//------------------------------// // Chariot of Smoke // Story: The Tale of the Triad and the Jinni // by Mr. Grimm //------------------------------// A continuous grinding squeal echoed through the twisting tunnels of Grogar’s lair. Wheels cast of black metal crunched over dust and dirt as a sinister chariot was hauled through the stygian darkness. An armored centauress held the rattling reins in her clenched fist while six grotesque changelings stood behind her with eerie stillness. A billowing mass of sooty smoke hovered over them, the cinders within it casting a hazy glow that gave them all just enough light to see the three struggling shapes that yanked against silvery chains of their harnesses as they pulled the chariot along. “We’re slowing down,” Erebus purred through a fiendish smile, “Give them some motivation.” The centauress nodded her helmeted head and raised a long, snaking whip over her shoulder. It lashed forth like a bolt of black leather lightning with a deafening crack that drew panicked jumps from the three battered creatures that drew the cart. Chrysalis looked over her shoulder at the jinni, eyes blazing with venomous loathing from her bruise-blotched face. “You beat us all within an inch of our lives,” she snarled, her voice dripping with hatred, “It’s a miracle we’re even able to move this collection of junk.” “Junk?” echoed Erebus, his voice quivering with mock hurt, “Were you not delighted with it, my queen?” His snicker oozed like filthy oil down the tunnel as Chrysalis silently simmered. “He’s right you know,” grunted Tirek, glaring two blackened eyes at the changeling, “If you hadn’t asked for this stupid chariot-” “Shut up!” barked Chrysalis, baring her teeth as her head spun to face her horned companion, “You’re just as guilty as we are, so stop acting like we’re to blame!” “I only asked for one thing,” Tirek retorted, “You’re the ones who wouldn’t stop with the frivolous requests!” “All I asked for was some ice-cream; you wanted an all-seeing artifact!” Cozy growled from beneath her disheveled curls. “You fools are all to blame,” Erebus chimed in, “You indebted yourselves to me the moment you uttered a wish.” A fiery tongue ran along the edges of the jinni’s jagged mouth. “It was your own greed that gave me strength. But if it’s any consolation, I shall still grant your wish and destroy that lowly beast that calls itself an emperor.” “How thoughtful of you,” Tirek muttered grimly, “Then I suppose it’s off to conquer Equestria?” The ifirit’s snaking fingers stroked his jaw as his eyes crackled with a contemplative flare in their cavernous sockets. “I cannot deny that there lies appeal in destroying a kingdom,” he mused, yellow streamers of flame wriggling through his teeth, “To bring ruin and corruption to such weak and naïve creatures would bring me no end of joy.” “I hope Twilight and her idiot friends obliterate you!” hissed Chrysalis. Tirek scowled and swung an elbow at the back of her head, clenching his teeth to stifle a cry of pain as it struck the changeling’s oversized crown. “What?” Chrysalis sneered in the centaur’s grimacing face. Tirek narrowed his eyes and motioned a slashing claw across his neck, but his arm drooped wearily as the ifrit suddenly spoke. “Who is ‘Twilight Sparkle’?” gurgled the dreaded voice from the darkness behind them. “No one,” Tirek blurted, “Chrysalis is just speaking nonsense. That beating probably knocked loose bits of her brain.” He winced and gritted his teeth again as Chrysalis rammed a metal-clad hoof into his foreleg. “He’s lying!” Tirek’s clawed hands curled into fists as Cozy’s piercing voice suddenly swelled through the cave. “I’m aware, child,” Erebus hissed as the centaur cringed under his gaze. His torchlight eyes turned their harsh beams to the pink filly as she straggled along in her chains. “Who is Twilight Sparkle?” “All I’m going to say is she’s somepony who could stop you,” Cozy said cheerfully, her smile turning sly, “But if you let us go I might~ remember a little more about her.” “An interesting proposition,” said Erebus, sounding almost amused, “But I’ve one of my own. Suppose you tell me what you know, or I’ll put your spine into a knot and fill your belly with gold.” A bit of color drained from Cozy’s face. “I see,” the foal muttered, “You could do that. But if you threatened me I could lie to you, and then she’d still beat you.” “You could lie to me even if I set you free,” huffed Erebus as his dark brows knitted together. “True, but you could say you’re going to free us and then not do it once we’ve told you,” Cozy answered, “This whole thing doesn’t work unless we trust each other. When I was in friendship school, we learned—” “I’ve a growing desire to disfigure you whether or not you tell me anything,” Erebus growled, his dark body looming ominously over the filly, “Tell me at once who Twilight Sparkle is.” Cozy’s pupils shrank into pinpricks before she coughed into her hoof. “She’s an alicorn princess,” she murmured, “And she’s got super-duper powerful magic and, well, she’s probably gonna kick your butt.” Tirek groaned and slapped his palm against his forehead. “These insects possess the power to defeat me?” Erebus scoffed, “The Ifrit of the Valley of Serpents?” “Don’t underestimate her,” sneered Chrysalis, “She has friends, and they cheat.” “She has friends,” echoed the jinni, his eyes glowing deviously, “Then they can be turned against each other.” “Discord already did that,” replied Cozy, “It didn’t work.” Erebus raised a sooty eyebrow. “Discord? The Spirit of Chaos?” sizzled the spirit, “He failed to stop them?” “It gets worse,” Chrysalis snorted, “They infected him with…friendship.” She gagged, uttering the word as if it were poison. Erebus rumbled, his roiling masses of smoke darkening like a thundercloud. “Perhaps he can be persuaded to abandon them,” the jinni pondered aloud, “It is in his nature to go against order, and the havoc I intend to wreak will surely appeal to him.” “Tirek did that,” said Cozy, “He even got him to help him take over Equestria, but the ponies’ hold on Discord was too strong and he went crawling back.” The filly winced as she felt Erebus’s glaring eyes begin to sear the air around her. “Discord was always a soft-headed fool,” he grumbled, “His power was governed by a weak and childish mind. That these ponies have him for an ally does not concern me.” The ornery scowl on the ifrit’s face began to shift and waver into devilish smile. “But he does care for these ponies, does he not?” “Regrettably,” muttered Tirek. Erebus uttered a dark chuckle that hung heavy in the stagnant air. “Then I shall entrap them as I’ve done to you,” he purred, “When he beholds them enslaved to my will, he shall do as I command.” “And just how will that stop him from taking them from you?” growled Chrysalis, “If anything that will just infuriate him.” The changeling wheezed as her bejeweled collar suddenly gave a metallic creak and tightened around her windpipe. Cozy put a hoof to her mouth and cringed. Tirek frowned and glanced back at the jinni with powerless scorn. “Because when they are mine, my brainless queen, I can do as I please with them,” explained Erebus as he watched Chrysalis stumble in her harness, eyes bugging out of her skull as she struggled to breathe. “I could end their lives at any moment of my choosing.” The changeling let out a tortured gasp as the crushing metal relented and freed her airway, taking in huge gulps of stale air as she trembled with pain and fury. “I will never belong to you…” the queen spat, her voice a lowly hiss of caustic loathing. The very sound of it sent shivers scuttling down the nooks and crannies of her companion’s backbones. “You already do,” Erebus said with a shrug of his hunched shoulders, “And if you do not yet believe it, you soon will.”