The Fight for Friendship, part 2
Previously, on my little pony…
“It’s the Spring Equinox Celebration. The one day of the year that the sun and moon share the sky at the same time, the day that symbolizes true harmony between the two celestial bodies that govern our world.”
“All that you know is at an end…”
“even if there is a time where you must face adversity alone, remember your friends, and they will be with you in spirit”
*CRRRRK* *CRRSH**KRRRRT*
“FREE. AT. LAST.”
“My name is Ruinate, and I’m going to be taking over this world.”
“T-t-twi…light…the elements…of harmony…you…must…unlock…Amity’s…”
“prepare for an everlasting age of bloodshed and agony…and welcome YOUR NEW GOD!!!”
My Little Pony, My Little Pony
Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahhh…
(My Little Pony)
I used to wonder what friendship could be
Until you all shared its magic with me
Big adventure
Tons of fun
A beautiful heart
Faithful and strong
Sharing kindness
It's an easy feat
And magic makes it all complete
You have my little ponies
Do you know you're all my very best friends?
The battle for friendship, part 2
Panic. Terror. Abject paranoia. This was what coursed through every pony’s mind as the screams resumed. Hooves pattered every which way and bodies collided with one another as everypony scrambled to try and get as far away as possible from the black towering giant that single handedly defeated their almighty rulers with but a solitary swipe of his claw.
Ruinate’s laughter quelled as he took in the cries of anguish like he was drinking fresh nectar from a honeysuckle.
“It never gets old. The despair, the hopelessness, and pure simple fear. Now then…” He rubbed his claws together. “Step two, if I’m going to get this world back into tip top shape, I’ll need a few helping appendages.”
The shadows beneath him suddenly stretched out, encompassing as much ground as possible. The ponies froze in their tracks as all routes of possible escape where cut off by the dark pools. From them, glowing violet eyes opened, and shapeless primordial forms emerged from the ooze.
“Hello my darling wraiths, I got some new bodies for you!”
Immediately, one of the shapes lunged out and completely enveloped its nearest victim.
“Bon Bon!” cried out the sea green unicorn next to her.
A muffled scream came from the cream colored equine as she flailed flat on the ground. But as the shape started to condense on the pony’s form like a shell covering it, the struggle soon stopped altogether. Slowly standing up, the pony-wraith turned back towards Ruinate, stepped forward with a few staggers, and kneeled down in deep reverence.
“Hail…Ruinate!” came its twisted and hollow voice.
The screams started up once again, but slowly died down as more and more of the townsponies fell victim to the shadowy body snatchers. Crossing his arms in satisfaction, Ruinate let out a deep chuckle.
“Soon my dear planet, you’ll have lava fields and noxious swamps coating your surface yet again. Oh, and let’s not forget all the dear species I’ll have to re-genesis. I think I’ll start with the dreadnaughts…”
One of his three eyes then swiveled back at an open space where six ponies had been standing. It narrowed as it saw no trace of the six or that his wraiths had taken them.
Twilight scrambled through her chest of personal treasures as she fished for her element. “Why is it, that the things I need right away are always at the bottom!?”
Her head jerked up as she heard the door open. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy all rushed in, wearing their elements of harmony, necklaces that bore a colorful gem matching their cutie mark. Ever since the changeling invasion, Celestia had decided it would be safer to entrust the most powerful artifacts that ensured Equestria's stability with the ponies that could actually wield them instead of keeping them locked in a vault out of their reach. It certainly saved them a trip to Canterlot in this case. A split second later, Rainbow Dash crashed in through her second story window with the same.
“We got our elements Twi, what next?”
Twilight finally levitated a large tiara with her cutie mark gem embedded into it out of her chest. “We confront this Ruinate, defeat him and restore the princesses.”
“Will…will it really be that simple?” Fluttershy worried. “He…he won against the princesses so easily… and he’s so big…and frightening.”
“Pony up Fluttershy! The elements have never failed us before! Well, there was that one time with Discord, but that didn’t count!” Rainbow Dash reassured her nervous friend.
Twilight started to fasten the tiara to her head. “Right, and hopefully, we’ll have the element of surprise on our side as well-”
The library was suddenly flooded with a pitch black darkness as an unknown force ripped the elements from her telekinetic grip and off the necks of her friends. Individual barriers of malignant energy burst through the floorboards and trapped the six mares as a large visage of three glowing red eyes and a large fanged grin greeted them from the seemingly endless nothingness that was once the room they were in.
“SURPRISE!”
Ruinate chuckled deeply as the blackness dissolved and converged onto him, bringing his form into view as he held the elements in one claw, and Twilight’s friends, still trapped, in the other.
“Seriously though, this is quite the unexpected turn of events. No wonder the alicorns were so much weaker than I anticipated. The elements had forsaken them for new bearers! Though why they chose an even more inferior gaggle of specimens is beyond me.”
“I’ll show you inferior you giggling fume-brained lummox! Let us out!” Rainbow Dash banged her hooves against the barrier.
“Ah ah ah! You didn’t say please.” Ruinate taunted as he shook the little marble the brash pegasus was in, rattling her around until her eyes spun. “Like I’m dumb enough to let my sister’s handiwork even a chance to work on me twice anyway! I never make the same mistake twice.”
“Sister? Twice? What are you going on about?” Twilight demanded as she switched from her friends, to the elements, and then to her enemy.
“Oh, that’s right. Your dear ‘rulers’ barely even recognized me, of course you’d be in the dark.”
He then ripped a wall out, and fashioned a makeshift chair out of it while keeping his captives levitated, and sat down with his legs crossed, leaning backwards in a relaxed fashion.
“Since I’m going to be dominating this place for a long long time, I might as well take some of it to enlighten my new subjects. Let’s start at the beginning, which was a long long long time ago…”
“Oh, boy! Story time!” Pinkie Pie squealed as she clapped her hooves. “ I really hope there’s a fairy godmother in it!”
Ruinate waved his hand to create a large portal-like window to act as a screen. “I’m a race called the sentiox, sention for singular. We were the crafters of worlds, holders of the eternity code, and wielders of the causality engine, in a more perspective view for you, gods.”
Images of large and imposing beings appeared before the screen, each remotely different in appearance. One was tall, stick-like with three legs and arms and one giant blue eye, and another one was gaseous with a cloud-like body, hovering with no legs and had ball shaped hands. Another still seemed to be nothing more than a pair of floating eyes with a top hat and two six fingered floating gloves.
“We were also shapeshifters, having no true form, we left it up to our imagination and picked our favorites as the norm.”
“Were?” Twilight inquired.
“I’m pretty much the last one around. The others have either moved on to another plane of existence, never to return or…” He gave a slicing motion across his neck with a finger. “kkkssssst!”
The picture then changed to a large maui head taking large clumps of clay, soil, and other earthly material, and sculpting it into a rotating sphere.
“As I mentioned, this was eons ago. Not a lot existed back then. But we decided to change that. Each and every one of us crafted our own little worlds, habitariums to decorate the vast emptiness and fill it with life.”
As he finished, the maui-like sention lifted a large torch and blew heavily, the flames emptied from the tip and swirled into a ball of burning gas, a sun. Then it took the ashes from the tip of the torch spread them over the surface of the rock, clapped its palms together in a prayer fashion, and from the ashes, soot like creatures crawled out on five legs, their beady brown eyes extended from their round bodies to survey their surroundings.
Several more sentiox and their worlds flashed by. A large bipedal sention with a slender dirt body and long leafy hair held up a world with deep blue oceans and thick green forests, populated by what appeared to be almost hairless apes that tirelessly worked to cultivate the land. Another was a giant metal figure that pieced together a metal planet that looked like it was held together with bolts and screws. After inserting a large piece of energy from its chest into the core, the planet began to move on its own, its surface folding out huge skyscraper cities with autonomous shape shifting machines like an assembly line. A third sention, a bulbous headed octopus-like being, swirled together a huge sphere of water that was held in place by thirty different moons. Massive whales with elongated snouts and winged seals breached the surfaces.
The ponies stared in awe and fascination at many wondrous terrains and lifeforms the sentiox created, Fluttershy particularly.
And then Ruinate materialized in the window, holding a battered and scarred planet. “And then there was my creation. A wasteland of veritable proportions. Filled with nothing but fiercest and grotesque life to bask in its neverending pain.”
Everypony gasped as they got a closer look at the planet. Volcanoes blasted non-stop in the distance, raining fire upon large misshapen lizard-like beings that were cannibalizing each other while maggot-like leeches wriggled beneath their skin. Another scene showed massive insects trying to fly away in a toxic swamp, only to have their too small wings fail them as they fell into the muck and drowned while fanged carnivorous plants roasted them in acid to digest, then ignited themselves when the swamp vapors caught aflame. A sea of sand swirled as bony spiky felines, shuffled along in agony, emancipated and smoking as if they were literally evaporating, collapsing into the sand as winds buried them underneath the dunes.
“Such a beautiful sight, wouldn’t you say?”
“Certainly not!” Rarity exclaimed, “How barbaric! How disgusting! How morbid and uncouth!”
“You…you created a world and filled it with life just so it could enjoy watching it suffer? W-what kind of a god are you?! You’re a monster!!” Twilight cried.
“You big bully! You’re the biggest Meanie McMean Pants I've ever met! And that’s saying something because I've met quite a few meanies!” Pinkie waved an accusatory hoof at him.
“Yes, my brothers and sisters thought the same thing. They just couldn’t appreciate the beauty of my artistic devastation.”
