the air again, but as soon as she moved her right wing she was hit by an excruciating amount of pain. Her eyes went wide and filled with tears as she let out a loud gasp at the pain. She swiftly folded her wings back to escape the agony, but she could not fold the right one all the way back so just kind of hung there. The pain was still there just not as intense, but a terrifying thought entered her mind which made her blood run cold. She might actually have broken her wing, her greatest advantage was her speed and nimbleness in the air. This was bad really bad, she began hyperventilating as panic started to set in but a loud howl brought her back before she got a full panic attack.

Looking back up she saw the monsters raised arm coming down with the intent to crush her where she stood. Almost on instinct she teleported a few meters to the side just as the blow hit the ground where she just was with a powerful crack.
Realizing that she almost got herself crushed because she had panicked for a second made her a little shaken. But it also reminded her that she had more important things to deal with right now. She still had her sword and magic at her disposal, she could worry about her wing later.

She tightened her grip on the sword and ran as best she could towards her enemy, of course it noticed her right away and swiped at her with its arm. Flurry had anticipated an attack like that and quickly ducked to slide under the massive limb, she then quickly got up again and slashed the creature in the leg. This caused it to topple down on its knees with a pained growl, Flurry leaped up and grabbed the ribcage and started stabbing at the crystal inside. She only got a few stabs in but failed to penetrate the crystal once again. She couldn't get enough strength behind her strikes because on the movements of the monster and her need to hold on and not fall off. She could see the hand of the thing moving in to grab her frustrated she teleported herself away before the beast could get a hold of her.

Flurry reappeared a good distance away to get some breathing room and to think of a new plan of attack. The monster rose up clearly irritated with just how slippery she was even without her ability to fly. It let out another roaring howl and then it bent forward and started to vomit black sludge. Flurry Heart was taken aback by this, she didn't expect it to do something like that and had no idea what it wanted to gain by doing it. But she got her answer soon enough when small black winged creatures that kind of looked like rays emerged from of the puddle of sludge. They started to fly in circles around her like an angry swarm of bees. It was hard to count how many of them there where since they all blended together in a blur. Suddenly one of them broke formation and dove towards her, reacting quickly Flurry sliced it in half with her sword. When cut the thing turned back into black sludge and splattered on her chest, she barely had time to be disgusted before more of them attacked. She manage to cut two of them down before one got past her defenses and sunk its sharp fangs into the side of her thigh. She screamed in pain before blasting the creature of her with magic making it pop like a water balloon. The other winged monsters took this opportunity to attack knocking her to the ground by how many they where. Flurry Heart was screaming and kicking and flailing her sword around in a desperate attempt to fend them of as she was bitten all over. Overwhelmed she released a burst of magic sending all her attackers flying before putting up a magic shield around herself.

Flurry Heart lay there on the floor looking up into the sky panting heavily, she was bleeding from several bite wounds on her body. She felt so tired both physically and mentally, she needed to get up and fight but her body felt like it weighed a ton. Just then the huge hand of the monster came into view and grabbed her shield bubble and lifted it into the air. She could see the face of the creature observing her inside her shield before applying pressure on it. Flurry fought back by strengthening her shield with more magic, her enemy growled irritated by her defiance. The battle between magical and physical might continued but unlike Flurry Heart the monster didn't show any sign of fatigue. She knew that she couldn't win this in the long run and needed to think of something before it was to late. Looking around a bit she saw the crystal in the creatures chest which gave her an idea, it was a risky one but it was all she could come up with at the moment.

Flurry split her focus and took a hold of the sword with her magic while still maintaining the shield around herself as best she could. She breathed sharply trough her teeth as she lowered the weapon out of her bubble and aimed it towards the crystal. As Flurry couldn't give her shield her full attention a cracking sound could be heard as it started to give way, it made her nervous but she carried on regardless. Like a bullet she shot the sword forward with as much force as she could manage and with a loud shattering sound she pierced the crystal. With a howl the monster dropped Flurry who fell back to the ground and landed painfully on her side without her shield spell. She got up on her hoofs as fast as she could and made some distance between herself and the monster who was gripping its chest and howling.

Flurry Heart turned around to see what was happening once she felt like she was far enough away. She wasn't sure what was happening but she had done what she was instructed to do. There where beams of blue light coming out from the cracks in the crystal as well as blue flames bursting out all over the creatures body. Flurry could feel the ancient magic of this place moving towards it as the fire grew more intense and consumed more and more of it. Suddenly a bright pillar of light shot out of the crystal high up in to the sky and the air started to be sucked towards it. She had to shield her eyes from the brightness of it as well as trying to not fall over from the strong winds. Eventually things calmed down and Flurry could open her eyes again, before her was a giant blue fireball hovering above the charred remains of the monster.

