Destination: Thataway!

by Hawattie

Round Four... Fight!

So, as it turns out, time didn't stop entirely when I went into my mindscape, instead merely slowing down. I know this because when I went into my mindscape, Skittles was over on the other side of the room having just collided with a wall, but when I came out of my mindscape I found myself inches away from Skittles's snapping jaws.

I won't say for certain, but I probably shrieked like a little filly.

My preservation instincts kicked in hard and I backpedaled away from the big, scary, undead dragon. It was only by sheer luck that I happened to have my back to one of the very few sections of the floor that hadn't already been eaten away by the glistening oil.

Skittles' snapping claws and swiping jaws missed me by inches, but I was unable to avoid the glistening oil kicked up by his rampage. I frantically tried to wipe the oil off, remembering the futility of this action from last time, and was pleasantly surprised when my hooves tingled and a wave of light washed over me from head to tail, sweeping the oil away.

"Oh right," I remarked, "I've got badass light magic powers now." I flashed a smirk at Skittles. Focusing on the steady tingling in my hooves, I reached to my hip and mimed drawing a sword. My smirk stretched into a wild madpony grin when a ridiculously oversized claymore materialized in my hoof.

Skittles paused, regarding the twelve-foot sword I had just pulled from nowhere. "Compensating?" he asked. By some miracle I rolled a nat 20 on my perception check and noticed that while it was Skittles speaking, the tone of the question indicated that it came from Ner'. I filed the information that Ner' could take direct control of his minions into the "interesting trivia" section of my brain.

Then, since I'd been asked a question and it would be rude not to reply, and since I was such a mature, responsible pony, I responded by sticking my tongue out at skittles and making a few sparkles shoot out of the tip of my sword.

"Impudent whelp!" Skittles roared, I idly noticed it was actually Skittles talking this time, indicating that Ner' had released control.

The enraged dragon lunged for me, but I was ready for it and intercepted the attack with the tip of my sword. The point dug into Skittles' jaw and the odor of burning flesh swiftly assaulted my nose.

Skittles roared in pain and recoiled away from my sword. I could see a sizable hole had been burned into his face. The sudden motion jerked my sword out of my hooves, and it dissolved into sparkles almost as soon as it left my grasp.

Note to self: Light gets super hot when condensed into a physical object. I'd have to be careful not to accidentally burn one of my friends.

Despite having a gaping hole in his face, Skittles recovered quickly and made another attempt to bite me in half. I didn't give him the chance.

As soon as I noticed he was about to attack I reached for my magic, imagined a wall and stomped the ground with both forehooves. A brilliant barrier filled with dazzling sparkles erupted from the tiles, stymying Skittles' attack. I stopped focusing on the wall and it dissolved into sparkles just as fast as the sword had.

I wondered to myself, 'if I could make a sword and a wall out of light, what else could I make?'

The answer, it turns out, is pretty much anything. I started off simple, making a pie and throwing it at Skittles' face, then moved on to crazier and zanier objects including, but not limited to, a butterfly net, a cartoonish anvil, several different kinds of inflatable pool toys, and a facsimile of Boneless the chicken. Skittles was such a good sport about the whole thing; always attacking me predictably only to back off when my burning light constructs struck various parts of his body.

This wild experimentation also helped me understand the limits of my new magic. While the different objects reacted realistically, meaning my sword cut while Boneless sort of flopped around, none of them weighed anything and they were all the same uniform color that my lasers had been. In addition, if an object was larger than a breadbox or was more complex than a child's drawing, it was physically draining to create, took nearly all of my focus to maintain, and dissolved very quickly if it got too far from myself. For instance, while I was able to make a baseball pretty easily and chuck it a good long ways, I was nearly panting with exertion by the time I finished pulling a 1:64 scale model of the pony of liberty out of my back pocket and it didn't even make it three feet from my outstretched hoof before fading away.

Finally, after receiving a particularly vicious smack upside the head from a glowing frying pan, Skittles realized that the direct attacks he'd been doing weren't going to work anymore and instead began stalking about the edge of the room like a very large cat, eyes alert for an opening. I pivoted in place, magic at the ready, warily watching the dragon for signs of aggression.

"You are most infuriating, little pony," Skittles growled.

I gave a short little bow. "Thanks, I really try."

He didn't gratify my quip with a response, he merely went back to circling in silence. Silence, as you know, is one of my least favorite things in the whole wide world. Naturally, I tried to fill the silence.

"So Skittles," I said. The dragon scowled at my use of his nickname, but did not interrupt. "What's your home like?"

That caught him off guard. He nearly stumbled at the unexpected question but he recovered so quickly that I almost didn't notice. "Why would an insignificant pony like you care?" he countered.

I shrugged. "I'm curious why you're so eager to get back there."

Skittles' circling slowly stopped and the great dragon sat down facing me. Once again the motion reminded me of a very large cat. "Very well," Skittles relented. "The plane of New Phyrexia is the only true utopia in the universe."

I tilted my head in curiosity and motioned for him to continue.

"All is made of metal, shaped to perfection by the glistening oil. Through the oil, my Lady whispers her comforts and commands to me." Skittles trailed off. His gaze unfocused and wandered away from me. I was about to say something but he continued, his voice so soft I nearly missed it. "Without my Lady's whispers I am lost. So alone."

My patent-pending madpony grin slowly spread across my face as I got an idea. "Hey Skitheryx," I called. My use of his actual name caught the dragon's attention immediately. "Do you know the nature of Ner's summoning magic, specifically do you know how he plans to send you back?"

Skittles thought for a moment. "I believe the necromancer's spell is tied to my life force."

I ran that through my head. Life force = living, right? "Wait, so would killing you send you back home?"

He seemed mildly uncertain, but gave a resolute nod. "Yes, I believe so."

"But then wouldn't you be dead on arrival?" I asked.

Skittles nodded again. "It wouldn't be the first time, and it probably won't be the last. Your necromancer is not the first planeswalker to summon me in this way."

"Oh cool!" I chirped. "Then I've got a plan which will help us both out." I pointed at a nondescript wall on the opposite side of the chamber from where I had entered. Both of us completely ignored the locked iron door set at the base of the wall.

"I need you to carry me thataway!"

Author's Note:

And here we are!

Apologies for the long wait; I've been working as a summer camp counselor and have virtually no free time.

Anyways, please leave feedback, I love getting comments.

Stay awesome. Try not to die.