//------------------------------// // Present Day: Confrontation // Story: The Pony, the Sphinx, and the Immortal // by HapHazred //------------------------------// Rainbow, Applejack and Rarity trotted around the caves, looking for Twilight. By this point, Rarity was starting to sweat huge drops. Rainbow, still pale and tired from her recent experience, was worried. “Don’t tell me Zerephonzidas ate her too,” she said, only half jokingly. Rarity went cold. “Zerephonzidas…” she muttered, and looked towards the entrance to the ruins. “Oh, dear… She wouldn’t have…” “She weren’t thinkin’ straight after we thought RD bought it,” Applejack said. “Maybe she thought she was keepin’ us safe…” “Well, we’re not safe now, are we?” Rarity pointed out. “Come on, let’s go get her out of there.” “I don’t mean to play devils advocate, but… maybe Zerephonzidas only did what he had to to survive?” Applejack said, biting her lip. “Not that it makes me feel much better…” “Hey, I really like cider, okay?” Rainbow said. “You know that, AJ, right? Right before cider season, I’m usually fine. I just know I really like cider. When I get it, though, I can only down it in huge gulps it tastes so good.” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Your point?” “My point is, I don’t care if Zerephonzidas ate Douglas to survive or not. I’m worried that he’s got a taste for pony now.” The trio put on their hardhats. Twilight watched as Zerephonzidas carved through the remaining glass statues, his claws dancing through them like swords. Twilight preferred to use her shields to protect Zerephonzidas’s rear, and leave the actual violence itself to the sphinx. He seemed to revel in it much more than before. Before it had been businesslike. Now, it was… Twilight wasn’t sure how to describe it. Bloodthirsty, perhaps. “Are you all right?” Twilight asked. “Yes,” Zerephonzidas said. “It’s just that the column is taking a toll on me. I suspect in a very similar fashion to the farmpony.” Twilight bit her lip. The last thing she wanted was a rogue sphinx. If he went berserk, it might spell the end of the entire expedition. Zerephonzidas licked his lips. “To be honest, I’m still a bit hungry after I was trapped,” he said. “Pony food doesn’t quite cut it any more.” “Odd,” Twilight said. “Most ponies find food tastes delicious when starving.” Zerephonzidas shrugged. “Perhaps we work differently.” Twilight hoped the shields on Zerephonzidas’s paws still worked. “Perhaps we do.” “Well, they definitely came this way,” Applejack said, rubbing her eyes. “They opened up the hole.” Rainbow looked over at Applejack. “How are you holding up?” Applejack shrugged. “If I slow down, just go on without me, ‘kay?” she said. “I’ll catch up.” “With Zerephonzidas about, that really isn’t an option,” Rainbow said. “Who knows? He might give a whole new meaning to the word ‘Apple pie’.” Applejack shuddered. “He don’t seem like the pie type.” “No. More the ‘eat you alive’ type.” “As delightful as this discussion is, we should keep moving.” Rarity sighed. “I doubt us alone can handle him anyway, so we need to find Twilight. Perhaps together we can manage.” “We can handle him,” Rainbow said as she climbed through the hole. “Yes, I, injured, and you, exhausted and nearly starved, and Applejack, who can barely stand, can stand up to one of the greatest predators the world has ever seen,” Rarity said. “It will truly be a grand battle.” “You forget he ain’t doin’ so great either,” Applejack said. “And how much of that was just an act? Unlike Rainbow, he had a… snack whilst trapped.” Rainbow didn’t reply. “Well, the sooner we find him and Twilight, the sooner we’ll find out.” Her brow furrowed. “Besides, I’m not leaving here without finding him, no matter what he’s done to Twilight. I kinda liked Douglas.” Applejack swallowed as she followed the pair. “I’m as worried about Zerephonzidas as I am the column at the end of the tunnel.” “Column?” Rainbow asked. “Y-yeah. Whatever it is.” “Well, I’m not afraid of fancy architecture,” Rainbow said. “Let’s just go.” “This is is,” Twilight said. Zerephonzidas nodded. “Yes. I remember.” “What happened here?” “This is where I came back after a magician tried to assassinate me. Reed, his name was. He died quickly, and I took some of his magic to protect myself as I came back here.” “Why did he try to kill you?” Zerephonzidas chuckled. “I found out the truth about the ‘Emerald King’. Truth that the magician didn’t want me to know.” He examined his claws. “Reed wanted me to be