She could hear Zyzix laughter echoing around her, it sounded a lot more powerful now and perhaps more sinister.

"Well done princess, you have performed your part most excellent." Zyzix voice boomed.

Flurry Heart was exhausted she was in pain and bleeding, she didn't care about any praise the now giant wisp gave her, there was only one thing that she wanted right now.

"Can I go home now?" she almost pleaded.

"Your parents must be really worried, I will make sure that they get there daughter back." Zyzix laughed again.

She didn't really like the way Zyzix said that but she did say that she would get her home and that was all that mattered to her at the moment.

"So how do we do this?" Flurry asked taking a few steps forward.

"Oh just leave it to me princess, I just need a moment to prepare."

The giant ball of fire began to spin in place creating a pillar of flames, warm gusts hit Flurry as she stood there watching it spin. Soon enough a small smokey tendril extended from the rotating fire and moved towards Flurry Heart. Unsure of what it was she tried to move out of its way but it followed her like a snake, nervously she looked towards Zyzix for an answer.

"Excuse me but I need to borrow something from you." Zyzix's voice boomed

Before she could respond the tendril shot forward and hit her in the chest, this made Flurry gasp as a tingly feeling spread around her body. A few seconds later the thing pulled away from her and returned to where it came from, Flurry felt strangely cold as she put a hand on her chest.

"What was that for?!" she questioned angrily.

She did not get an answer and was about to ask again when the fire suddenly shrunk down and vanished leaving a very familiar figure standing with its back towards her. Flurry's jaw dropped when she saw the figure standing there slowly inspecting its hands. It was a perfect copy of her but without any of her injuries and her clothes where undamaged.

"W-w-what gives?" she could hardly believe what she was seeing.

Her doppelganger turned around with the most sinister looking smirk on her face, she then spoke in her voice.

"You seem a little distressed princess." the mocking tone of her voice was think enough to be cut with a knife.

"But I must thank you for all the help you have provided me with, you have even given me a body, you are a most capable minion."

Flurry Heart was at a loss for words, her mind was racing to grasp what was happening.

Zyzix extended an arm summoning the sword that had been stuck in the charred remains of the monster to her hand. She then looked it over with a smile before glancing towards Flurry who was still stunned and very confused on what was going on.

"B-but you are still gonna help me get home right?" she said finally finding her voice again.

"I have said a lot of things not all of them true, unfortunately for you that was not one of them." Zyzix said nonchalantly.

"You lied to me, why?" the feeling of betrayal stung, never in her life had she felt so deceived and used.

"I just did what I had to do in order to be free again."

Zyzix then turned around and pointed the sword forward, she mumbled something Flurry could not hear and a black swirling mass appeared a couple of meters away.

"As a token of my gratitude I will not kill you but instead gift you this wonderful world to rule over princess." Zyzix said.

"But for me I think its time to go home to mom and dad." she looked at Flurry with an evil grin.

Hearing this something burst within Flurry Heart and with a scream of fury she teleported herself on top of Zyzix and began punching her relentlessly to little effect.

"YOU EVIL LYING MONSTER, I WILL NEVER LET YOU NEAR MY PARENTS!" she shouted in rage.

Zyzix raised one hand and grabbed her in a strong magical grip, she was held in the air in front of her. "Do not do that again." she warned before tossing her aside like a rag doll.

Flurry Heart landed roughly on her side a few steps away, ignoring the warning she got up once more determined to stop this demon pretending to be her. Zyzix had her back towards Flurry as she walked towards the portal she had created. Quickly she gathered a couple of decent sized rocks with her magic and launched them at her former ally. They hit there target in the back of the head hard enough to make them shatter, Zyzix stopped and turned around with a very angry look on her face.

"I warned you." she said darkly before once again extending a hand to grab Flurry in her magic. She struggled to no avail as she was lifted into the air. She expected to be thrown again but instead she was violently slammed in to the ground. The pain and shock of the impact made her loose her breath, barely had her mind registered what happened when she was lifted again. She was slammed into the hard stone floor a second time, again pain surged trough her body especially her head. Stars flashed in her vision and her ears where ringing from the impact. When she was lifted into the air for the third time she gasped for air and she could clearly see blood splattered on the stones beneath her even if her vision was shaky.

