darkSpyro

"Don't, I want to see you do your best, make this interesting for us." was all Patriatic had to say before he got ready

Hellena tilted her head, blinking. "Of course," she replied sarcastically, before letting loose with a fiery torrent. The mare set her legs apart, hissing slightly from the weight on her injured leg, from the force of the magic.

"Is there a problem?" he asked as mahogany lighting began to charge up in his horn powering his abilities.

OOC: you're ignoring the fact that she already attacked.

twice.

OCC: Sorry, had a hard time understanding those

Patriatic blew back from the attacks, they were certainly strong moves unlike any pyrotic magic he'd seen. He slowly got up, but was somewhat singed from the attack, "Strong set dear," he said complimenting her, "but see true magic be burst now."

Hellena snorted, flicking back a loose strand of mane. "Of course it's different. I invented most of it." Again, yawning, the unicorn mare narrowed her eyes slightly. "Hh. I'm wasting my energy, aren't I? This isn't worth it. I don't even know what we're doing."

"This," he replied lifting the part of terrain in front of him using it like a shield, which he then broke then safely and used the debris as a weapon, "Ready now?"

"Hh, when aren't I?" she responded sarcastically, scratching her neck with an idle hoof as her horn flared up with magic again. "Eh. On with it, then."

Patriatic used his telekinesis to throw one of the boulders towards Hellena and broke another boulder down while the one he threw soared towards her.

Hellena's ears flicked wearily, easily catching the boulder within her magical grip as she was showered with dirt and gravel.

"Nice try, but no." she called out, boredly, as she set the large rock down beside her. It was blackened slightly, in response to the unicorn mare's fiery magic in general. Her usual temper and aggression was absent, however. Flames sprouted around their mistress' hooves, Hellena herself raising an expectant eyebrow. "Bravo, bravo. That's the first time I've had a pebble thrown at me."

"And that was impressive pyrokinetic sorcery," he complimented with three different boulders being smashed down to the size of his opponent, "let's see how you'll do with these," he then replied with them all being thrown at once.

She laughed, tossing her mane back as she teleported right before the rocks would hit, hissing slightly as she felt the pressure of one actually impacting before disappearing, a long cut along her chest.

Reappearing behind Patriatic in a burst of brilliant orange flames, she said quietly in a singsong voice, "Hah, that one hit." she drew her axe, grinning smuggly. The hilt of the unconventional weapon was blackened and cracked, though the core of the wood was intact. "I find slicing to be a little funner than blunt force trauma."

Patriatic turned around and smiled, impressed, "I see, than teach me how to use and slay with such a pony-made weapon than." he replied lifting another boulder up into the sky.

"Less weapon than a pilfered tool meant for saving ponies, admittedly." Hellena shrugged, teleporting again to appear back on top of the previous trio of rocks that had been thrown at her.

OOC: sorry I was stuck in traffic.

Before him stood a unicorn with a red mane and black coat. Dusty froze 'that's it I'm dead' he thought seeing Sicolus. He had hear about him but never thought much of the lunatic. But now he felt a fear that was primitive. A certain instinct that could only be developed after thousands of years of evolution. Perhaps it was the smell, the coloration, sound or even infra-sound. But whatever it was it froze his veins.

"I doubt she would be happy" Sic said as the night guard fell from the sky. He hit the ground and the chest rolled under his hooves. "ooh, lookie here. A present? you shouldn't have." Sicolus joked.

Jedidiah landed soon after and immediately tensed at the sight of the madpony. "looks like we got company, S" Sic said.

"You will hand it over, that you will" Jed said. "You're not my mommy you can't tell me what to do" Sicolus jeered.

Dusten noticed Jed, even he was tense. Then again, when wasn't he? 'I can't freeze up' he thought as he felt a burning sensation well in his stomach. 'he killed that nurse, those guards, and he is still laughing' he thought as the anger began to grow 'I will put him out of our misery.'

"Hey Jed, can you tell who the clone is?" Dusten asked. "Yeah, the scar from the chip the factory usually uses" Jedidiah replied. "Good, you take him. I am going to bury the original" Dusty said with a new found confidence.

Sicolus looked incredulous. He snickered at first but it soon grew into an uproar of laughter. He finally calmed down "Those are some pretty big words for such a little colt" a sick smile was spread across his face.

"You're a life savior?" he asked teleporting to her left after putting the boulder down, "that's funny."

"Oh? Nonono. Well, once or twice, but it isn't really my... style." Hellena let out a barking laugh, striking Patriatic along the cheek with the butt of the axe.

---

Grey landed rather heavily in a copse of dying trees, skipping slightly over the loose dirt as he swore under his breath. How badly did he miscalculate his landing?