“Ah’m surprised them other sentiox just up and let you make a world like that!” Applejack’s hooves stomped angrily as she threw her two bits in while Fluttershy had her eyes squeezed shut with a mixture of whimpers and sobs coming from her mouth.
“Whoever said they did?” Ruinate crossed his arms as the image now flashed to a group of sentiox, who approached him and forcibly yanked the planet from him.
“’No no no’, they said. ‘This is a blatant misuse of your powers. If you can’t treat a world and its life properly, then you don’t deserve one!’ They just took it away. My jewel, my perfect creation! I never complained about how they structured their respective Edens, what gave them the right to critique mine? Oh, but only if it had ended there. No, they had to cross yet another line!”
The screen switched to a scene where the other sentiox handed Ruinate’s cracked and torn world to a small sentiox equine in appearance.
“They went straight to my little sister, Amity, the most serene and gentle of us all. They told her ‘Please ‘heal’ this world and its inhabitants, do not let them suffer for our brother’s misguided views’. And so she did.”
Ruinate’s words started to drip with venom as Amity cast her arms over the surface. The feral jungles shrunk into quiet forests and lush meadows. The stormy skies filled with acid rain over the dead seas vanished as the water turned from a menacing brown-red to a clean blue. Many volcanoes became snow capped mountain ranges, those that remained stopped exploding and only dribbled slow flows that spread rich life giving ash.
“My deadly landscape became calm and peaceful.”
Amity then cradled the rabid and grotesque creatures in her arms, warm energy emanating from her, slowly transforming the eldritch beasts in the more recognizable creatures the ponies knew that, while still dangerous in ways, were much friendlier and mild in appearance.
“My beasts became tame and docile!”
Amity then extended her hands once again, placing a ball of light in the middle of the circle of the less scary creatures.
“And the final straw….”
Out from the ball of light stepped little foals with both wings and a horn.
“She placed her own primes in, practically stating to the entire cosmos that this was now HER world!”
The little alicorn foals playfully nuzzled the now tame monsters and galloped over the fields, laughing in joy.
“MY IDEAL PARADISE! STOLEN! DEFACED! DEFILED! AND I HAD NO SAY IN IT WHATSOEVER!”
He then coughed as if he was regaining his composure. “So I did what any child would do if they had toys taken away from them. I got even.”
The screen faded to black and lit up again as it now showed Ruinate hovering over a large green planet covered with tree like creatures.
“They wanted to wreck my world? Fine, I’d wreck theirs.”
His claw morphed into a monstrous chainsaw and sliced the planet in half, then quarters, then eighths, then into fine sawdust all the while laughing. Everypony gasped again as they heard the shrieks of that world rise up and die out in but a second.
“In retrospect, I actually have to thank them for giving me the idea. Tormenting one world was a gas, but a couple million? It was like an all-you-can-eat buffet of nothing but desserts!”
Ruinate now gleaned over a planet that’s surface seemed to be coated and decorated with assorted candies and had various gummi creatures roaming around. He then took a huge bite of it, chewed thoroughly as he tossed up the remainder and hocked a spitball at it, splattering it to the stars.
“Each world had such a new and unique flavor, and I had so many ideas on how to ruin them, how could I not try them all?”
Ruinate rose up, blindfolded, to an icy planet with glistening mosaic patterns etched on the surface with animated crystals, and shattered it with a makeshift bat-arm.
“Yes…it was as my brethren said. Why should I create, when it feels so much better to destroy!”
Ruinate grabbed a smooth metallic planet, and crept on his toes and rolled it into a set of other planets lined up like bowling pins, which all exploded on contact.
“Of course, my siblings didn’t just sit there and watch me stomp all over their precious worlds.”
A large winged figure with no lower body, a masked face with cross markings, and lances for arms rose between Ruinate and a crescent shaped planet that had an army of feathered serpents and lizards rising from it to join their creator.
“No, they tried to defend their little creations. They rallied their strongest genesis and confronted me as I approached their gardens.”
The sention immediately began to clash with Ruinate as they traded blows.
“But there was one little difference between them and me that made their efforts futile.”
The flow of the battle started to become one sided as Ruinate savagely tore off his opponents limbs.
“The willingness to do ANYTHING it took to get your way!”
He plunged his arm through the other sention’s chest, and its body dissolved into a mess of feathers and disappeared.
“Yes, ‘evil’ as I was, they still thought of me as their brother. They hoped to merely ward me away and teach me a lesson, but they would never ever think of actually offing me on the spot.”
A massive gear with eyes on each of its eight spokes rotated several pearl chains and binded Ruinate with them.
“Too bad for them I had no such qualms.”
With a flex of his arms, he broke free, grabbed his foe, and with a headbutt split it in half.
“After all, it was just as fun to wreck other sentiox as it was their creations!”
A trio of small fairies, each a different color, encircled him, trapping him a vortex of energy.
“So while they held back, I pulled no punches!”
His tail shifted into a sharp sword, and skewered all three in the head at once as he inhaled the barrier.
“And so, after several dozen bouts of mirthful rampage, I came round full circle, back to the place my little sister now called her own.”
He slowly approached the once barren and repugnant world, now brimming with wonder and beauty, Equus.
“To my surprise though, it was not Amity that greeted me, but her prime race, the alicorns, all by themselves.”
An army of winged and horned mares and stallions hovered at the rim of the atmosphere as the belligerent creator descended to meet them.
“In fact, she was nowhere to be found. It seemed hilarious. Amity, the most the caring and nurturing out of us all, abandoning her children to save her own life.” Ruinate laughed in the image as he spewed forth his miasma to consume the pitiful battalion. “Thus, I let my guard down.”
The alicorns lifted six glistening gems and poured their magic into them.
“Amity had played a nasty trick on me. Instead of combating me directly, she had done something that no sention had ever thought to try. She purposely stripped herself of almost all her power, and crafted it into artifacts that she gave to her offspring to wield against me.”
A blinding light melted away the torrent of malice and enveloped Ruinate as his expression changed from smug confidence to stunned surprise.
“I did not realize her deception until it was too late.”
The energy began to swirl as the space around it folded and opened.
“But like the others, Amity would not finish me off, and neither would her children. So instead, they decided to open the void, the boundary between dimensions, and stuff me in there, where I could do no harm and ‘reflect’ upon my actions for a very very long time.”
The screen vanished as it showed Ruinate roaring in anger as he was sucked into the abysmal nothingness, and the folds of reality came together and sealed him in.
“T-that’s how the elements were made? That’s how we came into existence?” As much as Twilight knew how dire their current situation was, she could not help but feel utter fascination and excitement at the startling revelations of origin that had just been revealed to her.
“However…Amity was as naive as she was nurturing if she thought a simple ‘time out’ would make me change my mind! No, I decided I would just wait until they all left to cultivate more worlds in other dimensions. And then…well, here I am. Ready to take back what’s mine, and then the rest of this universe’s playthings. And none of my family is here to get in my way this time!”
“Oh yeah? Well, we still are! And so are the elements!” Rainbow Dash spat back triumphantly.
Her swagger quickly deflated as Ruinate pulled her close to his face, his eyes giving a fiery glare that chilled her to the bone. “Which is exactly why I’m making it priority one to rid this world of these pathetic trinkets once and for all!”
And with a deep, hearty, laugh, he melted into a shadowy mist again and whisked out the opening, taking the elements and Twilight’s friends with her. They all cried out in panic for help as Twilight bounded to the jagged edge of the opening, and pulled herself up just in time to see the dark pulsing mass disappear into the sky, leaving only a black swirling vortex that stretched to the horizon.
“No…no! NO NO NO NO!”
Twilight’s eyes fought back tears as feelings of helplessness came over her. The princesses were gone, Ponyville was in ruins, everypony in town was possessed by shadows, the elements had been lost, her friends were captured…
Everything she knew…was at an end.
She curled up into a fetal position, on the verge of bursting out into sobs. Suddenly, a flicker of movement in the sky, caught her attention. She barely had time to look up when a grayish Pegasus with a large saddlebag fell through the roof. Shaking her blonde mane of dust, her uncoordinated eyes looked at both Twilight and the bookshelf twenty paces to the left from her, and she giddily grinned as she pulled out an envelope.
“Mail call!”
“D-ditzy?” Twilight was at a loss for words. “Wh-what are you-? How did-? And you-? What’s going on here?!”
“I’m doing my civic duty of course. Express letter for Sparkle Twilight! Neither rain nor snow nor sheets nor walnuts will keep me from-”
“No Ditzy! What I mean is, how did you escape from the wraiths? I was barely able to teleport myself and my friends away during the confusion!”
“Oh that’s easy! The Doctor came and saved me and my muffins with his screwdriver!”
“Who?”
“Oh, that’s right. Only I call him Doctor, everypony else only knows that alias thing, uh, whatever that is. What was it again? Time…Twister? Anyways, he told me to give this to you while he got my muffins to safeway.”
“You mean safety.” Twilight then opened the envelope and looked at the letter only to nearly drop it.
This was princess Celestia’s hoofwriting! B-but the princess was currently a lifeless crystalline figure! How could she have written this? “Wait. How did this Doctor get this?! Ditzy wait! Where are you going?”
Ditzy turned from just outside the opening of the wall. “Oh, I gotta get back to the TARDIS now. The Doctor said something about symbiotes, wormholes, rift jumping, and inter- collisionary dimensional energy, and that he needs my help if he’s going to be saving the universe from the other end. See ya later!”
