The Inventor and the Red Lady

by MadNimrod

Chapter 6: Monstrosity

The castle was large. Even having suffered from two centuries of disuse, it remained sturdy. Few of the walls or structures were crumbling, but all were covered in moss and vines. One of the towers had fallen over, but that was due to part of the cliff it sat on collapsing. The other four towers stood straight as the day they were built. The roof of the main keep was holey, but enough remained for the place to be a viable shelter from all but the worst storms.

This was Watson's first view of the Grand Palace of Evisica.

With him were Ditzy, Redstamp and Thom. Standing behind them were six members of the Shetland Elite Guard, two from each race of pony. They were standing on a hill a few hundred yards from the castle. The castle was on a hill surrounded by trees. It looked like something out of a storybook, but gave off a less-than-inviting feeling.

"Well," the armor-clad Thom stated, "that's kinda creepy."

"Let's go," Watson said as he trotted down the hill towards the castle. The other nine ponies followed him. The forest seemed to be teeming with life, until they reached the castle. As they walked up the path to the doors, the sounds of the forest died off. The two pegasi flew off to scout around the outside. As they got closer, Watson could see the massive castle doors didn't just rot away. Something had blown them off their hinges. As the ponies stepped through the doorway, Watson saw that the stone around the doorframe looked melted. One of the Shetland ponies noticed Watson's observation.

"During the war," the female Earth Pony explained, "the Evisicans burned Malice's palace. As you can see, she came to personally return the favor two hundred years ago."

"And blasted the doors clean off," one of the unicorns, one with green fur, finished. "Wish I could've seen it."

"Well," Thom spoke up, "I wish we could've seen this place in better shape." He nudged the mossy remains of what looked like a chair. "Just look at this. Everything's so…weird. It doesn't look like it was built by ponies, does it?"

"Now that you mention it," Redstamp looked at some of the ruined furniture, "all this stuff seems a bit too…thick. Like they were supposed to support something much heavier than a pony." Ditzy flew up to a nearby balcony and looked around.

"These windows are way too high for even most Earth Ponies!" she exclaimed. Looking down at the Shetland ponies, she asked, "What were the Evisica, anyway?"

"I'm afraid we really don't know," the other unicorn guard, who had maroon fur, replied. "None of us were alive back then, and pretty much everything beyond the name and former location of the Evisica Kingdom is highly classified."

"Although," the green unicorn said, "my grandfather fought in the war."

"Two hundred years ago?" Thom asked in shock.

"Unicorns live a long time," the green one continued, "around 150 years. I never got to meet him, but he told my parents about his time in the war, and they told me in turn." She turned to look at one of the ruined chairs. "He said that the Evisica were not like any other race in the known world."

"Hey!" the female Earth Pony called from further into the room. "There's something here!" the group ran over to where the Earth Pony was looking. It was a slab of stone, but the knight gave one solid kick and it tipped over, revealing a staircase going down.

"Okay," Thom comically asked, "who wants to go down the creepy, dark staircase first?"

"I'll go," the maroon unicorn stepped forward. His horn lit up with a white light as he said, "None of us brought lamps, and I can intercept any threats that might be here. I've heard of your dysfunctional horn, Watson, and I'd rather not risk having you try and hold a Light spell only to have it spark into a Fireball." As much as Watson disliked this thought, he couldn't disagree. His horn did have a nasty habit of messing up if he had to cast a prolonged spell. Looking at the other unicorn and the female Earth Pony, the maroon unicorn ordered, "You two wait here, in case the pegasi need to find us. We shouldn't be long."

The group descended into the dark stairway. The stairway was so wide they could almost stand in rows of two, and the steps were a little taller than what they were used to. The light from the maroon unicorn lit up just enough for them to see where to step. He was in front, and behind him was Thom. Behind him were Redstamp and Watson while Ditzy and the male Earth Pony made up the rear. No one spoke for the whole descent. When they reached the bottom, Thom looked back up the stairs. The entrance was just a small dot of light.

"Geez," the armored pony exclaimed, "how far down are we?"

"Too far," Watson replied. "I don't like it. If we need to make a hasty retreat…"

"Let's hope we don't have too." The Shetland unicorn made more light, and they saw they were in a large room. There were broad, round pillars at regular intervals, but a few were damaged. One was blown in half. Time wasn't the culprit here. As the light spread, they could see this room had only one other exit. The doorway was completely dark, like somepony hung a sheet over it. Watson could feel the magic coming from it. Somepony had purposefully cast a Darkness spell there. That was quite unsettling.