Shaking his head, Grey ignored the sparks running across his hooves. Heh, it'd been about a year or so since he'd last sniped with lightning. It added to his ego that it'd been his first shot, too.

Then Grey's light blue eye fixed on two bright pink ones. Two pink eyes framed by dark sunglasses...

Barkis quietly turned his attention to Jed and Dusty with Sicolous, More trespassers? he thought, obviously they're more enemies. I wonder if I should reveal myself to them so I could help Sic...

---

Patriatic fell off the area they were standing on and hit the ground. He got back up and glared towards Hellena, "I see than," he replied lifting another boulder up, this time the size of her again, "I can relate to that."

"Good," Hellena's horn flared up again, the tips of her mane singeing slightly from the heat of her magic. "Then I won't feel so bad about this."

---

"I- What?" Argaent drew back in disbelief at the sight of the lean grey pegasus. "What are you- What happened- GREY!"

Grey froze up at the pointed horn thrust at his throat, pausing barely an inch from impaling his skin. The pegasus had no doubt that the young unicorn has every intention to kill him. But it was just that. Argaent was bluffing, and they both knew it.

"Relax, kid."

"Don't tell me-!"

"Relax." Grey repeated firmly, pushing the silvery unicorn back. "You're supposed to be the sane one. Act like it."

Barkis suddenly than stepped in the path of Sic and Jed, making himself known, "Listen up you two, grass grows, sun shines, birds fly, and brothers? I hurt ponies. Like you two."

---

Patriatic smiled, "Hit me," he said with the boulders starting to rotate in a circle fast, "hit me hard Miss Hellena. Provoke me."

S tilted his head, "But, I didn't say anything... You want to attack me, but you haven't even met me until now," his horn light up slowly, picking something small and round up in the distance, "You don't even know my name," he took on a persona at this point, "Little ol' Ben is not known by stranger, and stranger want to hurt Ben. But Ben is strong, Ben doesn't want fight, but Ben will fight," it was the yellow striped sphere. It drifted around his head once, stopped out in front of him, "As for this one, we don't need, right?" It spun quickly in position, beeps and slides sounded, and a yellow vapor was emitted, "Bye bye, butterfly."

OOC: sorry, been distracted, and currently using a phone I just do not like.. An iPhone 4... I normally use windows phones...

Barkis cocked his head, "It doesn't matter who you are, all that matters is that you or somepony goes down today, and it won't be me."

Again, she laughed. Unleashing another torrent of fire, Hellena teleported to the base of the rocks, a pair of flaming butterflies materialising around her head as she advanced on her prey.

"So this is what you've been up to."

The butterflies paused, both hovering in the air beside one of Hellena's ears.

"I should've known. It's just one fight after another. I would be disappointed, but..."

One of them became pink and light gold. Hellena scowled, pausing momentarily. The other became a coal black.

"There's no harm in it, right? Luna once told me there was no harm in a little violence, here and there."

The boulders in the air began to rotate at a sickeningly fast rate, it was as if the speed of even light could not keep up with it, "Hit me...now." Patriatic said.

Hellena's horn flared and sparked, shooting off flames towards her target in a manner remarkably similar to her old flamethrower. The weapon itself had been lost, along with the lives of arguably her only friends barring Grey. If he could be considered.

"This is more than a little violence, thought." Loony laughed quietly. She still hadn't worked out his hiding spot. He couldn't be inside her head, after all. "Still, thirty-two year old habits die hard, don't they?"

A pair of fireballs came next, along with a continuing stream of fire, their edges tinged light blue and violet.

Patriatic got hit by the flames, but his masochistic tendencies refused to let him go down, "I'm not *cough* losing...yet." he replied, his vest slightly burnt, "because this battle...is going to prove my revolution is right."

"It's a fool's errand." Hellena stated coldly, advancing closer. Her eyebrows were furrowed, the two butterflies resuming their circling flight around her head.

"Oh? I understand, you're holding back."

"You wanted to challenge me. The Bane of the Badlands, the Infernal Firebug. The Pyro." Once again, her horn flared up.

Loony laughed. Hellena saw him, finally, lingering by the edges of the trees. Barely corporeal, but she guessed that anyone would be able to see him if they paid attention. His light pink coat and gold-and-white mane seemed to shimmer in the half-light.

"There will be retribution."

---

"Relax? Relax?!" Argaent's voice rose, the unicorn holding his chin up with an arrogant indignation. "How dare you-!"

Grey shook his head, sighing heavily. "You have no reason to be angry with me, kid. Everything you have the right to be pissed at me about happened over a decade before you were even born."