“The what? The who? Wait, Ditzy! None of this makes sense!”
The wall-eyed pegasus had looped out of earshot already though, leaving Twilight to look at the message that should have been impossible to write.
My dearest Twilight Sparkle,
If you are reading this, then Equestria and the worlds beyond it are in peril from the sention called Ruinate, and both your friends and the elements have fallen into his clutches. But there is still a way to prevail against these odds. Make your way to Canterlot. Ruinate is holding the elements and their bearers in the palace hall. Enclosed with this letter is a crystal that will be able ward off the sention’s power, but it only has one use. Use it wisely.
And remember Twilight, your friends are always with you in spirit. You will not be facing this threat alone.
Celestia
Twilight read the letter over again, then once more as a feeling of determination set in. This was not the time to give into despair! There was still a chance for her to overcome Ruinate’s plan and save Equestria! She was going to head to Canterlot, rescue her friends, and unite the elements of harmony to defeat that evil crafter of worlds for good! Not even he would be able to overcome friendship! Packing her saddlebags with necessary provisions and the crystal that had been in the envelope, she boldly leapt out of the hole in her wall, and briskly galloped off towards the walled city in the distance.
“Just you wait til I get out of here! You ugly excuse for a dung heap!” Rainbow rammed her shoulder against the walls of her containment yet again.
Ruinate just simply stood there and laughed. “Wow, still no luck? Don’t worry, twenty-sixth time’s the charm!”
He had propped the ponies into tube-like chambers of his miasma, while the elements sat adjacent from them on a pedestal. The wide throne room they were in was completely devoid of any decorum or color, only darkness illuminated by bone-like torches with purple flames.
“Just what are you planning to do with us?” demanded Applejack to his turned back.
“Didn’t I make myself clear back at that hovel I spirited you away from? I’m going to destroy the last threat to my conquest, albeit it an infinitesimal threat, the elements of harmony!”
“I highly doubt you’ll succeed,” Rarity scoffed. “Cretins and villains before you have tried and failed miserably!”
“Ah, but they did not have the one thing I do. Inside knowledge. I know more about how those elements of yours work than even you.”
He began to pace back and forth before them, eyeing each one of them as he passed.
“Amity was a clever little goddess, I’ll give her that. Not only did she infuse her power so that would be compatible with her creations, she installed a failsafe by allowing them to be bound by their bearers, a binding that keeps the power intact even if the physical vessel is eliminated. And it works both ways as well. I can’t destroy the elements, they’ll just regenerate inside you. And I can’t simply off you either, the elements will just find new bearers."
“Then it looks to me like yer wasting yer time trying to get rid of the elements if’in there’s no way to put them out of com-ission!” Applejack snarkily declared.
“Oh, but there is,” Ruinate stated with a raised finger. “The elements need a medium of sorts if they are to remain bonded to their bearers, and Amity’s choice of medium just happened to be the essences of your souls that are tied to that power. All I need to do is eliminate that medium and the flow between the item and the wielder will vanish while the connection remains, rendering both useless.”
He leaned in close to the chamber holding Fluttershy. “In other words, I rip out your souls, smear them against the walls, and the elements go bye bye forever!”
The meek pegasus squeaked and huddled beneath her hooves.
“And just how do you plan on doing that?” asked Rainbow Dash, trying to get him to focus his attention away from her timid friend.
“Easy.” Eleven hands emerged from his back, five clasping the top of each of the tanks, the other six grasping the elements. “I attune myself to the elements’ essences while draining and debilitating yours. When I’m finished, I’ll be able to simply reach in and fish out the part of you that houses your element’s power to devour, smash, mince, blow up, or decimate in any way I deem acceptable. Then you’ll be nothing but a living husk that your element will be unable to utilize. Easy peasy, one two threesy, and then I’ll be laughing all the way to the four corners of the globe where it’s a blue light special on death and destruction twenty-four-seven.”
“I believe you’re forgetting one important detail,” Rarity chided. “Twilight Sparkle.”
“Yeah! Twilight’s not gonna just sit there and let a big meanie like you do whatever he wants! She’s going to save us and then we’ll use our elements of harmony on you! Pew pew! Friendship beam! Super effective! And easy peasy, one two threesy, we’ll be the ones laughing all the way to the we saved Equestria from big dumb meanie Ruinie party!”
Ruinate regarded Pinkie Pie with a sly grin.
“Oh, I didn’t forget. The elements only work together. I left her behind on purpose! Once I’ve plucked your essences out, I’ll be sure to dispose of her as well. And as for her rescuing you? I highly doubt she’ll get here in time if she ever gets here at all. Especially since I left a few surprises on the way.”
He then waved his claw to bring a pool of vision into view for the ponies to see. Twilight came into view as she galloped up the path to Canterlot.
“Let’s see just how well her little rescue mission goes shall we? Oh, by the way, I’m going to start the attunement now. Just so you know, it’s going to hurt.”
The mountain trail to Canterlot was not the most ideal path Twilight could think of for those in a hurry. Even at full gallop the journey would take at least half a day, but she had no other choice. The train station was too heavily guarded by the wraith-ponies, and her balloon would make her a sitting duck to the fierce storms overhead. She wouldn’t be discouraged at the exhausting sprint ahead though, she was Equestria’s and more importantly, her friends’ only hope.
After about a half hour of running, she finally reached the mountain base, where a narrow, stony road cut through the white cliffs. She had taken only five steps inward however, when the ground began to shake. Turning around, she saw a wall of stone rise up, cutting off the way back. A low, growling chuckle echoed around her. Looking to the way forward, Twilight saw a large fork in the road, and the two diverging paths were blocked by huge stone paws, paws that were connected to a large beast with two heads, one feline, one draconic. They gazed at her with toothy grins.
“Trapped you are in our deadly snare,” hissed the raspy voice of the cat head.
“No way back, but two ways forward. But to safe haven only one,” boomed the dragon head.
“Who are you?” Twilight asked.
The two heads looked at each other with devilish smiles.
“We are the Duo Sphinx, blockers of the routes of many.”
“Two ways there are to go from here, but only one we will open for you.”
“One shall lead you closer to your destination.”
“The other certain doom!”
Twilight looked to one stony paw, then the other. “I take it you’re not going to just tell me which is the right way are you?”
“You have but to ask, a question for us each. Then choose the path you believe is correct.”
“Be forewarned though, one of us tells only the truth, and the other only lies.”
“A hint for you we grant, the way of the liar is way you should avoid.”
Twilight pondered this awhile, and her eyes lit up.
I’ve read about this riddle before. Two towns, the town of liars and town of truth sayers. The pony on the path belongs to one of the towns and we want to go to the town of truth. So the correct question to ask is…
“Which path are you guarding?”
The dragon head nodded to his right, and the cat head glanced in the same direction.
Bingo! The right way is to the right! Does Ruinate really think he can divert me that easily?
Twilight was about to announce her choice when she looked closer at the Duo Sphinx. Their expressions had not fallen, in fact, they seemed to be smirking gleefully more than ever now.
I just solved their riddle, shouldn’t they be more disappointed?
As Twilight pondered this thought, another one came to her, a memory of her and Applejack…
“Here you go Twi, a good half a dozen fugis. That’ll be twenty four bits.”
“Thanks Applejack. Here’s a little tip as well.”
Applejack eagerly accepted the extra two bits. “Golly! Thanks Twilight! That’s another two bits I can put towards that new plow.”
“You still haven’t gotten that yet? I’m surprised. You sell out almost everyday. It can’t be that expensive to maintain your farm.”
“Yer right, it’s not like I’ma runnin one of them fancy smancy factories, but the problem is, I don’t make as much as you think. When you got as much land as I do, you get a pretty hefty tax at the end of each season. And the stuff I sell is only a smidgen of what the orchards produce, the rest of it gots to be made into preservatives or put in storage for the winter, and a large chunk of the crop rots before then, which eats into even more of the farm’s profits.”
“It sounds to me like you’re in need for an unsaturated market.”
Twilight turned to notice a tan stallion with several black spots and a covered wagon cutie mark approach the stand.
“Trader Joe, at your service. I happen to run shipping company and couldn’t help but overhear that you have an outrageous surplus towards the end of every harvest. I believe I just might have the answer to your problems.”
“And that is?”
“An offer of my services. If you will allow it, I will provide transport of your goods to other neighboring towns, and send the profits back to you. Simple supply and demand, a larger customer base equals a greater range of lucre.”
“That sounds great!” Twilight said. “This could solve all your problems, Applejack.”
Trader Joe then slid a large stack of papers over to the orange farm pony. “Of course, there are a few legal matters that must be settled before we start working together. Just a mere ten year business contract that requires the proprietor’s consent.”
Applejack glanced at the papers, then back up to the overly smiling stallion, looked long and hard with an unmoving expression, then calmly smiled. “No thanks, mister Joe.”
Twilight and Joe seemed surprised at her response. “Are you sure? This deal is basically win-win for both of us. You sell more apples, I get another contractor, we both wind up with more bits.”
“That ain’t all ya’ll be getting though if I sign that there slip of paper, won’t it?” Applejack stated, her voice neither rising nor falling the whole time.
“What do mean Applejack?” Twilight asked.
“Ten years right? Seems an awfully long time fer a deal just to trot some apples to another town.”
“There’s nothing unusual about wanting a lifelong partnership.”
“True, but there is something unusual about an entire book just needing one little hoofprint of mine on it. Your idea sounds nice and all, but I think I’ll ask somepony else about selling my ‘surplus’ if’in you don’t mind.”