away from the King when the spell was attempted. He failed. I saw the experiment just as I rounded the bend… this one, to be precise.” He tapped his once damaged eye. “I closed the other one when the blast happened, and Reed’s magic protected me from the blast, but the power was still enough to drive me mad for weeks. I woke up in the desert, many days later, having survived only on scorpions and snakes and what little water I could suck from the mud under the sand. It was a humiliating few weeks for me.” “How’d you cope with the loss of your eye?” “Not well. Sight is one of a sphinx’s greatest powers. Losing half was… painful.” Twilight looked at the corner. “At least we’re close.” “We are. It’s intoxicating.” “Will you be all right?” Zerephonzidas grit his teeth. “I worry that I won’t be strong enough to resist it in my current state,” he said. “Last time it took all of Reed’s life energy to save me.” “Well, this time I’ll be there to shield us.” Zerephonzidas looked at Twilight. “I suppose you could be a solution to that little problem.” Twilight nodded. “Good. Then we can…” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the beginnings of Zerephonzidas’s lunge. Time slowed to a crawl as she took in every detail of the deadly predator’s expression. Questions swirled inside her head. Why? Zerephonzidas must think that Twilight was a liability, or perhaps that she’d try to stop him. How? He was lunging with his mouth, going in to bite Twilight in the neck, snapping it in two. Even though his paws were closer, and faster… Twilight felt horror creep around her heart. Did he know about her shields? Was it when he took Salenorzabul’s eye? Or was it… Pop. Zerephonzidas spun on the spot, his speed far exceeding the delay in-between Twilight’s teleports. Twilight could only buy time. She needed a game plan. She was going to die. Zerephonzidas could only have learned about the shields on his paws by testing them… He closed in on her with the inevitability of the grim reaper. Douglas hadn’t been killed by a cave-in. No doubt about it: Zerephonzidas was going to kill her. She was going to die. Her horn flickered to life. She needed to teleport again. Faster, further… She needed more time… Zerephonzidas could seemingly react as if he could see the future… Salenorzabul’s eye… She was going to die. Every thought Twilight had led her to that single conclusion. She summoned a shield in-between her and Zerephonzidas. One swipe from Zerephonzidas’s paws was all it took to create a massive crack in the light purple energy shield. “You remind me of Starswirl’s apprentice,” Zerephonzidas said. “Except she had more space.” The shield crumbled. It would have taken a powerful blast to smash through Twilight’s energy barriers, but Zerephonzidas’s claws were sharp enough to generate the pressure needed to snap it like glass. She felt like a mouse standing in front of a cat. A sparrow behind a hawk. One million years of evolution, and ponies were still just prey to the sphinx. In a flash of blue, Zerephonzidas was knocked off course, landing to the side of Twilight. Twilight took the opportunity to teleport and fire as powerful a blast as she could at Zerephonzidas, throwing him back. “Looks like we got here in the nick of time,” Rainbow said. Twilight looked at Rainbow, from hoof to forelock. “You’re alive?” “It takes more than two days lost in the freezing cold to kill a Rainbow Dash, Twi’. I thought you were smart.” Behind her came Applejack and Rarity. “Twilight, he ate…” Twilight swallowed. “I know. I just figured it out.” “He’s not eaten a pony for thousands of years,” Rarity said. “He’s gotten a taste for it again.” “No,” Twilight muttered. “He just has a taste for power.” She looked at her hoof. “If he kills me, he can use my power to resist the column. Or… do whatever he wants.” Two eyes flashed in the dark. “It’s not over yet, Twi. Game plan?” Twilight swallowed. “I don’t…” “Hit him,” Applejack said, pawing the ground. “Until he don’t want to be hit no more.” “Twilight, you can teleport all of us, yes?” Rarity asked. Twilight bit her lip. “I can try.” “Good. Keep that spell ready in case we need to get out of here very quickly.” Zerephonzidas emerged from the darkness like a phantom. He looked at Rainbow. “You’re a survivable specimen, aren’t you?” “Yeah.” “Interesting. I was sure Twilight was the only pony worth meeting here.” “You know what else is cool about me?” Zerephonzidas raised an eyebrow. His jaw then shook, and his entire head rippled to the