Chapter 29 Promo: Worlds Fall · 10:10pm Feb 2nd, 2016
Base art by Pyrus-Leonidas and Ask:Drakomod
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Harmony narrowed her vision and ushered forth another pulse from her horn as she stood before the window to the human realm. Having been watching the sirens and kaiju closely, she’d seen Enjin coming and had been trying to give Monster X and Aria forewarning of its arrival the first moment she saw it. But unfortunately, like trying to push a bubble underwater, something was keeping her from reaching out to the group. Something was keeping her power from influencing the realm, and that observation was the most startling for her.
It meant someone was blocking her. As for who, they weren’t slow to make their presence known. A low voice echoed across the ethereal chamber, more akin to several voices speaking in unison from multiple directions than just one tone.
“I suspected someone of importance was tied to the tree…”
It muttered as a hazy shade filtered across a majority of the dimensional window. The visual of Aria and Monster X became blotted out by an invasive nothingness that swallowed up half the window. A second portal to another realm revealed itself, having been forcefully opened on top of the first and being responsible for Harmony’s communication being cut off. Her words of warning had gone to another source, another realm, and someone had been listening. An energy spike the likes of which the harmonic nexus had never encountered before began to gush out of the portal. A plethora of red eye shines looked back at Harmony. A heavily distorted, blurry mass of pure mana and physical mass made its way through the window. Harmony’s hooves clicked across the glassy walkway as she backed up. A figure, heavily obscured by a black energy shroud and a blurry image of its body, stepped onto the platform. Multiple sets of eyes, the only part of its body visible with any clarity, opened and looked about its surroundings. The intruder’s visage, while obscured, bore a distinct outline, one broad nasal horn flanked by two bull-like brow horns. A long tail lined with several spines slithered out of the portal and thumped against the glass walkway. While still not nearly at full strength and only roughly twice as tall as Harmony was in this ethereal realm, the lord of Zenith’s mere presence was wrought with waves of unnatural power that seemed to taint the very air around it. The Avatar of Extinction, Bagan, had arrived.
Harmony didn’t need be told what she was looking at. She’d suspected there was a master pulling the strings to the recent plots, and now he stood before her. She winced slightly from a gnawing chill, sensing temperature to such an extreme was a highly unusual feeling for someone like her. Far from a normal cold, the snowless blizzard was clearly an unnatural aura that passively accompanied the eldritch; for she could sense it was coming from Bagan himself and not the portal. Still, the incarnation of the realms’ world tree held her nerve as well as her ground. Bagan locked all of his eyes upon Harmony as the portals behind him resettled to an even split between Zenith and the human realm. One set of eyes mounted on the shoulders glanced over at the visage of Enjin as it dropped down in front of Monster X and Aria.
“It was a ploy of mine that you’d be watching the conflict, if you existed. Tracking down this realm was difficult, so I made sure I’d get your attention and draw this place close enough to Zenith. Close enough that I may cross through.”
Bagan spoke in a disturbing calm. He’d gambled from the beginning there might be some sort of celestial or magical higher up in this realm as there had been on Terra. An overseer much like he’d been once. True, Enjin’s deployment had mostly been an endeavor to acquire the kaiser energy. But, as Bagan had correctly guessed, the Aspect’s arrival would cause enough logistical trouble in that realm that it would require someone he suspected existed to draw in closer. Close enough that her realm got near enough to Zenith that Bagan could open a second portal without burning too much energy. With them both connected to the human realm, all he needed to do was patch the tethers together. With eons of experience, Bagan never was one to just have one plan at a time.
Harmony tilted her head up and let her radiance shine, pushing back the wayward energy and cold emanating off of Bagan. She brokered a stoic expression and retained all of her focus without a hint of faltering. Bagan wasn’t the only experienced immortal in the realm.
“So, I presume you are the one who brought the kaiju here?”
“The apes were the ones who begot that first folly, I needed only take the reins away from them. Their slight will be corrected in time when I return to Terra.”
As it spoke, Harmony detected a spike in its energy output. It was mana, much like Mothra Lea’s or the Shobijin, but in a far purer form that was magnitudes more potent than even the former’s. Even without a direct, active comparison she could tell the entity before her was easily four times stronger than the guardian moth; and this was just its passive output. That monstrosity in the human realm was easily one of the most powerful forces there, but it was merely a fraction of the whole. And, something told her this wasn’t even the full extent of itself.
“And; in light of the loss of both the Electro-Orbs and the night mare's amulet, allow me to gander that you choose to invade this dimension, and its accompanying realms, to sap its resources and regain your strength?”
