//------------------------------// // The Possession // Story: Circle of the Moon // by GJT_Productions //------------------------------// "Come along P2, you know what Snake's message told us - we must sabotage their efforts!" "Yeah P1, but how can we even get in the town, let alone conduct an attack? We're too conspicuous with the Poison Joke affliction!" "That's why I have a plan. We're going to the ruin of the Two Sisters castle." "What for? What are we even going to find there?" "The Pony of Shadows, once nightfall comes around at least. I intend to strike a bargain with it, somehow." "Isn't that just a legend though?" "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But after Luna was proven real, I'm more willing to believe the legend than not. And we don't have any other real options to carry out Snake's will." "If you say so, P1." "Good, now hurry, we have to avoid alerting anything that could eat us in this dusk..." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LATER THAT EVENING, AT CAROUSEL BOUTIQUE... "Come on Rainbow Dash, don't be so skeptical of this! It's for Princess Luna, and Princess Celestia herself is involved in this." "Yeah, but one of those big burly bat ponies as Pinkie Pie?" "Na-na-na-na-na BAT MARE!" "Pinkie, that's really not helping right now..." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight Sparkle - trying to convince Rainbow Dash to support Rarity's efforts - and Rarity herself working on the costumes break out in chuckles as Rainbow Dash facehoofs at a costumed and grinning Pinkie Pie. All around them are costumes on dummy versions of ponies that resemble the Element Bearers themselves, as well as a few others, including one resembling a manticore and another that looks like a large black-coated alicorn. "But this Bat Mare costume would be perfect for you, Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie Pie exclaims in response to Dash's gesture. "I already had a costume for this Nightmare Night. Now I'm saving it for next year." Dash replies cynically. "What's that?" Twilight Sparkle asks curiously. "She based it on those 'Shadowbolts' she encountered on the bridge leading to the Castle of the Two Sisters." Rarity answers as she works, manipulating needle and thread with her unicorn magic. "I didn't know you liked them that much. I'll have to remember to tell Luna about that." Twilight Sparkle comments. "Sure, right..." Dash mutters to himself, prompting another round of chuckles from Twilight Sparkle, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. The chuckling was cut off when the ponies heard a scream coming from outside, also stopping Rarity's work in her tracks. Briefly they exchange worried looks before Twilight gasps out a very important piece of information: "That's Fluttershy's screaming!" "Then she might be in trouble, come on!" Dash exclaims in response, already zooming past Twilight and Pinkie Pie toward the Carousel Boutique door. "Wait, but the...!" Rarity exclaims in turn, reluctant to leave her work. "Sorry, this is gonna have to wait!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Outside the Boutique, several ponies are galloping away from a pair of very odd looking stallions: pegasi wreathed in black smoke except for zebra-like stripes glowing a bright orange. These two odd stallions were attempting to grab a struggling and screaming Fluttershy when Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie emerge from Carousel Boutique. "Let go of her, ya fiends!" Applejack exclaims, rushing in from another direction and attempting to smash the black stallions off balance by bucking one of them with her hindlegs. Instead, the attack simply rebounds off, and the off balance Applejack flips over on her back. "Yeah, let go of her!" Rainbow Dash adds, also trying the rushing tactic at the stallions. This time, a purple glow "shield" forms in front of them, and Rainbow Dash rebounds off this shield in a direction none of her friends can see. The distraction allows Twilight to quickly charge a magic blast from her horn, which she fires at the potential abductors. This breaks through the glowing "shield", causing the stallions to recoil back and drop Fluttershy, who runs off to see if Applejack is alright herself. "Taste my party cannon!" Pinkie exclaims, having summoned up her non-violent use artillery for more aggressive reasons, but before she can fire - or anypony do anything else - the two stallions seem to disappear in a poof of smoke! "Where'd they go?!" Twilight exclaims, looking around desperately in the low moonlight for the attackers. Another scream, this time from Rarity, quickly provides the answer, and Pinkie Pie only spares a moment to look over at Twilight before both rush back into Rarity's business. "Get back, back you fiends!" Rarity was screaming, attempting to wield a broomstick to chase out the two black smoke-covered stallions, which had apparently teleported past Twilight and Pinkie into the building. Twilight and Pinkie attempt to rush the two stallions from behind in support of Rarity, but before they can attack the black smoke turns purple and seems to "explode" of them, knocking down all three of the stallions' opponents. When they recover - assisted back up by Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash having followed their friends into Carousel Boutique - the attackers are gone, but Rarity's hysterical screaming shows something else is missing. "THE COSTUMES! ALL THE COSTUMES ARE GONE! IT'S THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!" Rarity exclaims, nicely encapsulating the problem she was now facing as she collapses on a "drama couch" Pinkie somehow manages to push underneath her from somewhere - don't ask where, it's Pinkie Pie after all. "Ice cream! I'm going to need that ice cream you gave me after all, Rainbow Dash!" Rarity exclaims again, using her magic to remotely open a freezer in a back room and levitate out a large tub of vanilla ice cream. "Woah woah woah, time out!" Twilight Sparkle shouts in turn, intercepting the levitating ice cream tub and focusing the disarrayed attention of the other ponies in the room on her. "We've done this rush job before when it came to Hoity Toity, we can do this again! Come on everypony, let's start getting the materials for new costumes!" Twilight shouts optimistically, but the other mares, looking between Rarity's distraught expression and their own concerned faces, seem reluctant to do anything at all... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MEANWHILE, AT FORT CHAOS... "Ugh, what happened? There was this big shadow, and then... blank. You know what happened, P1?" Agent of Chaos P2 asks in the quiet of their hiding place in the Everfree Forest, moaning and rubbing his head with a forehoof as he speaks. "Beats me, but I feel like I just woke up after having five ciders. Ooof..." his partner P1 answers from beside him, also moaning and rubbing head with a forehoof. "You remember anything?" P2 asks his partner again. "I don't know, it was Ponyville somewhere... very trippy. I don't even think it took away our Poison Joke effect." "Buck it all! Hopefully we did something chaos-causing though..."