Far more unsettling was the giant magic array on the floor.

All the ponies gasped as they saw the array. It was an exact duplicate of the array Malice illustrated a few days back, except it was muchlarger. Whereas the circle in the cave could barely accommodate one body, this one could cover the whole group and still leave room for at least a dozen more. The circle itself glowed with magic, so even the multitude of bloodstains couldn't hide its lines. The smell was bad enough, a sign it had been used recently, but the magic coming off the circle was making Watson nauseous. There was something wrong with this magic.

The Shetland unicorn shook himself back to his senses (the smell and bad magic was clearly affecting him, too) and said, "We should move on, but quietly. A lot of that blood's fresh."

"Hello?" a voice called out from the darkened doorway. "Is somepony there?" Before anypony else acted, the two Shetlanders jumped between the Equestrians and the doorway.

"Who's there?" the Earth Pony hollered.

"You," the voice called out again, "you're not him! Thank Solarion! Please, help!" Watson could hear the fear in this stallion's voice. Fear that no amount of training could hope to imitate.

"His fear is genuine," the small unicorn announced to the group.

"Geez," Thom-with-an-H groaned, "even I could tell that!" Without any more words, the six ponies dashed to the doorway and went straight through the darkness. It seemed to be set up so that nopony could see what was on the other side, nothing more. What they saw upon passing through the curtain of darkness, though, was enough to make even the Shetlanders stop dead in their tracks.

The chamber was brightly lit. It was a moderately-sized chamber, about the size of Sugarcube Corner. Along the walls were cages, and in these cages were more bloodstains. Some of them were accompanied by a dead pony. Most looked like they were simply stabbed by some sharp object, but a few were dismembered, and a few of those were missing a few pieces. Only two cages were still locked and closed. One held a pony cadaver covered in wounds. The other held a blue stallion with a look of abject terror.

"You're not them!" he smiled with tears in his eyes. "Please, please help me!"

"Don't worry!" Watson said as he and Thom rushed to the cage door. "We'll get you out in a minute."

"Get me out?" the stallion asked with a voice of fear. "No, no, you can't do that."

"What?" Ditzy asked. "How can we help you if we can't get you out?"

"You have to kill me."

This reply caught everypony by surprise. Did he really just say that?

"Did you really just say that?" Watson asked. "Why do you have to die?"

"Because of what he did," the stallion said before giving a groan of pain. "Please, I don't want to change!"

"Change into what?" the amber-furred Shetland Earth Pony asked. "Who did this to you?"

"It was a unicorn," the stallion groaned. "I couldn't see his face, but he used magic. Said something about perverting life…groan…to bait something…" He looked at the ponies with tears streaming down his face. "Please, kill me before it's too late!" He gestured to the dead pony in the other locked cage and continued, "He was able to kill himself in time, but I can't! I can't kill myself! Please!" As he finished his request, the blue stallion screamed. Everypony stepped back as his legs seemed to elongate. As he screamed, fangs started protruding from his mouth, and the skin on his back started to tear apart. Without another word, the Shetland unicorn shot a blast straight through the stallion's chest and the Earth Pony drew a blade and sliced through the bars and the stallion's neck in one swing. Watson gritted his teeth as the unfortunate pony's body fell to the floor. There was nothing else they could've done, but Watson still felt bad. If they had gotten here sooner…

"Trouble!" Redstamp shouted. Everypony turned towards the white Pegasus and were aghast at what they saw. There was a large, lanky creature standing at the other end of the room. It was a sickly shade of green. It stood on all fours, but its front legs ended in hands, two for each leg. Its back legs started normal, but turned into tentacles as they went along. Its head was long and wide, like and alligator. Its mouth was lined with curved, occasionally twisted, fangs. What scared everypony the most, though, was the perfectly normal-looking pony head jutting out from this creature's forehead.

"He was gonna turn into that?" Ditzy shrieked what everypony was thinking. The thing that used to be a pony gave an unearthly roar and charged at the ponies. The pegasi flew up as Thom and the other Earth Pony met its charge. Despite there being two of them, the two Earth Ponies barely held the monstrosity in place. Ditzy and Redstamp both slammed into the sides of its head while Watson and the other unicorn simultaneously charged up their horns. The beast gave a bubbling sound as one pair of hands disappeared into its legs and reemerged from its head, trying to claw at the swiftly-dodging pegasi. It turned to bite at Thom, but gave a roar of pain as a few of its fangs broke on Thom's armor.