“Very well. But if you change your mind, my card.” The stallion slid a thin business card with a mailing address and name over, and then trotted off. Twilight, meanwhile, was flipping through the pages of the contract left behind and her eyes widened on some fine print.
“Hey! This contract implies a ninety-five percent tariff on all exports! And fifty-one percent ownership of the other party’s assets! You were right Applejack, that stallion was trying to cheat you! But how did you know?”
“Sometimes a pony just knows these things. Guy there was a little too eager to hear me say yes if you know what I mean.”
“Huh?”
“I speak from experience, not just as the element o’ honesty, but if you really got nuthin’ ta hide, there’s no reason to be so expecti-ant of an answer.”
“I’ll keep that mind, AJ.”
Twilight continued to look at the Duo Sphinx’s sinister grins as she thought back to the riddle, then back to Applejack, and it dawned on her. They wanted her to answer right based on the riddle…and now she knew exactly why.
“I’ve made my decision,” Twilight declared as she looked to the right path.
“Then proceed with haste utmost,” the dragon head chuckled as it began to raise the right paw.
“Hold on now, I didn’t say I chose the right path.”
“Oh? Excuse us then, please go on,” the cat head rasped as it started to lift the left paw.
“No, I’m not taking the left either.”
“Huh?” both heads bore a look of utter confusion as Twilight grinned with confidence.
“Because neither the left nor the right is the correct way.”
Before the either of the heads could pipe up, Twilight continued her lecturing rant.
“You said that one of you was liar and one of you spoke only the truth. But that were really true, the liar would never admit to that, which contradicts that very statement, leading to only one possible explanation…” She pointed a hoof in accusation.
“You’re both liars!”
The two heads suddenly reeled back in horror.
“Which means I can’t believe anything you’ve said, that there are only two choices to make and that only one leads to a dead end.” She glared intensely at the guardian as it cringed. “The path I choose to take…is the third one, the one you’re hiding behind your back!”
The creature roared in defeat as it lurched upwards, its faces cracking and its body crumbling to dust. With a final screech, it shattered into fine sand, revealing a trail it had kept hidden from view. The paths to the left and right now revealed nothing but a deep cavernous pit nopony could ever hope to climb out of without wings. With a smile and a skip, Twilight resumed her gallop towards the marbled walls in the distance.
“That’s showin ‘em you clever little filly!” Applejack whooped and gave a self-satisfied glance at a slightly disappointed Ruinate. “Looks like you got yer work cut out fer ya if ya’ll think that’ll keep our Twilight down!”
She then crouched, wincing in pain as she felt what seemed like another piece of her life get sucked right out of her by cackling purple electricity. Ruinate’s smile reappeared as an eye swiveled to meet the orange mare’s gaze.
“I’ve only just begun to torment our wayward heroine, Apple-joke.”
Twilight bounded up the stairs until she came to a large ravine. The gap was too far to jump and was completely dark, indicating it was a long way down. There was a narrow stone straightway across, but sitting square in the middle of it, blocking any way past, was a large stone troll. A creaking of rocky skin was heard as he raised an eyebrow at the approaching mare.
“Where do you think you going?” he grunted in an almost unintelligible manner filled with mocking.
“To Canterlot castle, which is across from here,” Twilight stated.
The granite beast waggled a taunting finger. “Uhn uhn uhn…this is Craggle’s bridge. No one cross unless Craggle say so.”
“Okay…so can I cross?”
But Twilight had skeptically anticipated the answer.
“Hmmmm…no. Craggle not like you. You no pass.” And then he guffawed, sounding like two slates being rubbed together.
“Fine then, I’ll teleport pass you.”
Twilight tried to concentrate her magic, but the energy refused to build up. After several minutes of scrunching her face and moaning, Twilight began to feel a headache. Slouching down and panting, she then got a closer look at the troll’s stony skin. It was manatite, a magic absorbing mineral. Looking at the surrounding cliffs, she realized the entire area was covered in the stuff. She groaned in annoyance. This bridge was a magic deadzone!
Craggle bellowed out in laugher. “HAH HAH HAH. You funny little pony. Craggle still don’t like you though. But Craggle do like games. Tell you what. We play little challenge, you win, you can pass.”
The mighty statue-like keeper gave a quick pound against the bridge, and from the end behind Twilight, a big stony cage rose up from the ground. Inside that cage were several large rocky canine beasts, growling deeply at Twilight.
“Shalehounds, the timberwolves more aggressive mountainous cousins…”
“You get Craggle to move aside before hounds break out, you win.”
“So it’s either I make you move or I become lunch for some rabid rocks? That hardly seems fair!”
“Like Craggle said, Craggle don’t like you.” He then laughed again.
Twilight looked back at the cage. The shalehounds were already starting to claw and whittle at the bars keeping them locked up. She then looked back at her teasing blocker, who had his arms crossed and an insulting smile on his face.
“Fine!” She reared up and attempted to push with her front hooves. Craggle didn’t budge, but he did give a chuckle.
“That’s tickles…”
Twilight then attempted to buck him repeatedly. Not even a flicker of movement, but more laughter that irked her to no end. She then stepped back as far as she could without getting too close to the cage, ran a hoof in the dirt and snorted, and then charged at the troll with all her might. She was rewarded with a massive headache, spinning eyes, and yet another laugh. Seething silently, she almost forgot about the danger behind her as she fixated on that sick sense of humor that stone figure had.
Sweet Celestia, he’s almost as giggle brained as Pinkie…
Another memory snapped into her as the laughter echoed in her ears.
“Wakey wakey, easy bakey!” Pinkie bounced over Twilight’s bed as the scholar groaned.
“Pinkie…it’s Sunday, the library is closed…how did you even get in here? Both the windows and doors are locked.”
“Silly filly. I have a secret passage into everypony’s house in ponyville!”
“That explains sooooo much.” Twilight pulled the pillow over her head.
“Come on Twilight! Up and at’em! You’re gonna just sleep the whole day away?”
“Well I didn’t go to bed until four, so that was the plan…”
“Now that’s just silly. It’s already lunchtime and you’ve clearly missed breakfast. So get up and we’ll have a nice breakfunch, or…lunchast? Which do you think sounds better? Breakfunch, or lunchast? Breakfunch? Lunchast? Breakfunch? Lunchast?”
“Pinkie! Knock it off!”
“Hey, stop being such a grumpy grump and get out from under those covers!”
“I’m not budging from this bed today.”
“Oh, reeeeeally? I know what’ll make you move.”
Pinkie drove under the covers and proceeded to wiggle her hooves over Twilight’s flank. Twilight squirmed at the sudden sensation.
“P-pinkie?! What are you doing?”
Her sudden movement exposed her underbelly, which Pinkie immediately pounced on.
“Gitchy gitchy goo!”
Twilight’s face convulsed and her eyelids scrunched as she felt her nerves tingle.
“H-h-hey! Mmmmph! K-knock it offFFFFFFFFFFT! Ha HA HA AH AH HA!”
“Heeheeheeheeheeheehee!” Pinkie replied back with a smile that showed every inch of her pearly whites. With legs flailing and bodies rolling, they went off the bed and tumbled down the stairs all while being cushioned by the blankets.
“P-p-piiiiihiihiiiiinkiiiihiihiiiiieheeheeheehee…I’m up! I’m getting up!” Twilight finally sighed in relief as her poofy-maned tormentor relented, giving her room to breathe. She actually didn’t feel cranky anymore and was now hungry.
“Thanks Pinkie, I actually feel a lot more motivated now.”
“Well duh! Nopony can sit still after they have a good tickle! Now come on! Let’s get some breaklunchfast!”
The shalehounds managed to break off one of the bars as they rammed the cage, but Twilight kept a devilish grin on her face.
“I know what’ll make you move…”
Digging into her saddlebags, she pulled out a quill with her teeth. Holding the feathered end outwards, she brushed it against the immobile figure vigorously.
“Hey. What you doi-hee hee hee…”
Craggle’s toes twitched as Twilight’s quill glazed over them. He began to rock back and forth as his chortles grew.
“HA HA HA HA! AH HA HA HA HA HA! HA HA-AAAAAAAA!!”
He rocked so hard he fell to his side, and rolled off the edge of the narrow path. Twilight grinned as the way forward was now in clear sight. Now all she had to do was run ahead and lose the shalehounds before they could break out and-
“HEEEEEEEELP!”
Twilight froze at the grainy, panicked voice coming from over the edge. Peeking over, she saw the stone troll clinging to the walls.
“P-please! Help! D-don’t leave Craggle like this! Craggle don’t want to die!”
Twilight’s first impulse was to just ignore the plea and resume her escape from the shalehounds. After all, Craggle had done nothing but demean and impede her. She couldn’t waste her time helping him when all it would do put her back to having a stone troll block her path, leaving a pack of rock predators to chew her up at their leisure.
But as she prepared to sprint off, she caught a look of the troll’s eyes, deep blue eyes that reminded her of certain kind pegasus…
“SNAAAAAAAAKE!!”
Twilight shot to the roof, clinging to it with her magic. She had gotten Fluttershy to come to the library to investigate what she thought was a rat’s nest behind one of her bookshelves, only to find it was an adder’s hovel.
“GET RID OF IT! GET RID OF IT!”
“Oh, Twilight. Shush…you’re scaring the poor thing. It won’t harm you…”
“Are you kidding me?! That’s a copperhead! They’re poisonous! Of course it’ll hurt me!!”
