Grimoire woke with the sunrise. He made his way to a window and looked out over the area. This is it… One way or the other… this hunt ends. He smiles to himself. Of course, I’m more than ready for him. But I have to wonder, how will they react to seeing the truth...
\/
The creature made its way to the school. “I will kill them all…”
“Hey, there’s no need for that.” The Dark Whispers from Grimoire continued to plague his mind, “You don’t need to kill them to take the magic.”
“I know. I don’t need to… I want to kill them. I want the Mage dead for humiliating me and the others dead for association.”
“You’ve got a hell of an anger problem, you know that?”
“Hardly. It’s not a problem if I use it to my advantage.”
“Hmm… true. Well, we’ll see who wins today’s little fight.”
“You make it sound like this is just some game.”
“Maybe it is… Who’s to say…”
“I hate you.”
“Hate is a strong word…”
“But not inaccurate.”
“Good to know. You ready?”
The creature smiled at the thought of pounding those little twerps into the ground and burying them in the crater. “More than you can imagine.” The creature had to admit one thing, though. He wasn’t going to kill them so soon. He saw their bonds. He was going to use that against them. He wants them to suffer.
\/
Sunset woke up with a sore shoulder and a crick in her neck, a side effect of sleeping on books. She stood and stretched, trying to loosen up her muscles. She looked at the clock; 6:34. This was not the ideal Sunday, but it was what she and her friends had to deal with. She looked to the others and found that Grimoire was nowhere in sight. “Where did he go?”
She began her search around the library. After finding nothing, she moved to the immediate rooms, ready to run back if something happened. In the end, she couldn’t find any sign of him. When she returned to the library, even his place the night before showed no sign he was ever there.
“What on Earth?”
The sound of a small explosion outside interrupted her thoughts. What grabbed her attention, however, was the voice that followed, “Get out here! Bring me your magic gems!”
This roused the others from there sleep and into a mini panic before gathering themselves. They ran outside to find the creature standing before them. His mask was halved, revealing his jaw. The antlers were gone and his leather and fur formed into rudimentary armor. He stood at 6’9” and his eyes burned with a blood lust accented by the red glow of his magic.
The creature stood before them with crossed arms. “Did you really think you could escape me?”
Sunset stood in front of the group, “Maybe. You haven’t exactly proven difficult to outsmart.” She was bluffing. She knew this thing was dangerous, and Grimoire’s not-so-pep-talk didn’t help.
“We’re not afraid of you, you freak!” Rainbow challenged, with the support of the others.
The creature tilted his head to the side slightly, “Then you intend to fight me rather than surrender your magic?”
“You’re darn right!” Apple Jack raised her fists, soon followed by the others getting ready for the fight.
The creature took a deep breath before smiling, “Good… I was starting to think your fear would drive you to run again. But… I know fighting all of you will be a problem. So…”
The area filled with a red light and the group seemed to freeze in place.
“What’s going on!?!” Rainbow tried to move with her super speed, but she couldn’t move a muscle. The others all met a similar result.
The creature laughed. “I’ve learned from last time. I’ll deal with you all one at a time. So… who’s first?”
“Mind if I cut in.” Grimoire rose from the shadows with arms crossed. His usual smile was gone; this was serious.
“Not at all… You see, I was hoping you would be first. I can’t seem to get you out of my head…”
“I’m touched. To think I made such an impression...”
“You joke as death awaits you… I suppose I can respect that. But it doesn’t matter.” The creature raised his hand and a blast of magic shot out.
Grimoire dodged as the blast landed on the ground at his feet. “The Nightmare Requiem? You need to learn some new tricks.”
“Why bother, when the classics never fail.” The creature had charged forward and landed a magic fueled punch to Grimoire’s gut.
Grimoire shook as the impact forced the breath from his lungs and the magic did serious damage to his organs. “Damn it…”
The creature smiled. “It’ll be hard to miss from here.”
“Miss?”
A burst of magic energy shot out from the creature’s hand and ran riot on Grimoire as it sent him flying upward. “Was that a good ‘new trick’?”
Grimoire could feel his nerves burning and his magic starting to lose balance. He was in an unimaginable amount of pain. When he fell back to the ground, he trembled in a state of shock. “How did…”
“I learned. I got better. If the same tricks don’t work twice, you spin them into something new. Right?!”
Grimoire, despite his pain, smiled. “Yeah… that’s right.”
“I’m glad we finally agree on something. But, I’m afraid I still need to make sure you can’t stop me once the spell wares off.”
“Alright, big guy. You going to kill me?”
“No. I know I can’t kill a master of Dark magic. However, I can make sure you can’t cast your little spells.” The creature placed his foot on Grimoire’s left arm and applied pressure until a sickening snap. As Grimoire yelled in pain, the creature broke his other arm as well as Grimoire’s legs. “Now, just sit there and watch. They’ll all die, and you won’t be able to stop me.”
“D-damn it… I won’t…”
“You don’t have a choice. Now,” the creature turned to the others, “who’s next.” He looked over the others, stopping at Sunset. “I remember… you being close to the Mage… You’ll die first.”
Sunset prepared for the strike, but found her limbs freed. “What?”
“I decided to let you all fight on your respective turns. But the result will be the same. You will all die.”