"Move!" The Shetland unicorn ordered as his and Watson's spells finished charging. Everypony moved to one side or the other as the two unicorns fired their spells. On one side, red Shetland lightning arced across the beast while the other side was burned in green fire. The monster wasn't dead yet, however, but even the normal pony head on it reacted to the magic. It crumpled to the floor and Thom punched it with enough force to knock it over. The Shetland Earth Pony drew a blade on his foreleg and stabbed it through the monster's eye. The two pegasi slammed down one more time before Watson and the Shetland unicorn fired one last spell. The combined fire spells was enough to reduce the monster to a pile of ash. As it disintegrated, the ponies caught their breath.

"That…" the Shetland Earth Pony said between breathing, "that was not pleasant."

"You can say that again," Redstamp agreed. "I'm not sure which is worse, that something like this existed…"

"Or," Watson finished, "that somepony made that." He didn't like this at all. The pony that was hastening the Last Days was murdering ponies or, even worse, making them into monsters. The blue stallion said it was being done as a perversion of life to bait something. What would require all this to be baited?

"We'd better get a move-on," the Shetland unicorn stated. "The Princess must hear about this. Judging from what we've seen, the culprit must return here on a fairly regular basis."

"Won't they stop, though?" the cross-eyed Ditzy asked. "I mean, we've killed two subjects of theirs. When they next come by, he would undoubtedly figure that we know where they operate. Wouldn't he just move away?"

"A clever deduction," the Earth Pony Knight announced. "And possibly a truthful one, but look at the options. If he moves his operation elsewhere, it'll take time for him to set things up. Time we can use to organize a strike team so that, when we find his next hidey-hole, we can take him down right there. Another option is dependent on the circle we saw outside." The small herd walked back to the stairs as the Shetlander continued, "It is quite a big circle. Now, did the unicorn we're looking for make it, or find it here? It could be he found it, but lacks the ability to copy it."

"There was a smaller version at each of the crime scenes," the maroon unicorn countered.

"But those were small," the Thom replied to the defense of the Shetland Earth Pony. "I may be an Earth Pony, but I know that it would take a substantial amount of magic just to lay down the anchor for a big circle's magic. It would take at least ten unicorns of, say, Academy Mage caliber to set one up." Turning to the Earth Shetland, the armored Equestrian asked, "Your country keeps tabs on all Mages, correct?"

"Indeed."

"Well, if the group decides to move, wouldn't a movement of multiple Mage Unicorns be unusual?"

"You have a point," the Shetland unicorn admitted. "But, there hasn't been any unusual movements among the Mages for longer than I've been a knight." They reached the stairs and started up as he continued, "Most just stay in their posts. A few are free-roaming, yes, but those guys are Special Ops. They report to the Red Lady directly. If any of them were in this group of psychos, she would've been able to tell. Besides, they rarely travel in groups of more than three. If they assemble in a large group, it's within the castle itself."

"What if they're not Mages?" Watson asked. "What if they're independent unicorns who don't work for the Lady?"

"All unicorns who become magically powerful enough must register as such," the Earth Shetland replied. "They aren't forced into being Mages, but they are still monitored, and they don't have access to the archives that would reveal this place. It would have to be Mages."

"The point is," Thom got things back on track, "the government would notice an assembly of powerful unicorns at wherever they decide to move. When that'd happen, the Princess could send said strike team to catch them all."

"No catching," the maroon unicorn denied. "Such experimentation on normal creatures is bad enough, but such work on ponies, live or dead, is a mandatory death penalty with no chance of leniency." At this point, everypony just stopped. There were sounds of fighting further up. "RUN!" Going full gallop, the ponies sped up the stairs and reached the main room in time to see the Earth Pony that was left behind smash in the head of a monster similar to the one downstairs.

With no time to think, all the ponies from downstairs threw themselves at the nearest monsters. There were six more, and none of them looked the same. Different head shapes, different number of limbs, the only thing they had in common was that they all had some part of a normal pony jutting out of them. The two Shetland pegasi were also inside, fighting a monster that could fly, but the green unicorn was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Saria?" The maroon unicorn asked the female Earth Pony.