Bagan turned its head away from Harmony, casually looking back over at the standoff between his hunter and its quarry.
“Invaded is a misnomer. But, I do plan to grant this place and the realms tied to it a gift as I restore myself, before I return to Terra to do the same. It has worked thus far and I am not without gratitude.”
“And, what might that gift entail?”
An eerie silence passed over them for a short while. One by one, each of Bagan’s sets of eyes looked back at Harmony as he stood still, the action done in a disturbingly unnatural manner that wasn’t helped by Bagan never raising his voices above a tranquil stoicism.
“The inhabitants of these realms have souls, do they not?”
A moment ticked by and the benevolence twitched. The horrific realization slowly dawned on Harmony, granting Bagan the first genuine reaction he could get out of her as her eyes widened and jaw dropped slightly. In an instant her brow furrowed and the avatar’s glow intensified. She hated violence, only deeming it and its associated emotions such as wrath and scorn when absolutely necessary. This was one such time. The white and bright purple light overtook her eyes and she spoke with a shaking tone that would make the royal Canterlot voice seem like a whisper.
“You. Will. Not!”
Her declaration shook the nexus realm with a gust of wind that was soon chased by a wave of energy flying free from Harmony’s pronged horn. The white wave crashed into Bagan, who turned and dug his hand into its forefront. Brilliance crackling along the invader’s arm, he physically grasped the crescent of magical energy and stopped its forward advance before shifting his stance and tossing it into space. The projection sailed for a long distance before denoting with a star's brilliance. Light rained down from above, cloaking Bagan and the dark haze steaming off him. The blurred visage of multi-rowed fangs with liquid shadow drooling out from between them snarled, Bagan advancing forward to stampede towards Harmony; the glassy walkway cracking with each step.
In a world away, and out of sight by anyone, the crystalline bark of the Tree of Harmony pulsed with a stressed light. One of the Elements of Harmony's gemstone-like faces began to crack.
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YEP! Chapter 29 is not just the conflict with Enjin, we got a literal clash of gods. And in a more atypical affair than you're normal kaiju rumble, we got arguably the strongest Equestrian magic user against the stronger Terran magic user. So I'm writing it more as a wizard's duel on top of the normal fighting.
Damn! That's quite the promo!
Shits about to get real.
Geeze, talk about an epic cliffhanger!!
I got almost everything right. Didn't get who was talking, and the colors, but meh. I at least got the dialogue. That counts for something... right?
So this bad guy wants to close the book on the universe. And the deities are basically going to be DragonBall styled flashlights at each other until one of them suffers enough pattern destabilization for the other to either disperse or consume. And either the status quo is preserved or the darkness grows. Does harmony have no friends?
Oh hell yeah!
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That, I believe, is the greatest advantage that Harmony has over Extinction. You cannot have a harmony with only one voice, while extinction is the death of all, including itself.
Then for a later chapter, Super Godzilla is born!
Oh man, oh man... this is quite the dire situation. Obviously Bagan isn't going to be defeated here, which can't mean anything too good for Harmony. >_<
3729272 Well... not if Godzilla Jr. has anything about it.
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Trouble is, nobody even knows that either Harmony or Bagan exist, or how to get to Harmony's dimension. For the time being, Harmony is on her own.
3729287 Well the thing is... Godzilla Jr. will become the ever famous, Super Godzilla!
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Maybe eventually, but it doesn't make sense for that to happen right now.
3729296 For now, yes.
Oh crap!!
reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/holy_schnikes_tommy_boy.gif
OF COURSE!! Binary code!
It's a fight for the ages; eons in the making.
Now this, I didn't expect. I look forward to how this will go. One issue; I cannot (at this time) view the images. This is (hopefully) a minor glitch on my end and will clear up soon.
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I can think of one, potential, ally that might intervene (for who, I cannot say.)
It is my personal belief/head cannon that Discord and Harmony are opposing entities/spirits. It is known that Discord can sense magical disturbances so should know about anything that would damage the Tree of Harmony. Part of their differences is that Harmony is largely passive and spiritual where Discord is largely active and physical, hence why Discord is better known and more frequently seen. So the big question would be how Discord views Harmony? As a hated enemy? A rival? A... sibling?
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Hey, that's actually a really good idea. '3'
I don't know if anyone else is having this problem, but all the pictures in the past chapters and this promo are coming up as the little black X boxes that wont display even when I choose the show picture option. Anyone know what's wrong?