Argaent snorted, kicking the ground impatiently. "Yes, I know, stepfather."

The pure venom that the younger stallion used to say those words made Grey step back, wings fluffing up anxiously.

"You do know, then?"

"Of course," came the scathing response.

"Bane of the badlands huh? Oh what a frightening legacy you must have left to achieve it." he said getting up, the boulders now going faster, "soon you'll be second-rate." he finished as the boulders tore from the sky at Hellena.

Screeching, she lunged forward, her horn glowing almost white as she unleashed the strongest display of magic she had ever cast in a little over two years, and before then it had been around thirty years.

A firestorm.

Loony lurched back in shock, before stepping forward in a panic. His body became entirely visible, red eyes widening.

"No!"

"Don't try to stop me, Loony." she hissed back, her words meant only for the small, yet ancient, being that she'd known for almost her whole life.

Patriatic looked up and immediately began to gather more boulders to act as a shield for him to survive the firestorm.

"Hah! No you don't!" Hellena laughed, high pitched and somewhat maniacal as the magic took over, fire coalescing as she starting a barriage against the rocks. "Come on out! We're just getting started! Right, Loony?"

She looked back at the pink colt, who was shaking his head helplessly.

Patriatic tired desperately to keep them together, but some were beginning to crumble apart. Desperate, he let them fall one by one as he moved back to charge an electric strike at the fire.

"Game over!" Her voice had a singsong quality to it as she pushed through, tips of her mane beginning to smoulder, the ground around her hooves blackening and cracking.

The barrier broke down, but, "Indeed!" he replied firing a black-and-white style form of electricity towards her, the bolts were laced with smaller bolts of mahogany breaking out of the lighting and were wrapped around it.

Hellena's sneer dropped, her eyes widening and pupils contracting as she realised what exactly she was leaping into. A last ditch effort, her magic exploded, shattering earth and rock, before she was struck and knocked back, striking a tree with her body.

Patriatic slammed into a tree from the impact and spat out some blood, he fell down and slightly limped trying to get up.

Hellena coughed, rolling onto her back. There was a sharp pain in her left side, and her head throbbed. Her skin must've been broken in some place, since she could feel that familiar, sticky warmth.

"Does this- Does- this... this... did you want this, Loony?" she whispered, wincing as a few sparks ran along the length of her body.

He hovered just out of her vision. The coltish being looked so... benevolent now. A glittering pink, gold and white. But it was a lie.

He didn't care about anyone but himself.

"No, of course I didn't," he responded wearily with a faint sigh. "I shouldn't have left. I got too far ahead of myself when I stopped the Nightmare from consuming us. I'm sorry."

Hellena turned away, tears leaking out the corners of her flame orange eyes.

Or so she thought.

Patriatic got up and used his magic to heal his wounds on his back-legs and ran towards Hellena, "Is there anything wrong dear mare?" he asked her, "didn't you win?"

"Shuddup... You haven't- You-" Hellena frowned up at the sky with a glare. Loony watched warily from the shadows, glimmering red eyes the only things visible to the standard passer-by. "How didya... how... Only the Mediziner t-twins can... heal themself that quickly... What? Oh..."

Her horn glowing a faint gingery orange, she dragged her axe to her hooves from where it lay, a few metres off, as she continued to ramble gibberish. To Loony, though, it was a full conversation between the gaps.

"Healing... magic... doesn't... it doesn't... hh, no, Loony, they were a special case. What? Hah... no, no, it still took them weeks... even with their ambience... to get back on their hooves. No, Josephina... told me herself... The psychopath... no, she isn't a liar... just a psychopath..."

"Psychopath? Loony? What are you ranting about?" he questioned, his front legs aching with pain making it hard for him to move fast.

Hellena shook her head. Rolling onto her side, pausing to let out a hacking cough, she continued. "None of- your... business." she muttered, glaring into the shadows where Loony was snickering. "Don't you start... may not be a real pony... but I can still teach you a thing or too..."

"Perhaps there is some trauma you'd like to have lifted of your shoulders, maybe your essence is plagued by a hard troublesome past?" he questioned.

"Oh hey Bar-kiss... When did you get here?" The orb dropped to S1D3's hooves where he held it up while us bod was propped up on his flank and read legs, "Ther seems to be quite an interesting fight going on over there," he had turned his head to look out into the trees, "That boom almost made me jump if it hadn't been so sudle," he then looked back down to the sphere, "I wish you hadn't been so carefree with this pod," he was talking to Sicolus without aknowledging who he was talking to at all, "Now there is no guaruntee that it I'll work efficiently."