side. “I’m pretty fast, too,” Rainbow said, shaking her hoof. “How’d you like that punch?” Zerephonzidas appeared in front of her, his mouth opening to swallow Rainbow’s entire head. Pop. Rainbow squeaked as Zerephonzidas’s teeth chomped onto thin air. The team of ponies were panting. “You okay, RD?” Applejack asked. “I think I might have peed a little,” she said. “I didn’t know he was that fast.” “He’s faster than a normal pony, stronger than a normal pony, and can predict what we’ll do better than a normal pony,” Twilight said. “I need to think of an angle…” “You know, Rainbow, you really ought to consider that you have much bigger things to worry about than just hitting me,” Zerephonzidas said, and lowered his body. “He’s going to sprint…” Twilight warned. Like a bullet, Zerephonzidas surged forwards, tearing through the corridor. Rainbow darted to the side, but the sphinx hadn’t been aiming for her. “AJ!” Rainbow exclaimed. Exhausted by the lack of sleep, Applejack could barely even flinch as Zerephonzidas closed in mere inches away from her. Pop. Zerephonzidas turned, barely wasting any time, his rear paws flying towards where the ponies now were. His rear paws weren’t shielded. Twilight widened her eyes. Rarity tried backing away, but the claws began to carve through her shoulder, reopening her cuts and shredding her bandages. Blood shot out of her woulds like water from a fountain. “Horseapples!” Rainbow exclaimed. The sight of Rarity’s blood put Twilight’s mind into overdrive. In the split second before Zerephonzidas’s claws hit a vital organ, she realised that there was one spell that Zerephonzidas couldn’t dodge. The shields on his paws. Her horn flashed. The shields began to shrink. Zerephonzidas’s eyes widened a the shields stopped protecting him and instead began crushing his paws. The shields rippled his skin and bent the delicate bones in his paws. His claws snapped and broke. He roared so loudly that Twilight’s eyes rang. Too late Twilight realised that Zerephonzidas wasn’t the only one to have those shields. Rainbow Dash crumpled, her forehooves bent and misshapen. She screamed in pain, blood trying to leak out of the shield, but the magic didn’t allow it, and the space inside the shield turned into a red mess. Twilight stopped the spell as soon as she realised Rainbow was suffering the effects as well. Zerephonzidas’s paws had been turned into a messy goo. He stumbled back, using his wings to avoid putting any weight on his stumps. Rainbow was hurt less, but even so she couldn’t stand on her forehooves, and crumpled onto her side. Zerephonzidas retreated into the darkness. “RD!” Applejack exclaimed, and rushed towards Rainbow, who was still screaming, staring at her bloody and broken hooves. “I’m sorry!” Twilight exclaimed. “I didn’t mean…” Rarity shook Twilight out of her panic, cluching her bleeding wound. “Don’t,” she said. “You saved us. Zerephonzidas is gone.” She looked at Rainbow. “We need to get her back to the camp.” Tears were streaming down Rainbow’s face, unbidden. Applejack picked her friend up. “We need to hurry,” she said. Twilight helped Rarity walk as Applejack did her best to carry the injured Rainbow back down the corridor. Twilight made sure to keep a careful eye out in case Zerephonzidas wasn’t as badly hurt as she thought. “Let’s get out of here,” she said. Zerephonzidas must have escaped towards the column, away from the ponies and into the darkness. Twilight wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. The remaining diggers clustered around Rainbow and Rarity. Of the two, it was Rainbow who was in the most pain. Rarity merely clutched her side and waited for her wound to be treated. Rainbow, on the other hand, could only stare at her forehooves as the doctor tried to adjust the splintered appendages back into something resembling a normal hoof. “This is gonna hurt,” he said, “But if I don’t, it won’t heal right.” Rainbow grit her teeth. “Just give me something to bite,” she muttered in-between panicked breaths. Pick rushed down from the upper levels. “Twilight,” he said, unable to look away from the two injured mares. “We, uh, got visitors.” Twilight wiped her hoof over her forehead. “What now?” she asked. “Twilight,” came a stern yet reassuring voice, “I came as fast as I could.” Twilight looked up Princess Celestia. The older alicorn looked at Rainbow and Rarity, and sighed. “It seems I am too late,” she said. Twilight took a deep breath, trying to collect herself, then finally burst into tears.