"Got wounded when these things showed up!" she replied. "Shoved her in a closet where these things can't get him! You have any idea what these things are?"

"They used to be ponies!" Watson hollered as he blasted an arm off. "Whoever's behind the murders also made these guys!"

"For real?" One of the pegasi asked after smashing the flying monster into the floor.

"We witnessed a partial transformation!" the amber Earth Pony screamed as he bucked a green monster away. "It was not cool!" There was a flash of light and one of the monsters disintegrated. The female green unicorn from earlier was standing with her back to a wall. Watson could see the bloodied fur where she had been wounded, but the wound itself seemed to be gone.

"I'm not done yet!" she roared as she shot a pale blue beam that bisected another monster. She didn't notice another monster coming down at her until Redstamp and Ditzy smashed it into the wall.

"Doesn't it seem like there are more of these guys now?" Ditzy asked. She was right. Excluding the dead monsters (which were slowly crumbling into ash), there were now ten monsters coming in from the outside. Things were beginning to look a bit grim.

---

He sped through the sky almost as fast as that rainbow Pegasus he met. The ground was little more than a blur, but he could feel the lines of the dying land. As he followed them, he saw a large castle in the distance. When did that get there? It certainly wasn't there last time he was here. Admittedly, that was more than a thousand years ago, but you'd think people would leave a lone hill-was that magic?

He stopped in midair. Someone was using a lot of magic there. Or maybe a lot of somebody's were using magic, he couldn't tell. Worse yet, he could feel the magic that was killing the land was coming from that castle.

Bollocks.

He flew to the castle as fast as he could go. As he got close, a rancid smell hit his nose. A sick, twisted something-or-rather flew at him from the castle. What the Chasm was that? Curling his lip in disgust, he swatted the critter out of the air. It flew back up at him, but suffered an unfortunate accident when a boulder fell on it. He smiled as the nasty thing smashed into the ground and crumbled away. He may not be as strong, but he still had some tricks. With no more flying monsters in sight, he continued soaring to the castle.

---

Malice was in her study, looking out the window. The Grand Palace of Evisica was too far for even her to see, but that didn't stop her from gazing in its direction. It had been nearly a week since the four Paladins left for that ruin with four of her guard. She knew it would likely be another day before she got any news, and this made her the least bit antsy.

"Milady," a servant stepped into the study, "there is somepony here to see you."

"Who is it?" the scarlet Princess asked.

"She wouldn't give her name," the servant unicorn answered. "She would only say she's your foalsitter. Should I send her away?"

"Not at all," Malice smiled. "I've wanted to talk to her for a while." With a bow, the servant boy left. A few minutes passed and an elderly pony stepped into the study. She had a white coat that shimmered silver, and her mane was a pale gold. Her horn was long, pale lavender and completely smooth. She wore a cloak that was little more than rags sewn together.

"It's so good to see you again," the Red Lady smiled. As she hugged the elderly pony, Malice could feel the bulges underneath the cloak where she hid her wings.

"It's good to see you, too," the old alicorn said with a voice that sounded much younger than she looked. "Now, let me get a good look at you." Holding Malice at foreleg's length, Malice's foalsitter scrutinized her with emerald green eyes that revealed a still-sharp mind.

"You've grown to be quite beautiful, Millie," the older alicorn smiled. "It's almost hard to believe the scrappy daughter of Solarion could grow up into somepony like you." Her eyes twinkled as she said, "I still remember when you put glue into Celestia's mane."

"Eij!" Malice exclaimed. "That was millennia ago! I've changed!" The elderly alicorn just laughed.

"I know," Eij nodded, "I know." She sighed before continuing, "It's been too long, Millie. You've grown up so fast."

"No faster than the others," The scarlet alicorn walked back to the desk and pulled out a tall bottle and a pair of glasses. "Want any? It's my last bottle of Old Rhubarb."

"Didn't know you still had any of that stuff," Eij said in complete surprise. "I used up my last bottle back when Cadence was born." Accepting a proffered glass, the older alicorn took an appreciative sip. "How is Cadence, anyway?"

"I heard she's doing fine," Malice replied. "She got married a while ago, and I just got word she's running the Crystal Kingdom now."

"Sombra's old haunt? I thought that place was sealed up."