Sunset looked over to Grimoire, lying on the ground broken. She was angry, but she also scared. That thing was a monster. She wasn’t sure what she could do with the power she had, but she wasn’t about to back down.
\/
Back at the Sentry Residence, Flash looked over the paper Sunset had given him from that Grimoire guy. [Rip this paper in half at 7:00 AM on Sunday. Do not be late! This is important and may save a life.] He wasn’t sure what to make of it, but that wasn’t a new concept. He didn’t really understand all this magic stuff, so he had to act on faith for this stuff. He turned to his alarm clock. 6:46.
\/
Sunset ran to the side as a small explosion of magic destroyed the ground she was standing on before. She tried to keep her distance, but it proved difficult when your opponent can teleport. She ducked each swing and dodged each blast, but it was clear he was toying with her. There had to be something she could do.
“Are you scared?” The creature appeared in front of her again. “I’m beginning to tire of this. Fight back!”
Sunset ducked another swing. Damn it! What can I do? I could try to attack his mind, but he’s more experienced… He’d run circles around me… As she dodged another blast, she looked back to her still frozen friends. I have to try. She dove passed another swing, this time grabbing on to his arm and using it to jump onto his back.
“Tell hell are you…?!”
She activated her power and dove into his memories. There had to be a way to beat him! After a moment, she was thrown off the creature and landed rather gracelessly. She saw into his mind, but only found a jumble of ideas; like his mind was an incomplete puzzle.
The creature growled. “Trying to use my memories against me won’t work. But it doesn’t matter now. I know what you’re capable of and the same trick won’t work again.”
Sunset clenched her fist. She had to do something.
“Mark this hour, brat. 6:59, the hour of your death!”
Sunset rose to her feet, lashing out with a punch. I have to stop him!
\/
7:00. Flash ripped the paper in half. He wasn’t sure what it would do, but he just hoped it helped them somehow.
\/
The creature smiled. The first death has come and she dies on her feet! His mind stopped. A strange feeling washed over him. His mask cracked and shattered. He remembered everything! The day he died to that damn dragon! His vow of vengeance! His life before his end! He remembered it all! But he still wanted those brats dead. Starting with this little… He froze. The reds and yellows… They seemed to be a flame. A burning reminder of that day. His fear overcame him, allowing Sunset to land her punch to his core. For some reason, it burned. He stepped back and held a hand to his chest. He watched in horror as his wound became ashes. His flesh began to fall away and his bones dissipated. He let out one more roar before the ash met his mouth. Within minutes, there was nothing left of the creature’s body, his magic dispersing into the air.
\/
Sunset watched as the creature that plagued them for days became a pile of ash. She looked down at her fist. There was no way she did that on her own. But she didn’t have long to think about it as her friends tackled her in a group hug. The group laughed as they were finally safe. Sunset looked over to Grimoire and ran over, followed closely by the others.
Grimoire let out a pained groan as he looked up to Sunset. “Not bad, Sunshine.”
“Stop talking. We need to get you to a hospital. You have several broken bones…”
“So, it seems. I should really fix that. Can one of you lend a shadow?”
The group was confused as what this meant, but Twilight moved to put her shadow over Grimoire.
Said Mage smiled and seemed to fall into Twilight’s shadow. After a moment, he climbed back out, no worse for ware and leaving the others in shock. “There we go.”
“How did you…?”
“Not even going to bother keeping track of that one… By merging my body with a shadow, I lose all bodily injuries since my body is basically gone. I, then, reform my body to my usual state. It helps with broken bones, burns… basically any physical injury. Still kind of hurts though.”
Sunset sighed in relief. But there was something she needed to know. “That thing turning into ash… That was you, wasn’t it?”
“Nope. That was going to happen when he got his full power anyway.”
“What?”
Grimoire walked over to the pile of ash and reached into the remains of the creature. From the ash, he removed a small book. After dusting it off, he walked back and showed the others. “This is his story.”
“You… can’t be serious.”
“Rarely, but this is one of those times. This is a Last Memoire, a Dark magic skill anyone could use. It allows the user one last attempt to avenge their death. However, as a side effect, once they have their vengeance or become too powerful, the spell breaks down and the body created by the magic follows suit. If he had absorbed your gems, he would have destroyed himself.”
“Wait, if he was after revenge, why gather magic? Why come after us?”
“Because his killer was a dragon in Equestria known as Torch. He can’t get his revenge here and Torch is very powerful, so the body tried to gather magic to fight back.”
Fluttershy thought about the situation, “So, if we gave it the gems, it would just disappear and we could get them back?”
Grimoire shook his head, “Not quite.” He opened the book and showed several pages with pictures of pendants. “The items absorbed into the body are recorded, integrated, and dissolved. The relics are lost to history now… But that doesn’t matter! We’re alive and that thing is gone. We can go about our lives now. I kind of want to try shawarma… Don’t know why.”
\/
It’s been three days since the creature was defeated and the day for Grimoire’s return to Equestria. He packed away his tent and equipment the night before. He took a deep breath and looked to the portal. He smiled as he thought about everything that happened. Despite everything, he had fun. But now, it was time to go home. Maybe one day he’ll come back for a visit… Who knows?