Twilight started to rapidly teleport herself, Spike, and Sweetie Belle. Rainbow flew, carrying me. Abes streaked after us. Yomega broke off towards Sugarcube Corner, presumably to start gathering the rest of the pack. All of us were ultimately heading towards Fluttershy’s cottage. Twilight rapped away at the front door as Rainbow came in for her landing. Angel opened the door, hopping out of the way as I ran in to get a look at the scene.
“What happened?” Twilight asked the Crusaders as they stood off to the side.
As a group, the Crusaders galloped out of the clubhouse. Villheim ran after them, shouting an apology off to Leo, who the Crusaders had trampled, but he didn’t seem to hear it.
The Crusaders waited just long enough for Villhiem to jump into their wagon before taking off. The Eevee looked at the gathered items. Various herbs and jars, some string, and a book with a red cover with a white skull on it. Must be a book of ghost stories. He pondered.
The Crusaders veered off the road onto a narrow path, hurtling towards the Everfree. They didn’t go very far in. In fact, one could see the forests edge from the clearing they stopped in. One just couldn’t see the road. However, Villhiem didn’t see a need to drag them out of the forest. After all, this wasn’t the first time they’d done this.
What was a first was them laying the string out in a large circle on the forest floor. Then they grabbed the various herbs and spread them out around it. Sweetie Belle then snagged the book and flipped through the pages until she reached one they had dog eared.
“Is everything ready?” Scootaloo asked.
Sweetie Belle looked from the book to the organized mess the Crusaders had made as a few small raindrops sprinkled into the clearing. “You think doing this here is a good idea? Wouldn’t by the pond be easier?”
Applebloom shook her head. “Naw, Scoots said that th’ drought comin’ through here would make it weaker, an’ we read in there that water makes it stronger.”
“Yeah, makes sense. It is a water elemental…”
<<Wait, what?!>>
“You WHAT?!” Twilight screeched.
“Cutiemark Crusaders Summoners…” Scootaloo said, ears laid back, staring at the floor.
Sweetie made a few corrections to the summoning circle as the rain grew slightly heavier. “Okay, that should be it.” As a group, the Crusaders began to chant. They stumbled here and there over a few words, but they doggedly kept at it.
As they reached the end of the chant, a bolt of lightning struck the center of their array, knocking the Crusaders back, and blowing a pile of herbs away. But it also destroyed a portion of the string binding circle.
The Crusaders didn’t notice that. Instead, they stared up at a large, blue and yellow dragon’s head. Then it shifted, revealing that it was instead a giant claw at least twice the size of the body it was attached to. “Burosuta…” It yawned out.
This had Villhiem worried. He could easily recognize the Clawitzer the Crusaders had summoned up, but he couldn’t understand it. The large blue crayfish started to drag itself towards the clearings edge.
“Where’s it going?”
“Hey wait, git back here!” Applebloom yelled after it.
The Clawitzer turned to glare at the little pony, before bringing its massive claw around, pointing directly at them. The ponies had little warning before a jet of water blasted into them, blasting them into a nearby rock. The deluge was suddenly lifted from them. Scootaloo risked a peek.
Villhiem turned to face the Crusaders, before kicking up a large cloud of dust straight into the Clawitzer’s face. Blasts of water sprayed out at random. Scootaloo used this as an opportunity to get the others up and run. They made it to the clearing’s edge before looking back in time to see a large sphere of water expand from the large shellfish. Villhiem didn’t have enough time to dodge. The wave blasted him into the rock the Crusaders just left. The Clawitzer turned to find its original targets staring in fear.
<<Oh, no you don’t!>> Rays of stars rammed into the main body of the Clawitzer. It spun back to the downed Eevee and began unleashing a barrage of explosive bubbles into him. The Crusaders cowered back from its cries of pain, only opening their eyes when they heard a dull thud from in front of them. Villhiem had been juggled to land at their feet. Battered and bruised, he struggled to stand.
