I was living in a state of worry. I had workers and patients and visitors on a nearly daily basis only a week after the Rovers first appeared. I had promises and contracts and even challenges to my rule, though those were a long way off.
And any day now I was expecting to be gone. I had destroyed the trio of circles protecting the castle the day after my first drinking binge and spent every morning thereafter awaiting D's imminent arrival. The addition of new friends and visitors did nothing to encourage hope for longevity.
This morning I knew he was coming. I could feel it in my skin, in little shivers that ran up and down my spine. For over an hour I sat and listened to monstrous roars and the sound of trees being toppled get closer and closer. Every other creature had vacated the courtyard, though a few were watching from windows and doorways.
When he finally appeared in the castle gates I was completely unprepared for what I saw. He was powerful, tall, dark, and deadly, He still wore the humanoid form with a skull face and thin antlers, and still had shadow and smoke boiling off of him in a show of just how much power he had to spare.
He was also upside down.
In chains.
In a net.
In a rickety cage.
Between three separate sealing circles.
Covered in tree sap.
And soaking wet.
Pulling a wobbly cart holding this ramshackle prison were four equally sap coated and soaked crusaders. No one said anything for long moments as I eyed the whole setting warily, the crusaders caught their breath, and D did his best to glare me to death.
"Alright," I said, "Someone tell me what is going on."
"We-" Apple Bloom huffed, "We went ta get your friend, so ya could talk an work things out."
"You thought the best way to do that was to set a trap for him?"
"Oh no." Scootaloo said.
"Then why-" There was a snapping sound from the forest, followed by another monstrous roar.
"We set HUNDREDS of traps for him. This is just the one that got him."
"I- I see. Why are you all soaking wet?"
"Well..." Sweetie Bell said.
"Why did we set more traps?" Apple Bloom cried as she hauled on the wagon, dragging D along.
"Pull now, ask later." Scootaloo yelled.
Behind them, the crashing sounds grew louder as the enraged sap and string covered Manticore came closer.
"We're not gonna make it to the bridge at this rate." Sweetie Bell said.
The crusaders gathered round the wagon, eyeing the irate demon caught within and looking for a reasonable escape. The path along the river was clear, but the bridge was simply too far away. The castle lay just on the other side. Twist spotted a section ahead where the river split into a series of shallower streams.
"I have a radical idea." Twist said. "it can't follow us into the casthle. We just need a shortcut."
"Great! How?" Sweetie Bell asked
"We cross the stweams."
The others got a worried look on their face
"Excuse me Twist," Scootaloo said, "You said crossing the streams was bad."
"Cross the streams..." Apple Bloom said worriedly, eyeing the cage held together with equal parts craft glue, scotch tape and tree sap, all of which could be washed away.
"You're gonna endanger us," Scootaloo continued. "You're gonna endanger Sarah. The nice lady who helped us before she got banished."
"Not neth-ith-tharily," Twist said, laying a confident hoof on the cage. "There is definitely a very sthlim chance it will survive." The cage wobbled slightly under the pressure.
All four stood still for a moment pondering this. Then there came an ominous Sproing of another trap going off, followed by a furious roar, even closer than the last crash.
"You know what?! I love this plan!" Desperate, manic energy filled Scootaloo as she resumed pushing the cart with all her might. "I'm excited to be a part of it! LET's DO IT!"
I stared at the five of them for a long time, trying to process the thought that D, an inter-dimensional spirit who had helped me survive countless encounters, had just been caught by four children. Incredibly industrious children, but children none the less.
"You got caught on purpose, didn't you?" I asked.
"Yes." D said, then swung slightly in the cage. "Initially yes. The net looked like something I could easily get out of, and I knew they were friends of yours since they kept coming and going from the castle. I figured I could sneak in this way, find out what horror you were planing for me, and break out. I was not expecting the cage. Or the circles. Or the tree sap."
"I've learned to always expect tree sap when it comes to the crusaders." I said with a deadpan tone.
"Well, here I am." D spat bitterly, "At your mercy. Why don't you do it already?"
"Um, do what exactly?"
"Bind me back into your arm! Drag me back to ARCO."
"Back to ARCO?"
D grumbled and shifted in his bindings. "I was finally free after that circle took you home. I and Machina didn't expect you to come charging back in with both princesses and a contingent of guard!"
"What are you talking about?! The circle failed, I was knocked unconscious and had the Nightmare spirit sealed into my back."
I can't even leave because of the seal the Elements of Harmony placed on me!
"So... you didn't come back with plans to re-capture Machina and I and force us to bond with you again?"
"No! I stood trial for everything we had done and got banished out here. When you attacked and showed everyone just how powerful you are the Princesses placed a gease on me and bound me to this damned castle. I-" I paused and pinched the bridge of my nose. "You know what, let's get you out of that cage. It's very distracting to talk to you while you're upside down."
The crusaders began to pull at the cage, and it came apart with surprising ease. The chains and net however had become glued down with sap, but they were at least able to sit D up against the castle wall.
"What happened? After I left, after the Element Bearers came?" I asked him. "Why were you so strong but Machina..."
"We thought the circle had only taken you and maybe the Nightmare, that we had gotten left behind. Whether that was a miscalculation on our part in the circles design or an effect of the Elements was unknown to us. Enough of the circle was left that Machina was able to rebuild it, and we tried to go to our own separate homes."
"You sent Machina first." I said. Since he was the only one who could use magic, it made sense to send her first and follow after. "You powered the circle, but it didn't send her home."
"We didn't know it was broken. It tore her to pieces. We wondered if it was an aftereffect of the Elements or maybe something ARCO had done."