“Shhhh…” Fluttershy whispered, and then crept slowly to the hissing viper.
“It’s okay. You dear little thing. You must have holed up here last winter when you couldn’t find a good place to burrow. Let’s see if we can find you a proper place to live, okay?”
The copperhead gave a violent hiss and lunged without warning, sinking its fangs into her outstretched hoof. She winced in pain.
“FLUTTERSHY!” Twilight gasped. But Fluttershy looked up with her eyes narrowed.
“Shhhh…”
“B-but the venom…”
“Shh…” Fluttershy gazed deeply into the serpent’s eyes, doing nothing but giving it a sweet smile as sweat started to form at her brow, the poison already starting to affect her. After a minute…it slowly loosened its grip, and unhinged its jaw. It quietly hissed mournfully as it licked the wound it had inflicted. “That’s right…I’m your friend…good little snake…”
The copperhead then bit into her again. Twilight was about to scream again when she then heard a sucking sound. Looking closer, she realized the snake was now sucking the venom it had injected out of the pegasus. When it was finished, it curled around her leg lovingly.
“There we go. Now let’s get you to a new home.”
As Fluttershy eased her way out the door in manner that wouldn’t disturb her passenger, Twilight hesitantly levitated down, still keeping her distance.
”That was really dangerous Fluttershy, it…it could have killed you!”
“Oh, but I knew it wouldn’t,” Fluttershy reassured her ophidiophobic friend. “As my mother once told me, kindness given is always kindness returned.”
Another bar broke from the cage. Twilight’s neck snapped towards the almost free pack, and then down to the whimpering bully.
She couldn’t do it.
She just couldn’t leave the bridgekeeper, jerky as he was, to fall to his doom while she saved her own skin. Fluttershy wouldn’t, not even if she had a hundred dragons on her tail. Reaching again into her knapsack, she lowered a rope off the edge of the walkway. As Craggle grabbed the rope, she gritted her teeth and heaved.
Slowly but surely, the stone troll made his way back up, and just as his three fingered hand managed to clutch the rim of the cliff, the cage holding the shalehounds crumbled. Twilight flinched and shut her eyes, knowing escape was impossible now.
But instead of feeling the hard toothy maws of the wolves sink into her flesh, she heard the smack of rock hitting an even harder rock. Opening her eyes, she saw Craggle now sitting firmly between her and the shalehounds. The pack tried again and again to attack, but they just bounced off the troll’s stony hide.
“You save Craggle. Craggle save you. Craggle never leave debt unpaid.” A genuine smile without any contempt spread across his face. “You go now funny pony. Craggle says you pass.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Fluttershy sighed. “I was so worried for a moment there. I’m glad neither of them got hurt.”
“Ha Ha! Take that!” Pinkie Pie leapt up on her back hooves and shook a hoof at Ruinate. “Twilight beat you again!”
They both squeaked as the attunement kicked in once more. Coughing a little, Pinkie kept her grin as wide as possible. “I-is that all you’ve got, you big meanie?”
“You haven’t seen anything yet…” The nefarious sention chuckled to himself.
Twilight could make out the outlines of the gates now. Just a few more hills and she would be at Canterlot. As she got closer, she began to outline several ideas on how to infiltrate the castle city as she fished out the crystal from her saddlebags.
Ruinate more than likely has everypony there under his wraiths control right now. Fortunately, I still have this crystal, provided it works. But I may want to save it for Ruinate himself. Either way, I’m definitely going to need it if I’m going to get in the castle and-
A roar echoed from the direction ahead and stopped Twilight in her tracks. Another obstacle was guarding the way forward, and this one sounded much bigger and fiercer than the last ones. Twilight steeled herself with another boost of bravery. She had made it this far, nothing was going to force her back when she was this close! She galloped over the crest of the hill, ready for the worst…or at least what she thought was the worst, but she couldn’t have been more wrong.
Standing before her was a small wraith processed figure. It stood upright and flexed its claws as it let loose several bursts of green fire from its mouth. Twilight nearly fell to her knees in dread.
“S-s-spike?!”
The implications hit her harder than a wall of bricks.
Oh no…Spike! I…I completely forgot all about him! I lost track of him when Ruinate appeared and then he must have got…I’m so sorry Spike!
Shadows converged on the wraith dragon, swelling him up to five times her size, with an equally larger roar to boot. With a swipe of his claws, he attempted to scoop up his former caretaker in an iron grip. Fortunately, Twilight was quicker and managed to slide underneath. Wraith Spike then proceeded to scorch the area after several more attempts when it became apparent he was not fast enough to catch her. Ducking behind a rock, Twilight contemplated what to do.
I’ve got to find some way to incapacitate him so I can keep going, but I have nothing big enough to restrain him! A spell…that’s my best bet. But what would work?
She scooted some distance from the boulder as the heat began to sear through. She noticed it was starting to glow orange and parts of it were melting. An idea sprang to her right then.
A simple transmutation of hard rock to soft rock, that could work!
Poking her head out just enough so she could see the ground her possessed assistant was standing on, she began to concentrate. As her horn glowed, the area around the dragon began to quiver and shift. Suddenly, Wraith Spike found himself sinking into a pool of sand and mud, with no outcropping or foothold to gain balance on. Another roar of discontent emerged from him as he finally stopped at neck point, unable to do anything but spew fire aimlessly.
“Sorry Spike, I promise I’ll treat you to some rubies after all this.”
Twilight started to leave when another roar came from the wraith dragon, this time it sounded more pained than angry to her. She winced as thoughts turned to the baby dragon still within that beast, and she looked to the crystal she was still holding in her hoof.
If…if this thing really works…maybe I could save Spike with it. But then I’d lose my ace against Ruinate…
Her mind then recalled another time when there was gem short in stock Spike needed.
“Oh, the poor darling. Is he going to be alright?” Rarity asked as she looked over the basket at the baby dragon that looked more green than purple and had splotchy turquoise spots all over him.
“Not to worry Rarity, I’m almost done with the Mercurium Detox potion. Spike will be one hundred percent soon and hopefully know better than to use my mineral regents for a snack.”
“I thought it was an amethyst…” the sickly dragon groaned.
“That still doesn’t give you the right…uh oh.” Twilight grimaced as Rarity peeked her head over her shoulder.
“What’s wrong darling?”
“The recipe calls for three milliliters of crushed alexandrite. I don’t have any.”
“Alexandrite? Oh! Not to worry, my dear. I’ll be right back.”
Rarity trotted out of the library, and within fifteen minutes, she skipped back in levitating a large silk gown with a whole spectrum of gems embedded in the lacing. With a sharp tug, she yanked a large one from the midriff area and floated it over to Twilight. “I believe this should suffice.”
Twilight then looked at the gown. “But, Rarity. Isn’t this the dress you were going to have delivered to Fleur De Lis tomorrow? I can’t possibly accept this if it’s going to ruin your design!”
“Oh pish posh, Twilight,” Rarity dismissed her protest as she daintily waved a hoof.”Lady Fleur is a very understanding mare. So I’ll need to find another extremely rare jewel to finish the gown. I’m sure she’ll agree to push the deadline back a few days with a modest discount.”
“I, I don’t know what to say,” Twilight said as she began to file the gemstone into a fine powder.
“Think nothing of it darling. The well being of our dear Spikey-wikey far outweighs any petty needs I have.”
Twilight nodded to herself as she made up her mind.
Spike’s already suffered enough at Ruinate’s clutches, he needs this more than I do.
Whisking around she sent the crystal flying into the dragon’s maw as it opened to roar again. With a sudden choke and swallow, the wraith dragon suddenly wreathed and sputtered as a light seemed to build inside it. Then with a deafening splatter, the beast exploded into a hazy mist. As the mist cleared, Twilight could make out a little bleary-eyed purple and green dragon lying on the ground with a claw to his head.
“Unnngh, that was trippy-uff!”
The still slightly dazed dragon found himself being squeezed as tightly as possible without the danger of his spine snapping by the purple unicorn, a tear running down her cheek.
“Oh Spike! You’re back! Thank goodness it worked!”
“Urrrmph…where…did I go?” He struggled to breathe out. “Ah! Wait! I remember! There was a huge crack in the sky, some weird shadow came out at me, and then…aw, goad stones…I didn’t go on another rampage through Ponyville, did I?”
“No, Spike,” Twilight reassured. “But our friends are in big trouble right now, and we’ve got to find a way into the palace without getting caught.” She then looked over to the high walls of the city. “I just don’t know how I’m going to get through the city without any more of those wraiths spotting me.”
Spike scratched his chin, and then broke into a wide grin. “Hey, I got an idea! That spell you used just now. Can you use it on the ground beneath Canterlot?”
“Well yes, but what good would that do? It’s not like I can just hollow out a huge tunnel all the way to the castle, that would take way too much magic.”
“Or…” Spike cracked his knuckles, “A steady set of dragon claws!”
Twilight’s face brightened. “Spike, you amaze me sometimes!”
“Well I’m not your number one assistant for nothing!”
“Bravo! Good show darlings!” Rarity cheered as she clapped her hooves. “Now keep going and we can show this ruffian what for!”
Ruinate intensified the enfeeblement and she moaned in discomfort. “Do as you will, you savage ragamuffin! You can’t stop Twilight from reaching us, and you certainly won’t succeed in breaking us!” She defiantly shouted.
“Funny you should say that since…well no, that would be spoiling it…”
The soil upturned and scattered as a purple claw broke through the earth. “Canterlot royal gardens, last stop,” Spike announced in his best conductor’s voice as he and Twilight poked their heads out of the ground.