"Not anymore." Malice took another sip and continued, "By the way, have you heard anything about, well…"

"The world's hastening?" Eij finished. "Malice, I'm the Lady of Old Age! Of course I can feel it. Don't know what exactly's causing it, but I can feel the world's aging faster than it should. Do you have any idea?" Malice nodded and told her everything she knew. From when she first noticed the world's pulse speeding up, to when she and Watson scryed the circle, to…

"At the moment, Watson and his companions are investigating the old Evisica palace. My sense can't stretch that far for very long, so I can't quite tell what's going on there." Malice finished her narrative and Eij poured herself another glass of wine. Malice waited as Eij took a few sips, processing everything she just learned.

"You place a lot of trust into this Watson character," Eij finally said. "It is…unusual for you. What has this Watson done to earn such trust?" Before she could answer, Malice felt something in the back of her mind. Someone was using intense magic somewhere.

"Pardon me." The scarlet alicorn walked to the window and focused her senses toward the palace. There was fight going on there. What were those things? She gasped when she saw these creatures were attacking her team as they fought their way out of the palace. They were all alive, that was a good sign, but many of them were in a bad way. She gasped as she saw a couple of them get knocked through the air by a particularly large one. "Eij, please forgive me, but there is an important matter I must attend to!" Without another word, Malice disappeared in a flash of red light. Eij was alone in the study. Pouring herself another glass of wine, Eij sipped and smiled. When did Malice become so caring?

---

Watson pulled himself to his hooves as the large monster that sent him and one of the Shetlanders flying was brought low by Thom's timely intervention. The monster clutched the stub that used to be its leg as it toppled over. One of the Shetland Earth Ponies stabbed it through the eye when it was low enough. It gave a last grunt before crumbling into ash. At least these monsters had the decency to crumble upon death, rather than stay intact and fall on their killers. There were only three monsters left, but everypony was in bad shape. Redstamp's wing was broken, so he had to resort to ground fighting. Ditzy Doo could still fly, but blood pouring from a gash on her head obscured her vision. Thom's armor was dented, and blood poured from between a few plates. The Shetland ponies were no better. The pegasi were crippled and Saria had fainted from blood loss earlier. It was a miracle everypony was alive, and Watson knew how miracles could end in the blink of an eye.

One of the last monsters gave a roar and charged at Ditzy. She dodged, but was surprised that the monster kept going past her. With another look, she saw it was sliding on some pink substance that wasn't there before. The monster slid into the wall, hitting it with enough force to cause part of it to fall on the monster, squishing it flat. The second monster gave a squeal of surprise as a different pink substance, one which was wispy, appeared around it and enveloped it. Leaving only the head out, the pink stuff hardened, effectively holding the monster in place long enough for the male Shetland unicorn to blast a hole through its head. The last monster hesitated at the death of its last two companions. It stood still long enough for a giant stone piano to fall on it, killing it instantly.

The battle's sudden end caught everypony by surprise. They all stood (or sat in some cases) in confusion at what just happened. Looking between the broken wall, the pink wrappy-stuff and the stone piano, all the ponies were in a state of confused shock.

"What just happened?" Thom asked.

"I think we won," Ditzy said as she landed.

"I can see that," Thom agreed, "but how?"

"Wait a minute," Watson recovered. He ran over to the slippery pink substance and touched it with his hoof. "This is soap." Running to the hardened pink substance, he poked it and pulled off a small bundle. He sniffed it, and his eyes widened. "This is cotton candy." He looked at the stone piano, but didn't say anything, figuring it was self-explanatory.

"Soap, cotton candy, and a piano?" one of the Shetlanders asked. "We were saved by soap, cotton candy and a stone piano?"

"No…" Watson gasped. He knew of only one person, one entity, who would, and has, used such tactics.

"You know," a snide voice said from behind everypony, "it's rude to spit on people, even if they're a statue." Most of the ponies whipped around while Watson slowly turned to see who was talking. When he saw who it was, he gave a gasp.

"You…" the tiny unicorn exhaled.

"Yes, me," the new arrival bowed. "In case you don't know who I am, which I'm certain the little unicorn there does, my name is Discord, Lord of Chaos."

Author's Note:

YAY! Chapter 6! Full of action, fighting and a little chaos...
Please leave comments! I like hearing from the readers!

Comments

[Rubakor]

Good chapter and what is up with the site lately? Least half the time it doesn't show when new chapters are added to favorited stories.

[MadNimrod]

1907531
No idea. I only joined last month, so I haven't figured out the inner workings completely.
But still, thanks for commenting!