“Then I called everyone and we met here. It made sense at the time.” Rainbow Dash finished explaining her encounter with the figure in the city. “So, any idea what that thing was?”
Grimoire was looking through his modest collection of reference guilds as she spoke. “You’re sure it’s Equestrian?”
“I can’t think of anything in our world that can do that…” Rainbow’s voice would have been sarcastic; but whatever that thing was, it got to her.
Grimoire stepped away from the collection and sat down. “I can’t think of anything like what you described from Equestria. The outward description is unhelpful as, though we know what it looks like here, I don’t know what the Equestrian creature would look like. And looking at the powers just makes it more confusing. I don’t know any creatures that could do what you described. Teleportation and magical suppression? Only a powerful unicorn back home could come close to something like that.” Grimoire crossed his arms and thought for a moment. “But I get the feeling that this thing isn’t human here, so it’s likely not a pony back in Equestria.”
“That’s not exactly reassuring…”
“Never said it would be.” Grimoire leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “Now, the next question is, why didn’t it follow you?”
“What do you mean?” Rarity crossed her arms. “I would think the real question would be how to deal with it.”
“Okay… did not expect that from you, Rarity.”
“One of our friends was attacked! This is a serious matter.”
“True.” Grimoire jumped back up to his feet and began to pace. “All the more reason to figure out the details first. If it attacked her to achieve something, why not follow her? Why let her get away to warn the group? Dirt in its eyes wouldn’t stop it forever. And if it had a real mission, it would power through its temporary blindness to catch Rainbow or, at least, try to. So, why didn’t it? What’s it after? Why attack Rainbow Dash? These are important questions that, if answered, can help us to solve our problem. Once you identify the subject, it’s easier to deal with it.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “That’s a new one. Which philosopher did you get that one from?”
“That was the second law of Dark Magic.”
“Second?”
“We can discuss it later.” He continues to pace for a minute before he stopped suddenly. “Wait… Why was it after Rainbow? What does Rainbow have that the others around her at the time didn’t?”
“What are you getting at?”
“Magic! That thing knows about and is after magic! That’s why it didn’t pursue!” He broke his stillness and grabbed Sunset’s shoulder, followed by shaking her. “It’s after your magic! That’s why it attacked, but why not follow?” He lets go and Sunset drops to the ground, dizzy. “Does it know about your group? Does it know that all of you have magic? So many questions!”
“Grimoire!” Grimoire spun around to find Applejack staring him down. “You need to calm down and go through this without sending someone down to the ground.” She gestured to where Twilight was helping Sunset back to her feet.
“Oh… Sorry. But there’s so much that we don’t know…” He took a deep breath. “For now, it’s probably best to stay in groups. Whatever that thing was, something kept it from pursuit. So, staying together should help mitigate any future attacks.” He made his way outside the tent. “Uh… Rainbow. What did that thing look like again?”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow in confusion. She came to the realization rather quickly. “You cannot be serious.”
The group rushed outside and found the figure standing before them. Rainbow dropped into a combat stance. “That’s him!” At that confirmation, the rest of the group followed suit and activated their magic forms.
The figured looked over them and laughed. “Perhaps challenging you isn’t out of the real of possible this early.”
Rainbow’s face shifted in confusion. “Okay. He did not sound like that before.”
“What did he sound like?” Rarity asked.
“Is this really the time?!” Applejack shouted.
The figure folded his arms. “No, no. By all means, converse. You can trust me not to attack you while you talk things over.”
Rainbow remained ready for an attack. “He was raspy, like he had a sore throat or something.” As she took a second glance, she added, “He also seems… shorter?”
The figure chuckled and reeled back his right fist. “Time’s up.” He punched the air in front of him, creating a wave of magic headed straight for the group.
Rarity materialized a barrier of crystals to block the attack. “What is that thing?!”
Grimoire looked over the creature. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
The figure’s eyes began to glow red and the mask began to crack along the jawline. Rainbow Dash noticed this and warned the others, “That’s the power that takes away out magic!” The figure ripped open the mask and let out a massive roar. The magic forms of the group began to disappear.
Sunset moved back a bit, “Now what?!”