"Why are you so hard up against ARCO?"
"Because they are liars!" D shouted, "They promised me and Machina the chance to travel to other worlds and experience limitless power, but you never bothered to release us from our initial locks."
"Now you have completely lost me. What locks? You seemed pretty strong for B class entities."
"B class? B CLASS?! We are S class entities damn it! Why did you never use the unlock commands? There were dozens of times where our power could have saved us, but you never did anything."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"We are forbidden to. It's part of the seal, so we can't try and seduce our handlers into letting us just roam free."
"Hey, hold on thar." Apple Bloom cut in. I looked up, having forgotten that we had company. "Are ya saying ya are even stronger then we thought you were?"
"Well, not now. Between the circle, the Elements and everything else I probably wouldn't be much better than a B class, maybe a low A. Give me a few months to rest and recharge and I'll be back in fighting form."
"They never told me." I muttered.
"What?" D asked.
"They never told me you were S class. They just said you were B class and showed me how to restrict you."
"You should have gotten that information when you upgraded from B class."
"You are my first spirits! How could you not know you were my first spirits?! We have been traveling for three years!"
"You never stopped to say! You never stopped to do anything! We barely got any downtime, just eight hours of sleep and another mission. I was never really sure if the higher ups were just shoving things at you faster than normal or if you just jumped at any chance you got."
I walked over and began pulling at the net and chains, tugging here and there, scooping away glue, sap and mud. "That was a little of column A, a little of column B." I said, "You know I lost my arm in a car wreck."
"I can't regrow it. Even fully unsealed I would be hard pressed to give you your arm back."
"I can get by without it, but it's more the reasons for the crash."
"You were drunk."
"WILL YOU SHUT UP AND LET ME FINISH?!" I yelled. D leaned back.
"Sarah...." Scootaloo said nervously, "...your eye."
"What about my eyes?"
You never noticed? You get this blue flame from your right eye whenever you get too angry. It's happened since you started letting me out at night.
"Well THAT sounds perfectly safe." D said.
"It was that or let my nightmares manifest in reality. You know some of the places we've been. I didn't want to expose this world to those...things."
Some of the castles other residents, mostly the braver Ruby Rovers and a handful of gryphons were starting to come back into the courtyard.
"So you've just been hanging out in the castle, building an army of creatures and mastering magical circles. You've spent months preparing to hunt me down and I just gave myself to you on a silver platter."
"One, you're not bound anymore. Two, look at these creatures. They are all battered, wounded or hungry. I don't have an army, I've got a refugee camp."
"Well you can't deny you've been doing magical research. I could feel some of those spells even out in the woods."
"Yup, you got me," I said as I finally worked his arms free enough to free himself. I dug my hand into my pocket and pulled out five charged gems. Picking the smallest one, I tossed it to him. "I've been working on perfecting a circle that passively charges gems with magical energy. Other than that, my last research project was a karaoke spell in the eastern ballroom."
Swetie Belle gasped at that, her eyes wide with wonder.
D just arched an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Hey, not everything here can break into pitch perfect dance numbers on cue. Some of us have to practice."
"Your Majesty," Reggie called, running up, "Is everything alright?"
"'Your Majesty'?" D asked with a grin.
"I have a castle, and apparently that is enough for some people. At least I got them to stop calling me princess."
"What is that?" A zebra asked, daring a little closer. I realized that this would be better worked out as fast as possible.
"Everyone can relax. This is D, shape shifting spirit, magical power house and the most feared monster in all Equestria."
"What?" D's eyes went wide. "Feared? Me? What did I do?"
"Step right up and see the ultimate magical predator! Changelings can take love, windegos feed on anger, and dragons munch gems, but D can suck down any magic of any kind from any source with but the slightest touch."
Most of the creatures backed away at that.
"Hold on, I'm not anywhere near that powerful. If I was, the Princesses would have-"
"Such a threat was he that, in order to keep hi movements, Princess Celestia HERSELF bound the one thing he wanted to a remote location."
"Now I know you're lying. The only thing I was concerned with was you, and you are-"
"That's right everyone! The Princesses were so terrified of this creature's ability to knock out their best spell slingers in the kingdom that they banished someone they had just given a full pardon to." I held up my arm, showing off the faint glow of the gease. "ME!"
"I thought that was what held Nightmare." D said.
Please, that little bracelet can't even keep my power in this castle.
"This is what's holding Nightmare." I said, pulling the back of my tunic up over my head. It still preserved a bit of decency, but not much. "See! There, that's everything. Any questions?"
Everyone was quiet for a little bit and I started to calm from my outburst.
"Why are four of the outer symbols in color?" Reggie asked.
"....What?"
"Four of the symbols are in color." D said.
"....What? How are they in color? Why are they in color?"
"You didn't know they were in color?" D asked.
"I can't exactly look at my own back. The only time I saw the seal at all was a photo at my trial, and that was months ago."
"Well, the're in color now." he said. "Looks like an apple, a balloon, a gem, and a butterfly. Only ones left are a lightning bolt and a star."
"But why those four? And what do the symbols mean?" I asked, "It's been so long since I last saw the elements or their bearers that I can't remember."
Don't ask me, I only saw them for a moment each time they were used. Last time I got a good look at them, they were all diamond shaped.
"Hey, maybe we can tell you!" Twist called out.
"Oh yeah!" Scootaloo piped up. "I know Rainbow Dash's is the lightning bolt, and she's the bearer of the Element of Loyalty."
"Hey," Apple Bloom said, looking around. "Where's Sweetie Bell?"