“Nice work Spike. We’re almost there!”
But Twilight's enthusiasm was cut short as they peeked around the corner to see at least fifty possessed guards standing watch at the front steps.
“Well, that was a short lived victory march…”
Spike looked to the immense garrison, then back to Twilight. “I’ll distract them, Twilight. You can use that opportunity to sneak inside.”
“WHAT?! No! Out of the question! I am not tossing you into the proverbial hornet’s nest just to get by unnoticed!”
“Come on Twi, we don’t have time to argue over this! You’re the one that needs to make it to the throne room, not me! This is pretty much the best I can do to help you at the moment.”
“B-but…”
“I’ll be fine Twilight. I’ve still got that crystal thing inside of me, that should keep me somewhat safe. Besides, you’re looking at the guy who outran a full grown dragon once.”
Twilight tried to think of a more feasible counterplan, but came up blank. She finally looked Spike square in the eye. “Just promise me you’ll hide and stay out of sight as soon as you lose them.”
“No prob, as long you do me one small favor.”
“Which is?”
“When you get Rarity out of there, be sure to tell her how brave I was.”
Twilight rolled her eyes with a giggle. “Okay Spike. I’ll give her every detail.”
Spike then paraded out into the middle of the courtyard. “Hey, shadowy evil guard ponies!”
The entire group zeroed in on the intruder.
“Your mothers were a bunch of three-legged mule chasers! *PHBBBBBBT*” He waggled his clawed fingers as he blew the biggest raspberry he could at them. The guards all looked at each other in confusion, then whinnied angrily as they stampeded at him.
“Yipe!” Spike took his cue to exit stage left as Twilight tip-clopped around to the front door.
She had just managed to discreetly close the entryway behind her when she felt a heavy breathing next to her. Yelping in alarm she tumbled back, horn at the ready, but stopped in time to see a bedraggled palace guard that was not wraith possessed.
“T-twilght Sparkle!” he panted. “Oh, thank Celestia! I was worried I was the only free pony left in the city!”
“A-are you okay?” Twilight cautiously asked.
“I-it came out of nowhere…shadows all around. We couldn’t see anything until it was too late. The entire royal guard…the noble consul…everypony…gone!”
“Ruinate…their leader…where is he? The throne room, right?”
“Y-yes…I was there. I had managed to hide myself when he thought everypony was captured.” He then gave scared but triumphant smile. “He let his guard down just a moment ago…and I was able snatch these!”
He levitated a tiara and five necklaces in front of Twilight, and her face switched to surprise, shock and then elation.
“The elements of harmony!”
“His captured servants are combing the palace left and right. We have to get out of here now if we’re going to get the elements away from that demon!”
Twilight’s excitement dampened as the words sunk in. “But, my friends! He still has them…”
“It’s too late for them. There’s nothing we can do. We have to leave or we’ll end up like them!”
“But they’re bearers of the elements like me! We’ll need them if we’re going to use the elements of harmony against Ruinate!”
“We can always find new bearers! Her majesty was able to do so and so can we! But we can’t make new elements! This is our only chance to save Equestria!”
“But…”
“If you’re not going to help me evacuate the elements of harmony, then I’ll do it myself! But I highly doubt there’ll be anything you can do without the elements by staying here!”
A nagging voice tugged at the mind of her mind as she tried to digest the sudden turn of events. The elements have managed to find new wielders in the past, so long as they remained from Ruinate’s grasp, there would always be chance to defeat him. Escaping with the elements was by all reasoning the logical choice.
But somewhere else in her head another voice, brash, confident, and stubborn, spoke up at that moment, holding a vivid memory that defied it with all its might…
“Thanks again for helping me harvest these snow chrysanthemums Rainbow Dash.” Twilight said as she scooted up the narrow snow capped mountain trail.
“Hey, no prob. I know how dangerous these mountain ranges can get during the winter season. You made the right choice picking me to be your buddyguard.”
Twilight giggled at the cyan pegasus’ pun as she reached for a crystalline-like flower growing in a small crevice on the edge of the path, when a strong wind suddenly blew by, pushing her hooves over the edge.
“Woahaohooooooh! WAAAA!!”
She was quickly caught and hoisted up by two strong wings.
“I gotcha Twilight. Not going to leave you ‘hanging’.” As she laughed at her pun, a slip of paper fell from her mane and onto Twilight’s nose.
“Hmm? What’s this?”
“Huh?! Oh, uh, that’s nothing!” Rainbow nervously replied.
Twilight grabbed the small stub in her hooves anyway and got a better look at it. “This is a ticket to the Wonderbolts decennial spectacular, an aerial carnival that only happens once every ten years. And…it’s dated for today?”
“Well….uh…you see…remember that huge raffle in Cloudsdale a week back? I…sorta won and…that sorta was the prize…”
“But then why didn’t you tell me? I would have let you go.”
“Yeah, and then that wind just now would have knocked you into a grave at the bottom of this mountain.”
“I would have just rescheduled my regent gathering!” Twilight protested. “…for the next winter,” she sheepishly relented.
“Look, I’ll admit it. I’m not too happy about missing perhaps the biggest airshow in all of Equestria. But I made a promise to you months ago about this task. And the Dash doesn’t go back on her promises.”
Rainbow Dash then gave Twilight a playful noogie and stuck her foreleg around her. “I’d rather stick with a friend for life than live the dream for one day.”
The voice filled every inch of Twilight’s thoughts as it screamed those final phrases. Twilight then gave a serious look at the guard in front of her.
“It’s not about whether I can help them or not. It’s about being there for them, because they’re my friends. And elements or no elements, I’m going to stand by them until the very end.”
The guard then scowled deeply. His eyes turned blood red as his body melted away into his shadow.
“You should have fled when you had the chance, wielder of magic. Now your fate is sealed.”
And with that, he was gone, and elements floating before her faded away like an illusion. Twilight raced down the corridors faster than ever. She was but moments away from freeing her friends.
“Yeah! Game over Ruinate!” Rainbow belted through the surges of energy battering her as she rammed against the tube for the umpteenth time. “Twilight’s moments away from busting in and getting us out, and you’re out of tricks!”
Ruinate, however, still held his smile as he crossed his arms. “Yes…the game is indeed over…”
The doors to the throne room burst open as Twilight leapt in. “Ruinate! This ends now!”
The five trapped ponies all cheered at the sight of their friend while Ruinate towered over her, giving a slow clap. “Well, well, well, miss Sparkle. How nice of you to join me in my hour of triumph.”
“You’re sorely mistaken. This is the hour of your downfall! It’s time to put you back in the void and end your reign of hatred!”
“And just how do you plan on doing that? You may have made it past all my deterrents, but as you can clearly see, I still hold all the cards. You’re up against the entirety of my power all alone, the elements are still in my possession, and your friends are still in a helpless state.”
Twilight heard a small tapping sound, and noticed Rainbow Dash pointing at the edge of her tank with a wicked grin on her face. Squinting, Twilight saw a very tiny crack in the field of energy, and her grin immediately matched Rainbow’s.
“Not as helpless as you might think.”
Summoning as much strength as she could she could in a split second, she fired a blast of energy from her horn straight at the crack just as Rainbow leaned backed and rammed it again. A massive crackling noise echoed throughout the halls as the dark barrier dispersed, releasing a prismatic streak that darted all around. It knocked the remaining four containers over and snatched the elements from the sention’s grasp quick as a wink. As the other four tanks shattered when they collided with the ground, the rainbow blur whizzed over each of the four ponies clambering out, endowing them each with a necklace that matched their cutie mark. It finally stopped over Twilight, where the cyan pegasus eagerly appeared and propped the tiara over her head.
“Looks like WE’RE calling the shots now!” she boldly declared as she fastened her own lightning bolt necklace.
“Time fer some payback!”
“Have at you, brute!”
“Hasta la vista, Runie!”
“Um…we’re going to defeat you now…if that’s okay…”
The elements began to give off a bright light as they charged. “The elements stopped you once, now they will stop you again!”
Ruinate, however, did not step back in fear. Instead he stomped down in a kung-fu stance, rolled his head and flicked his fingers in a coming motion. “Bring it on my little ponies!” he bellowed.
The multi-color stream of light shot forth from the elements and swirled around Ruinate, but sention winded up his arm and swung hard.
“Ruinate…punch!!”
A shattering explosion knocked the ponies back as the rainbow light dispersed before them. Twilight groggily stood up on her hunches, feeling completely drained all of a sudden.
“It…it failed? But how?”
“Oh, did I forget to mention? I finished my attunement mere seconds before you entered. In addition to being able to pinpoint the source of the elements’ energy, I had also been able to boil down a lot of it to mix with my miasma. Granting me somewhat of a…how do you say…immunity against their energies.”
He flicked his claws playfully as a wry smirk danced across his face. “It also gives me the ability to do…”
With an outstretched palm, a dark beam of light shot forth, snatched Twilight up and placed her square into his claw.
“THIS!”
He plunged his other claw deep into Twilight’s chest. Her eyes and mouth filled with a white light as she screamed in pain. Her friends, who had been knocked back further than she had, regained their senses just in time to see Ruinate pull a glowing, misty ball of purple light from her.
"TWILIGHT!”
“The soul’s essence of magic…the spark that connects it all. And now…”
With a snap of the wrist, he snuffed the light in his tight grip, a splintering crunch sound following it along with a sudden spasm of the unicorn.