A million thoughts raced trough Flurry's mind but one thought was louder then the other, "she is killing me!". She was then smashed into the floor one final time and this time harder then the previous two. She heard a loud cracking sound something clearly broke inside her, but she was in so much pain that she couldn't feel where. She coughed up a bit of blood as she struggled to breath. She felt the magic grip disappear and heard hoofsteps approaching, glancing up weakly she could see herself looking down with an unsympathetic expression.

"The next time you interfere I will revoke my mercy of not killing you." Zyzix said coldly, she then turned and began walking towards the portal again.

"N-no." Flurry managed to say weakly extending a shaky arm towards Zyzix who simply ignored her.

Physically broken and barely conscious she watched as her only chance to go home fading before her unless she could quickly figure out a way to stop Zyzix. Frantically she tried to come up with something but the pain and stress made it hard. If only she could stop Zyzix from leaving and keep her here somehow. Just then an idea came to her it was a long shot but she got nothing else and time was running out. Sitting up Flurry put a hand on her necklace and lit up her horn with magic and began chanting. At first nothing seemed to happen but she continued anyway. Zyzix was almost at the portal when magic began to softly swirl around her, she immediately turned her head towards Flurry and seeing the same glow around her.

"What are you doing, stop that!" she said angrily.

Getting that reaction gave Flurry hope and she proceeded to chant faster then before, enraged Zyzix walked towards her with the sword ready to strike. Flurry Heart was betting everything on this plan working it was do or die and really hoped that it wasn't the latter. As soon as Zyzix was close enough she trusted the sword forward aiming for Flurry's heart. At the same time Flurry tilted herself to the side making the strike mostly miss it still graced her shoulder leaving another cut on her. When Zyzix pulled back to stab at her again Flurry ripped the necklace of herself and punched her assailant in the chest with it.

"ER'AXXI YTZI RIZZIA MERR!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Zyzix's eyes went wide as she became unable to move her body, Flurry continued to shout the incantation while still pressing the necklace into Zyzix's chest. Ethereal chains appeared on her arms and legs dragging her down to her knees and a red magical glow surrounded the necklace. Zyzix screamed and tried to free herself with both force and magic but it was in vain she was trapped. Flurry now done with her spell fell back on the floor and started breathing heavily, she looked up at Zyzix struggling against the chains.

"You impudent worm, what have you done!?" Zyzix half shouted, her voice now a mix of Flurry's and her own.

Flurry didn't respond right away, instead she worked herself up onto her hoofs again before looking down at her former companion.

"I used your binding spell and the magical energies here to make my own magical seal for you."

"And since you are me at the moment my blood worked as the essence." she said.

Zyzix was quietly glaring at her for a bit with her blackened eyes before she started to chuckle darkly to herself which made Flurry a little nervous.

"Fine you have beaten me princess, clearly I underestimated your craftiness." she said after a while.

"Take the sword it will allow you to use the portal I have created to get home, I suppose you have earned that." Zyzix said with a grin on her face.

Flurry said nothing unsure if she should believe her or not, deciding to try anyway she levitated the sword to her hand since it was to painful to bend her body to pick it up. She then began to hobble over to the dark swirling mass that was the portal, her right wing sagging as she walked. Every breath she took hurt and every step was a challenge, her vision was blurry and she was bleeding from her head and nose and several other places. She was in so much pain that she almost collapsed a few times, but sheer willpower kept her going. As she approached the portal her breathing was labored she felt cold but was still sweating,
she could hear Zyzix call out to her from behind.

"Do not think this seal of yours will hold me forever princess, I will be free eventually." she said before laughing.

Flurry took a quick glance back at her before stepping into the portal. At first nothing seemed to happen except for being surrounded by pitch black darkness, then everything started spinning it felt like she was falling. It was very disorienting and it made her feel nauseous, it felt like an eternity but it was probably just a minute before a light appeared in front of her. It approached quickly and before long she was standing in her bedroom in the crystal palace, it was nighttime and everything was dark and quiet. She could hardly believe that the nightmare was over and she was home again, tears of joy started to form in her eyes. When she relaxed she realized just how tired she was, as she took a step towards her bed she noticed a figure standing by the window.

"Dad?" she asked weakly.

The figure flinched at her voice before swiftly turning around revealing itself as her father, he looked like he hadn't slept in a week.

"Flurry!?" he questioned.

He rushed towards her looking extremely worried, she wanted to run and meet him but instead she collapsed on the floor her energy finally running out. She could feel her father holding and calling her, she wanted to answer but nothing came out. The last thing she heard before she passed out was him calling for the guards to fetch a doctor and his wife.