--

Ash's eyes saw an array of light shine through his eye lids. He tried to open them, but his muscles refused to obay order. Attempting to role over, he found his body was bound to something, come to think of it his eyes were open, but they were covered by some material that restricted movement. This place had to be a prison of some sort, it just had to be a tourtureous location, a place for the end of ones life in a stream of pain and agony. But then a voice whispered, in a sing-song tone, into his ear, "Let the wind roar and the ground rumble, it will send the house a tumble. In the mist you will burn, even after the moon had turn. Give me one, I will live. Give me two we will die, while everything falls into the sky," the sound I've bodily movement suggested the pony backed away, "Gusts of stench fill the streets, and the ground gives way under their feets. Know the sound, know the weather, but only I can put one together," a soft laugh hummed before silence followed. Ash could feel his heart racing from the fear of who this was.

I thought he was dead and gone. You dealt with him did you not? Why is he here, why am I not dead from that sign post? Why me, of all ponies, The Sheppard finds me.

"Honestly..." Hellena hissed under her breath, pushing herself to her hooves shakily. "Wha- what does it take to shut you up?"

Loony vanished; Hellena had an accurate guess as to where.

Even she feared her associate's reaction; and the dream inhabitant was oblivious to it.

---

"Bloody hell," Grey swore, looking out through the trees, thankful for something to break that awkward silence. "What is she doing?"

"Who?" Argaent replied quickly, his expression of haughty suspicion as he stepped forwards, tail swishing uneasily.

"Hellena. You remember her, right? I recall you being on friendly terms with her temporary split personality."

"Good thing it was only temporary, Mr. Calibre, Mr. Zephyr. A great, big mess that I had to clean up."

Barkis looked over to the smoke, "Indeed, but it looks like fire there, mostly powerful pyrokinesis with electrokinesis...if it more than just a thought, we should check over there to hunt for survivors..." he commented.

---

"Nothing dear, I'm just here for answers, nopony else seemed to be able to have pulled that of without some form of magic." he explained, still following.

Hellena coughed again, wiping a splatter of blood from her chin with a shaky hoof, before spitting a glob of saliva and blood and answering. "What- what about my magic? Are you- You're gloating, aren't you? Yeah, cause... I let my guard down for a moment... hah... Really, I don't know... apparently my parents were nobles... a glass smith and a scholar... not of much skill, of course. So, where does it come from?"

"What? Oh no, I am not. I'm not even sure if even I won because you were up first." he explained in further detail.

Hellena attempted to snort contemptiously, but it came out as a gurgling cough. "Eh... whatever. Expect company. I don't... hh. Loony went off to find Grey, I think, maybe... Yeah. Grey won't be happy to see him..."

---

He'd been following his mistress and her colleague around for the last few days. Despite the fact that unusual things tended to happen to them a lot (he would've stressed the 'a lot'), he couldn't really conceive anything particularly interesting to observe on his little venture. Of course, Loony didn't count on his mistress getting into a particularly nasty fight, even for her tastes, or that her colleague would be harbouring resentment towards the dream being.

"Ggh- Calibre-!"

Or that said colleague pinning him to a tree with a surprisingly powerful hoof.

Loony wasn't having the best day.

"Explain somethin' to me, pipsqueak," Grey hissed, almost nose-to-nose with the pink 'colt', ignoring Argaent's indignant complaining and aghast expression. He'd only just noticed the purple filly, but he'd enquire about her later. "Why would you even dare showing your little rat face around us, after what you did?"

"Loony? Is that the essence that fueled your insanity in the battlefield?" Patriatic questioned.

"No." Hellena stated simply, looking back at her side grimly. Wincing when she prodded a rib with a hoof, she elaborated. "Loony came from the dream realm. He's supposed to be Hope, or Happiness... or something. I-I don't know, though. He's a cocky little asshole. Fo- for someone so-" she paused to cough, "-so ancient, or whatever, he's too far ahead of himself."

---

"I would thank you to show a little restraint, Grey Calibre." Loony hissed back, struggling. "I didn't come here to be manhandled by the likes of you."

"Heh, you're right." Grey laughed humourlously, drawing one of his knives.

"You couldn't kill me even if you tried." Loony replied coldly. "And believe me, ponies HAVE tried. Two thousand years doesn't go by without cultists trying to sacrifice you to gain your power. What do you have that they didn't?"

"More what you don't have, Loony. Don't play me for a fool, you gave up your immortality two years ago."

"Fine." Loony teleported in a burst of red magic, reappearing beside the tree he had been held up against. "Go ahead and kill me. See how mistress will react. Oh, and that reminds me," he wiped some dirt off of his shoulder. "She's found herself in a bit of trouble with that idealist lunatic. You tw- hm, three- heard that boom, right?"