“It is gone forever!”
Twilight’s body slowly floated to the ground, her colors slowly fading into a sickly pale white. As she touched down, she lay flat on her side, her eyes completely empty, and her mouth hanging open and silent. Her friends all rushed to her and leaned over her, worry and panic stricken on their faces.
“Twilight! Are you okay?” Pinkie poked the still mare.
Applejack shook her when she gave no response. “C'mon Twi! This ain’t the time to playin’ games with us! Up and at’em!”
Fluttershy whimpered. “Is…is she…?”
“She’s not dead if that’s what you’re thinking,” Ruinate snidely remarked, “Though I can’t really consider her alive either. Her emotions, her inspirations, her very will to live, they were all contained in that little ball of soul I permanently removed.”
Rarity suddenly gasped in horror. “G-girls! Her element!”
They all watched as the gem on Twilight’s tiara turned stone black, and the circlet holding it crumbled to dust. Their eyes widened in shock as they saw the same happen to each of their own necklaces.
“W-what’s h-happening?” Fluttershy stammered.
Ruinate laughed in triumph. “Poor Amity’s failsafe has just backlashed on you! Without the spark of one element, the rest fall victim to the same fate! Poetic if I do say so, that the life of one little bug can affect the lives of so many others. You stand together, you fall together!”
“YOU!!!” Rainbow Dash thrust herself at the chortling giant with all her rage and fury. She came up a few feet short of his face as she bounced off an invisible barrier. But as quickly as she ricocheted, she came back with hooves ablaze.
“GIVE HER BACK! BRING HER BACK! BRING TWILIGHT BACK!!” She punched, she kicked, she rammed, bucked, and pounded at the wall separating them, all the while screaming at the top of her lungs. Ruinate simply folded his arms and smiled in silence as he watched the pegasus beat herself silly over the next few minutes.
“GIVEHERBACKGIVEHERBACKGIVEHERBACK!!!”
Her cries became hoarse and her bruised hooves started to slow. Her vision blurred as sweat poured down her face and it became harder and harder to fight back the tears. Finally, she crumpled down at his feet, unable to keep her wings flapping, her eyes shut and tears now freely streaming down her face. Her shout was now nothing more than a sniveling sob.
“G-g-give her back…..p-please….”
Ruinate leaned down with a finger extended. “Aww…look who finally remembered her manners. Too little too late though.” And with a flick, he swatted her back to the rest of the group.
“My, what a thrilling and epic battle this turned out to be, this calls for a little memorialization. I think I’ll take a little victory lap around the planet, leave a trail of disaster in my wake, let you stew in your melancholy for a while as you watch the rest of this world fall to match your mood.”
He started to disappear out the door as his body dissolved into a black smog. “Oh, and if you decide you’d like to join your little friend’s state of limbo, just give me a call. Ciao!”
And then they were alone in the big empty throne room, huddled around the motionless pony, the pony that had brought them all together, the pony that had made so many happy memories with them, the pony who had learned with them what it meant to be friends…the pony who would never again share in any of that.
“Twi…” Applejack choked, “Yer…yer really gone aren’t ya?”
A tear ran down her cheek, then another, and then the floodgates opened. She buried her face deep into the unicorn’s side, sobbing as loudly as she could. The others instantly followed suit. With each drop of water shed, another memory surfaced, another pained feeling gripped them.
Memories of Twilight helping Applejack harvest her orchard and then enjoying a home cooked meal together.
Feelings of joy and excitement when she tried breaking out new dance moves with Pinkie Pie at her parties.
Images of teatime at Fluttershy’s cottage, where she always enjoyed listening about all the new animals Fluttershy had met since the last time.
Remembrances of fashion montages on the walkway when she helped Rarity model for new designs.
Reminiscences of all the times she cheered for Rainbow Dash’s new tricks and athletic feats.
The tears poured out, drenching their coats and covering Twilight. The pain would not go away for any of them, they just could not let enough out. Pinkie raised her head to the ceiling as let out her most mournful cry ever.
“TWIIIILIIIIGHT!! COME BAAAAAAAAACK!!!”
The mass of memory filled tears trickled down the blank-stared mare’s coat, and dripped onto the blackened gem that remained of her element. Then, the gem began to glow, a faint light at first, but as more of the tears disappeared into it, the radiance grew.
Nopony noticed it at first, but then Fluttershy felt as if Twilight’s body was starting to move. With a start she backed up, and her jaw dropped. The blackened jewel was now a brilliant white as it began to float upwards. A stream of white magic energy leaked from it and wrapped around Twilight. By then, the other ponies had noticed it too, and backed away in bewilderment. Twilight’s body began to rise to meet the glowing gem, as it nestled itself into her chest. Her empty eyes glowed in radiance as her lavender hue returned. Her gaping mouth closed into a warm smile as a voice as motherly and serene as Celestia’s came out it.
“My dear little ponies. You need not cry anymore.”
“T…twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Yes, she is here…as well as many others among my eternal herd that have borne the spark of magic.”
The five all shared dumbfounded expressions coupled with unease and hope. At last Applejack approached. “Who are you?”
“I am the mother of all ponies…the shepherdess of this land…I am Amity.”
Silence reigned again as each of the ponies’ heads suddenly swam with questions.
“But…didn’t Runie say you weren’t here anymore?” Pinkie finally asked.
“It is true, I speak to you not in body, but in spirit. When I crafted the elements of harmony, I instilled a portion of my conscious as well as my power. My brother believed I made the elements solely as a weapon against him, but he is mistaken. My elements were forged so that I would always be connected to my children long after they grew up and I departed for a new genesis.”
She paused as she allowed the five of them to fully understand the circumstances. “Worry not. Ruinate has indeed destroyed this poor child’s soul, but the soul’s reach is not limited to one’s self.”
“What do you mean?” Rarity asked.
“The element of magic is the spark that unites the other five, but is not the sole link amongst harmony. Each element is connected to and supports each other in their own way. Honesty, Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, Loyalty, they exist in every pony...including this child. Your memories…your feelings…your own element of magic…they resonate within her now.”
“Element of magic…in us?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yes…her soul…lives on in each of you…and you have given it back to her.”
Then gem then separated from Twilight, and she dropped to the ground with a plop, released from the light. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy all stared in disbelief, as she slowly opened her eyes.
“Everyone…”
“T-twilight? Sugarcube? Is that really you?” Applejack whispered.
A smile slowly blossomed on the lavender pony’s face. “Yes. It is. I…I felt you all. I…was so empty inside, like I had been discorded again, only so much worse. My spark hadn’t just been flipped, it was…gone."
"And then…you filled it all back up. My memories…my happiness…my…friends.”
Tears fell from all six of the ponies once more, but this time they were of pure, unbridled joy as they all squeezed in around Twilight in a group hug. “TWILIGHT!”
They nuzzled, they embraced, they laughed and they cried. They would have continued for hours, if not for the increasing luminosity around them. Breaking apart, they saw the purple gem’s light now pick up the other five blackened gems, and they began to shine with bright color too as Amity’ voice rang out.
“The bond you six share, it reflects itself in the elements. And the elements reflect what lies in your soul, let them come together upon each of you, and in their light…unlock your true self…and power.”
The six mares breathed in awe as the six jewels swirled around them in a dazzling display, latched onto them, and began to transform.
Pieces of rainbow burst forth from Rainbow Dash’s emblem and raced around her body, they molded into her sleek form and vanished, revealing a multi-colored barding that glistened and glimmered with the gem embedded in the chestplate. A winged helm similar to her best fliers tiara appeared on her head, and a rose and silver trimming marked her wings.
Vines of all sorts wrapped around Fluttershy, weaving themselves into a coat of flowers as soft, cottony wool covered her legs and hooves and a laurel of feathers nestled in her hair.
Rarity’s jewel multiplied and revolved around her body, piecing together into gemstone gown, hard and precious as diamond, yet it flowed like silk as it slid on, changing colors as it gleamed in the light, accompanied by a matching set of earrings and diadem that wrapped around her forehead while several rings of gem dust continued to orbit her like a planet.
Earth and wood poured from Applejack’s gem and consolidated on her until it was like she was wearing a leathery bark hide from her neck down to her flank. And from the hide, actual apples of all kinds grew, giving a crisp fresh fruity scent.
Pinkie Pie’s gem popped all over body, and with each pop, it left behind a patch of clothing in polka dots, plaid, stripes, and other wacky patterns and zany colors. By the time it stopped, Pinkie was fully adorned in a mismatched, but very well put together clown suit with bells, toys, and even scratch and sniff spots, along with a jester’s cap.
Twilight’s gem spun around her as it produced threads of light, the threads came together to form a flowing robe and cowl that seemed to project like the hide of a zodiac beast. Star patterns moved in the mystic fabric as it were an actual night sky.
As the warmth of the transformation ended, they looked upon their new element forms in wonder. Rainbow broke the stunned silence as she posed in one of the stained glass windows reflection.
“Awesome! This is like, a thousand percent cooler than my old element! Rainbow armor! How radical is that!”
“Absolutely amazing!” Rarity sang.
“It’s…nice.” Fluttershy commented with a smile.
“Well ain’t this the bees knees, I could get used to duds like these,” Applejack said. She then heard a jingle followed by a crunching noise and turned to see Pinkie munching on one of the apples growing on her tail.
“Fou thaid it! I fish I thad foo grothing uf by skim…”
“In…Incredible…” Twilight felt the ethereal fabric of her hood. “Our elements, our spirits…there’s virtually no physical separation anymore. We don’t just hold the power…we are the power.”
