Discord's Haunted Castle

by Thestralicorn

Chapter 3: Turnabout is Fair Play

Twilight, Starlight, and Spike headed slowly down the hall towards the library.

"Might as well check the other doors on the way." Starlight stopped at the first set of double doors in the hall, then squinted.

"Oh right, no horn, guess I'll do it the Earth Pony way." Spike and Twilight each leaned back as Starlight put her hoof on the handle and pulled.

Inside was a jumble of mops and brooms.

"Okay," Starlight exhaled. "Nothing scary." She rooted through the cleaning supplies. "No candy pot either." As she stepped back, the door slammed shut on its own, causing them all to jump.

The next door was an empty closet, and didn't slam. Neither did the one after that.

"Discord must be saving the REAL scares for later", observed Spike. "I'll bet AAAAAAAAAGH!"

A hydra had burst out of the door Spike was about to open. Its five heads lunged for him and the ponies, then vanished.

"OK," panted Twilight, "well played Discord, <wheeze> well played."

The next few doors were opened without incident. Then they came to the library.

"Ready?" asked Twilight.

"Ready!" asserted the other two.

"Here goes..." Twilight pushed open the door, and they all walked in.

At first everything in the library looked normal, aside from the webs and eerie blue light. Then Starlight noticed a thin object floating on its end in the center of the room.

"Wait, is that..."

"The Staff of Sameness!" gasped Twilight.

"That stick you used to take other ponies' cutie marks?" asked Spike. Twilight glared at him.

"What? I'm just making sure we're on the same page!"

"What exactly is it doing here," asked Starlight as she approached it.

"Discord likes to hit below the belt," Twilight said ruefully.

Suddenly the Staff jumped towards them. Two streams of energy shot at Twilight and Starlight, then pulled their cutie marks into the prongs of the staff.

"No!" Starlight leapt at the staff, which zipped away from her. Twilight circled around to her left, then lept at the staff on her right. The staff dodged. Spike tried to intercept it, but it jerked away from him as well. The three kept pouncing on it; each trying to drive it towards the others, yet no matter what they did, it kept slipping through.

"This is ridiculous," exclaimed Twilight. "how are we supposed to catch this thing?"

Starlight tried a different tactic. She slowly crept towards the staff, which was now floating in place.

"Come on, come to Auntie Starlight, you remember me, right? Just...hold...STILL!" She made a grab at it with her hooves, but once again it jerked out of reach.

"I've about had enough of this," Starlight said angrily.

"Me too!" Spike took a deep breath and blew out a stream of flame, which hit the staff and reduced it to ashes. Starlight and Twilight's cutie marks flew back to their owners.

"Well that was...a workout." Starlight looked at the heap of ashes. "Nice job, Spike."

"Any time." Spike brushed the front of his costume, looking quite pleased with himself.

"Yeah, good call," said Twilight. "Let's poke around for that pot and get out of here."

"I guess it was only fair," mused Starlight. "I never did give up my own cutie mark, so now I know a little about what it feels like."

Comments

[Xanatos Speed Chess]

Except the Staff was fake; Starlight herself was the one removing the Marks (hence why she never removed her own -- she couldn't, because her talent in magic was needed for the spell to work).

[Thestralicorn]

8516778
I knew that, but I also figured if she could make it look like the staff was magic, so could Discord.