“Calm down!” Grimoire stood among the group. “A spell like this takes a lot of power and doesn’t last long. It might last a minute or two at most.”
“The question is…” The figure’s eyes began to glow again, “… can you live that long?” The figure charged toward the group. When it arrived, it slammed its fist into the ground, creating a shockwave sending the group back. The figure popped up behind Sunset and grabbed her by the neck. “How about I start with you?”
“Sunset!” The group tried to fight back, but their magic was still gone.
The figure just laughed. “I can get rid of one you now, and deal with the rest later. I think I like that plan.”
“I don’t.” Grimoire stood on the opposite side of the figure from the group. “Let her go.”
“Why should I?”
Grimoire let the Dark Magic build in his eyes. Everyone, including the figure, could feel the atmosphere around them get heavier. “This a good enough reason.”
The figure dropped Sunset once he felt the power coming from Grimoire. “How is that even possible? My power should have sealed all your magic!”
“Sorry, but I’ve long since mastered getting around the effects of spells. You’ll need to up your game.”
The figure laughed. “Then so be it. You’ll die first.” It reeled back its fist and prepared to let loose.
“Too bad. Time’s up.”
The figure’s attack was cut short by a solid fist to the face from Applejack sending him flying into the school’s wall. The figure shook its head and looked on as the group regained their powers. “Crap.”
The group stood together, ready to use their ultimate ability. As the power charged, a rainbow began to surround them. The figure charged forward in some attempt to stop the attack, only to run right into the blast. The figure erupted as a rainbow arc rose into the sky, taking the figure with it.
After a minute of silence, Rainbow finally blurted out, “That was AWESOME!”
“It was rather impressive.” Rarity chuckled.
As the group celebrated, Grimoire thought over what happened. This isn’t right… Something doesn’t add up. Something caught his eye, a red glow. CRAP!
Circles of red light appeared underneath each of the Human Seven. Grimoire jumped in among them and clapped his hands together. He unleashed a bright purple wave of magic. The red circles began to siphon away from the girls and toward Grimoire. As the red lights collided, a pillar of magic rose and surrounded Grimoire.
When the light disappeared, Grimoire began to fall to the ground. Sunset caught him and helped him remain upright. Sunset looked to Grimoire with concern, “What was that?”
Grimoire winced in pain as he answered. “Nightmare’s Requiem. It’s a Dark Magic technique designed to send the targets’ magic into chaos, allowing the darker impulses to run riot.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve made peace with my darkness and my light. I just need to rest.”
“But will you get the chance?” Standing before the group was the figure they had just sent skyward. The figure seemed injured, holding its shoulder as it walked toward them, but still very dangerous. As the group gathered in line, it continued, “Your little trick won’t work again. So, how about another Requiem?!”
“How about ‘No’!” Grimoire placed his hand on the ground and the area around them began to glow purple. After a second, the group was gone.
The figure looked over the now empty space. After a moment, it dropped to its knee. “We will meet again. Now that I know what your powers are… I’ll be ready for next time. Be ready little fools. I’m coming for you.”
\/
The group arrived at the destination of their teleport and most fell over in shock. The only two that didn’t were Grimoire, who was already seated, and Sunset, who was used to teleportation. Grimoire winced in pain as his magic tried to go haywire.
Sunset helped the others up and supported Grimoire so he could walk, “What now?”
Grimoire looked around before answering, “We can’t go back, and that thing likely knows where to look for each of you. We need to lie low for now.”
“And do you suppose we do that?!” Rainbow challenged, “Whatever that thing is, it knew where to find us and you’re talking like it knows where we live! If it’s so smart, where do we hide from that?”
“I might know a place. Oracle told me about a house we can hide at should we need it.”
“Who’s Oracle?”
“It’s a story I can’t tell you right now. For now, we head southeast. It shouldn’t be too far.”
After a few minutes of walking, they arrived and saw something a little… odd. For one thing, there was a house, three floors with a decent amount of space for anyone inside, just sitting there in a field. No other houses around. It was quite the odd sight. As they approached, Sunset’s phone began to ring. She looked at the number and hesitated. She answered the phone, which immediately switched to speaker mode without her input.