The light around them began to fade, as did their mother sention’s voice. “Now go my children…give this world back the spark that you have regained. And please, do not bear ill will towards my brother. I have already forgiven him…”
Ruinate playfully juggled several houses between his fingers as he strolled around the now devastated landscape around him and circled the tiny wreckage that was once Ponyville.
“Not bad for a first draft,” he monologued to himself. “Nice to see my exterior decorating skills haven’t completely rusted over.”
He then caught a bird’s eye view of the two incapacitated alicorns in the smoking craters he left them in.
“Oh, yes.” He instantly shrunk down to meet their height. “In all my rush, I completely forgot about my trophies. I simply can’t leave you here where no one can see you. No, I’ll have a nice commemorative shelf built for you lickity-split. You two will go so well right next to my ping-pong tourney ribbon.”
“I don’t think so!”
Ruinate’s eyes widened and his smile suddenly flipped into a frown. “That voice…no…it’s…it’s not possible…”
In an abrupt turn his frown deepened into a scowl as his gaze caught the six ponies before him, his three pupils narrowing at the lavender one in the front. “That’s not possible! You shouldn’t even be moving! I destroyed your soul!! I felt the very essence of magic snub in my grasp!!!”
“A soul can’t truly be destroyed, not as long as there are those who hold you deep within their own,” Twilight stated. “And the same holds true for the elements of harmony. Their true power exists in everypony!”
Ruinate’s arms burst into a swarm of hands as he lunged them at the six.
“Fine then! I’m still attuned to the elements’ energies! I’ll just rip all your souls out this time!”
But a glowing barrier formed as the onslaught of claws came down on the ponies, and they dissolved like litmus paper over a fire.
“WHAT?!”
“The elements are more than just harmonious energy, Ruinate. They’re an extension of our true selves, our bonds and our feelings. That’s something you can’t adjust to merely by knowing it.”
Her eyes glowed as the light from her and her friends began to extend the field of light.
“Amity didn’t just give us the elements of harmony, we earned them, through our friendship and love. And as it has grown and evolved, so have they!”
An explosion of color and warmth spread throughout the land, encompassing all. The wraith-possessed ponies evaporated leaving behind the restored townsfolk, all smiling in salvation. The ruins of the town were restored as the light passed over them. The endless vortex of nothingness gave away to clear skies. And as the light shone upon the crystallized alicorns the figures cracked, and then, like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, the regents of the sun and moon burst out with a joyful whiny.
The vile shadows shrunk around Ruinate as the light threatened to consume him.
“NO! NO!”
He blasted back at it with all he could, but the brightness still overtook him, and he screamed in agony as if it were burning him.
“Even now your sister still bears no malice for what you have attempted,” Twilight’s voice echoed, “So neither will we. But this world no longer has a place your wanton ravaging, so you must leave and never come back.”
Ruinate was edged back towards the gaping tear in the void that he had cut by the six mares. Suddenly, a black stream of power pierced the heavens and closed the hole into the void while breaking the field of light. It collided with the six bearers with a great bang, and sent them flying into the air, landing in messy ponypile. Pinkie Pie’s eyes spun as she was the first to lift her head.
“Did…did anypony get the number of that chariot?”
“Mm hm hm hm hm…”
All the ponies cast their eyes on the weakened Ruinate. He was kneeled over and shuddering, but a deep and confident chuckle came from his lips.
“Mmm heh heh heh heh…It would seem that you are correct Twilight Sparkle…Amity’s toys are indeed not like they were when I first beheld them, and therefore I failed to correctly gauge them. However…”
He stood upright as the dark vortex in the sky returned. It did not blot out the entire horizon as it did before, but it still billowed and swirled as violently as any hurricane.
"However...as I said before, I never make the same mistake twice!"
Six streams of black funneled down from the vortex as they circled Ruinate. "I spent a whole half-eternity in the void. Did you really think I wouldn't have made more than one plan? I had always wondered to myself, why did Amity willingly give up her strength for her creations, knowing full well she would never truly recover it all? Why did she think her children could wield it just as well as she, if not better? So I figured, why not find out the only way I knew how, craft my own elements."
With a thunderous crash, the six funnels connected to the ground around Ruinate's feet, and as the wind died down and the dust settled, the ponies all gasped as they made out the six unknown equines that had appeared before them during the festival preparations.
"I must say, thank you for the lesson Twilight Sparkle. Because now I know that my experiment was more rewarding than I ever could have imagined." Black lightning flashed as he boldly proclaimed to the heavens.
"Arrogance!"
"Envy!"
"Sorrow!"
"Vengeance!"
"Fear!"
"and Doubt."
"These are the elements of my hatred, and they..." he motioned to the ponies standing at his feet, "are the six chosen to wield them as my heralds. As strong as your friendship is...their hatred for it is stronger."
The six heralds reared up and neighed as they proceeded to circle around Ruinate, kicking up a swirling tornado of his miasma.
"This is far from over, Amity's spawn. So go ahead. Enjoy your little victory. For it is but a fleeting one."
His face vanished into the cyclone of darkness as it disappeared deep into the vortex above.
"YOU HAVE WON THE BATTLE MY LITTLE PONIES, BUT THE WAR...HAS JUST BEGUN!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
His laughter echoed out as the storm above departed with a cracking bang, leaving behind nothing but a clear sky.
Rainbow shot to the spot where the sention once stood. She scanned the ground and then the air for any trace, but came up empty-hoofed "He's...he's gone! Dang it!"
All of a sudden, their elements glowed as they returned to their original forms, and a light sprang from each of them to create a projection of an equine form. She stood slightly higher than the princesses, and for her chest up, she had smooth silky tanned skin with an extra pair of appendages each with five fingers. Her face was round with hair that flowed like the princesses a white comet's tail hue.
"Amity..." Everypony immediately gaped as they saw their princesses bow before the apparition, and once they had gotten over the concept of their absolute rulers kneeling before anypony else they instantly followed suit.
"Dear Celestia, and Luna. How wonderful it is to see my trusted disciples again."
"You...you know her?" Twilight asked, peeking her head off the ground.
"But of course," Celestia sweetly replied. "Luna and I once beheld the elements of harmony ourselves if you do recall. But never have we been able to actually see our foremother. We could only hear her voice. For her to be able to conjure her image from the elements...you and your friends truly have the closest connection to the elements in the entire history of their creation."
"Do not deem so little of yourself, Celestia. Our bond has not been severed by the soul. You have remained strong, benevolent, and wise even after a thousand years without my guidance, and I could not be more proud of you as I am them." She preened Celestia's mane lovingly then looked to Twilight and her friends with an equally warm smile. "You have done well today, bearers of harmony. This world remains peaceful and joyous."
"But...Ruinate's still out there...and he has elements of his own now."
Amity nodded solemnly, but still held her smile. "Yes, the trials before you have not ended yet. And my brother's craft is very dangerous indeed. Hatred is a very powerful force that can evolve and grow just as much as friendship. But there is one key difference. Hate only grows alone, but friendship is cultivated together. That is what makes it so easy to share. I believe that you can grow even stronger than you have now, and hopefully...you can save those six wayward children of mine as well."
Her image faded away as the elements fell silent again. The six mares steadily picked theirs up and gazed at them for a long time in silence.
Pinkie was the first to break the quiet as usual. "Hey! We just saved Equestria yet again, y'know what this calls for? A PARTY!!"
Everypony jumped to their feet and cheered as confetti flew and music began to play. "Indeed," Luna concurred, "We still have an equinox to finish."
As the crowd all rushed to the center of town to resume the festivities, Twilight lingered behind, sill fixating on her element. She hadn't realized she had a small group behind her until a small purple claw tapped her shoulder. "Huh? Wha-?" She looked down to see her assistant in a half grin, half scowl.
"Nice job saving the day again...but you could have at least given me a ride back this time."
Twilight looked down at his slightly sore feet. "Oh, sorry Spike." She then saw that her friends had stayed behind as well along with the princesses.
"Is something on your mind, my faithful student?"
"The heralds of hatred...they were ponies just like us once, right? What could possibly have caused them to become like that? To turn to some...thing like Ruinate?"
"I'm afraid I have no answers, Twilight. The heart is a very sensitive and profound matter, each one born unique and shaped by experiences."
Twilight once again looked at her element of magic. "They'll be coming for us though...that much we do know."
"And you can bet your bottom bit we'll be ready for them!" Rainbow Dash said.
"Don't get too ahead of yerself, RD," Applejack said with a hoof bump. "Them anti-elements are a whole new breed of varmints. I reckon we got a long road ahead of us."
"Well, duh! This is only episode two! We got at least twenty-four more shows to do before we take that meanie Runie down!"
"Uh, what?" Everypony looked at Pinkie Pie with a puzzled expression.
"Ah, nevermind! Let's party!"
As the six galloped off to join in on the fun, Celestia looked towards the horizon in the direction the storm had left.
"A history of hatred against a future of friendship. I expect some very interesting reports from you in the foreseeable future, Twilight Sparkle."
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Only one little gramar mistake. Whole should be hole.
Great work! you've earned a like from me!
Ok, and also, if you know any editors, artists, or groups this could fit in with, I'd appreciate it. For some reason I feel I could make the second episode's ending a little stronger....and am still looking for coverart.
niiiiccccceeee.....
Those Heralds kind've remind me of the 7 deadly sins, SWEET!
I just love a heartless villain
.