The massive claw widened, a large sphere of water growing within. <<You think you can just hurt defenseless fillies while I’m around?>> He began to glow. <<I’LL HAVE YOUR HEAD FOR THIS!>> He roared.
In Canterlot, a new fracture grew hidden at the base of a statues tail.
Back in the Everfree, the Clawitzer snapped its claw shut, launching a large wave at the group. Vines from within the Everfree burst out, forming a wall in front of the fillies. The wave broke upon the glowing and expanding form of Villhiem, crashing ineffectively against the vine wall. The vines lowered as the light faded. The Crusaders could see a strange new creature where Villhiem had once stood. It had an off white body with greenish growths sprouting off of it, its ears and tail looking like large leaves. It looked back at them with brown eyes that matched its paws with a reassuring smile.
Battered, Villhiem stood strong. <<You’ll regret this day.>> His tail began to glow, before he jumped into a spin. Leaves seemed to have been spawned from his tail, then launched at the offending shellfish. The Clawitzer used its large claw as a shield, blocking the foliage projectiles. Even still, the Crusaders could see it being pushed back.
Another stream of bubbles were sent Villhiem’s way once he landed. Instead of moving, he took the brunt of them to spare the fillies behind him. He stomped a paw into the dirt. Shortly after, the fillies could see roots burst from the ground to dig into the main body of the Clawitzer. Cracks started to form along the creature’s shell as cuts and bruises seemed to fade from Villhiem.
Breaking free from the roots, the Clawitzer lunged at the former Eevee with surprising speed. Villhiem was snapped up by the shellfish’s massive claw. With a massive squeeze, something within Villhiem broke. Villheim responded by launching leaves point blank into the Clawitzer’s face.
The massive claw blocked the Crusaders’ view as the leaves sheared through the Clawitzer’s main body, embedding themselves into the dirt behind it. Dropping Villhiem, It stumbled back, clear blood falling to the forest floor. Finally, it was covered in a blue glow before being pulled back, and through, the summoning circle that brought it to the Everfree.
Villhiem collapsed once it had disappeared from view. Panicking, the Crusaders loaded the fallen form into their wagon, each getting some of the greenish, syrupy blood seeping from the claw marks covering his body on them. They rushed Villheim to Fluttershy’s.
“… and then she told me to come get you.” Sweetie Belle finished.
By this point the rest of the Eevees had arrived with the rest of Twilight’s friends. Everyone save Fluttershy had left the cottage to give the timid mare more room to work. Thankfully the rain had stopped.
“So, you didn’t notice the rain picking up?” Twilight asked. “The rainfall would have affected the strength of your Summon, making it harder to control.”
<<Oh, god! I killed Villhiem!>> I cried out. <<I’m a bastard!>>
“You can’ be givin’ them pointers, Twi!” Applejack glared at her friend.
“I know that,” Twilight snapped back, “but it’s obvious they have a talent for this kind of thing. I couldn’t even get my first first-tier fire element right! And that was with sturdier equipment, too.” She gave the Crusaders a stern smile. “The fact they managed to get a second-tier water elemental with just limited supplies is outstanding. Just don’t do it again.” The last part was directed to the fillies with a stern frown.
“How did you even get that book? I’ve told Spike to place it in the Restricted Magics section.”
“He gave it to us when we asked him for ghost stories for Nightmare Night costume ideas.” Applebloom stated.
Twilight turned to glare at Spike. “Really?”
“I didn’t mean to do it!” He cried out. “I asked Yomega to fetch Ghastlie’s Grand Collection of Ghostly Tales. I had to describe it to him. Both books look the same, so when I glanced to make sure it was the right one, I assumed it was!”
Yomega, who was trying to comfort me, looked shocked as Spike’s words sunk in. <<Oh, god!>> He cried, staring at me. <<We killed Villhiem!>>
<<We’re bastards!>> We chorused.