The voice on the other end spoke before she could, “You better have a good explanation for coming here.”
“How did you…?” Sunset shook her head in slight frustration. It was something to figure out later. “Look, we just need a little help and a place to rest. We’ll leave as soon as we have.”
“Sure. How about you leave now? That sounds fair.”
Grimoire cleared his throat. “I was told by Oracle that we could come here if we needed to hide out.”
The voice on the other end paused for a moment, “Oracle? The old man at the Den?”
“That’s him.”
“Fine. Come on in, but I’m keeping an eye on you.”
“Thank you.”
“Shut it.”
“Maybe later.”
The group arrived at the front door and heard the door unlock. It swung open to show a young man with yellow-orange skin, short sky blue hair, and a goatee. He wore a black hoodie accompanied with jeans and sneakers. He seemed kind of familiar, yet not. He was clearly not happy to see anyone. “Well, come in. Just don’t touch anything.”
Sunset helped Grimoire to sit down at a chair in a side room, which seemed to be a lounge of some kind. “Thanks again, mister…”
“Grey Hat. Now hurry up before I change my mind. If at all possible, I’d prefer you left before my brothers get home.”
“We won’t be long.”
“Based on the fact that you had to help your friend there… you’ll be long enough.”
As the group began to rest, they had to discuss the issue at hand. Rainbow was the first of the group to break the silence. “So, what do we do now? That thing knows our school and it took our strongest attack and kept fighting. How do we fight that?”
“I don’t know.” Sunset replied. “None of this makes any sense.”
As they discussed the creature and how to deal with it, they heard the door open. In walked two young men. As they walked, they seemed to be discussing something.
The first had a similar color scheme to Grey Hat (yellow-orange with blue hair) however, his hair was accented with blonde streaks. He dresses in a black uniform with a gold shield design on the upper arm and wore a pair of rounded glasses. “I’m just saying that it doesn’t make any sense. Grey isn’t the type to help you with sound for your band.”
“I know that.” The second young man remained out of their sight for the moment but he sounded very familiar. “But, you have to admit, it would be a great way to…” As he rounded the corner and made his way into the room, he stood in shock at seeing everyone sitting there, who were all staring in silence at the person before them, Flash Sentry.
“What’s the issue, Flash?” The first young man looked over his shoulder at the guests. He pinched the bridge of his nose once he saw them. “Grey! You better have a good explanation for this!”
Grey Hat walked over to the two. “Don’t blame me for this! One of them said that Oracle told them to come here if they needed help.”
“How long have they been here?”
“Not long overall, but longer than I wanted them here.”
Flash finally recovered from his shock. “What are you all doing here?”
Grey turned to Flash, “You know them?”
“They’re friends from CHS.”
As the young men before conversed, the group noticed something about them. All three were extremely similar. Sunset looked between the three, “Uh… Flash. Could you explain…” She motioned between the three, “… this?”
Flash looked between the two and the group. “Oh! Um. Everyone, this is Grey and Bastian, they’re my brothers.”
Bastian waved to the group. “Triplets, actually.”
“Tri… what?”
“That said,” Bastian smiled to his guests, “any friends of Flash are welcome here.” He turned to his brothers. “Flash, don’t be rude, get our guests some refreshments.” Flash gave a quick salute and walked off. “Grey… there’s no hope for you. Go do whatever it is you do.” Grey walked off with a customary flip of the bird to his brother. “Classy. Now, Sunset, was it?”
“Yes?”
“I’d like to talk to you for a moment, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure…” She followed him into the nearby dining room. “So, what did you want to talk about?”
“Like I said before, any friends of Flash are welcome here.” His smile disappeared. “But the harpy that used my brother to further her goals isn’t.”
“What? I…”
“No. I know who you are. And I’m aware you think you’ve changed. So, I’ll let you stay. But know that I’m watching you. If I think for even a moment that something’s up, you’re gone. Am I understood?”
Sunset knew she couldn’t argue with him, but she didn’t have to. “Alright.”
“Good. Now,” his smiled returned as quickly as it left, “Best get back to your friends. Flash will be back with something to eat soon.”