Also who else thinks Kindness is the stone breaking?
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Which chapters? They seem to be working for me
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Chapter 28. Along with this post I tried to look at your Watching the Finale post. I can see the mini picture in the list but when I click on the post its another X that wont display.
Oooooh, i so love this magnificent story. And every time Bagan shows up, he just keeps showing how much of a disturbing, creepy, but also badass demon he is. And also quite cunning as well, since he seems to carry plans within plans, as well. My kind of villain, still. Now, we just gotta wait to see how this encounter goes down. Because even though he's still not at full power, i imagine he's still strong enough to deal with Harmony. Though i doubt he's going to kill her: just deliver a message of a.....clarifying kind. See you when the next chapter comes out!:D
p.s. I also notice that you might have picked Pyrus-Leonidus's second form for Bagan as a basis. If so, even though i don't expect you to tell me (no spoilers), then it'll be even more awesome.:D
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Huh, I can see chapter 28 okay, but yah the finale pic seems gone. That's weird. Well sometimes FimFic has bugs in it that get worked out overtime. It should come back soon. If you want to see chapter 28's pictures, they're still up on Faith-Wolff's DA.
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I'm getting the same issue. For some reason, the images are lot being downloaded. Why? I can't say. It may be an issue with the site, it could be a network glitch in between us and the site, or it could be the images themselves didn't make it to the site.
Is anyone else seeing or not seeing the four images on the top of this post?
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I'm noticing it. For some reason the pics are not showing on my Mac but are showing on my phone.
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Alright, from now on I'm starting a habit of uploading the direct link to the images along with the image themselves.
*EDIT*
I just reuploaded the images and they still aren't working so, yah definitely FimFic being screwy right now. Should blow over soon.
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WOW! Quite the promo. I literally forgot all about Harmony.
Nevertheless, THE HYPE IS REAL!!!
3729647 I still will think of him as his Neo form from Kaijusamurai.
3729968 Well, i won't argue that. In fact, i kinda see that as his second form, with the demon form as his final stage. But, either way, i'm very eager to see how Faith-Wolff draws him when he finally shows himself.:)
ooooooooooooo! Things don't look good for Harmony! Bagan is going to clobber her with his self-important posturing!
DAMN YOU BAGAN! DOES YOUR PRETENTIOUSNESS KNOW NO BOUNDS!?
Finally I made an Account here!
Anyways, Oh we're gonna have a rumble in our hands here. HARMONY VS EXTINCTION!! F**K YEAH!!
3731256 Welcome aboard, my friend. Glad i wasn't the only one who came here, too. But anyway, you're right: this is gonna be an EPIC SHOWDOWN!!!
I would think of Bagan's form as a mix between his Neo Counterpart http://kaijusamurai.deviantart.com/art/Godzilla-Neo-BAGAN-139214454 and Diablo Lord of Terror in his Prime Evil Form http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/diablo/images/3/3a/Diablo_Diablo_III_full_body.PNG/revision/latest?cb=20120513133435
3729562 I never thought about that little theory; Discord and Harmony are opposites of each other.
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I will confirm that if we get an illustration of Bagan, we won't see him in his finalized state given it's not back at 100% yet. He'll be sort of shadow-like akin to Enjin, and look distorted and blurry somewhat similar to the TV version of Reverse-Flash.
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Thanks! I felt that it's time for me to join this Epic Ride
3732011 Heh. I know what you mean.:)
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The idea of opposing spirits being in balance with each other is common enough that a connection between the spirits of harmony and disharmony strikes me as very likely. The fact that the show's cannon has just such a balance of opposites in the Alicorns of Day and Night only helps to support such thinking in my case.
3732355 Eeyup. Opposites attract. It's like Yin and Yang.
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Posturing? XD
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Bagan has become one of the very few villains I love to hate. Which for you is a good thing, your heel is generating a response.
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Well tis better to love to hate than just hate hate I supposed
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BTB, I'm thinking of making a video reaction for my next Bridge review, along with a transcript. It'd take me little longer, but it could be done.
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Length might not be helped given the chapter is only 70% done and it's already breached 18,000 words. It just might usurp chapter 28's record.
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That's okay, I'll just do what any good Showa film did, and throw in a bunch of stock footage.
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Yin/Yang
Love/Hate
Order/Chaos
Life/Death
Angel/Devil
Harmony/Discord
As I said, a very common theme indeed.
Bagan VS Harmony....this is gonna be so many levels of fucking EPIC AS BALLS