Chapter 9: Monsters
“You may both begin.”
“Finally!”
Aurora forced back a squeak of fear before retreating back into the shadows.
What am I going to do? she thought to herself. What was I thinking! I'm not strong like mommy and daddy. I'm just little.
“Well, I might as well get started,” Aurora heard the flying seapony say. “Which of these brats should I off first?”
She flew circles around the group of foals in their cage, passing Aurora's hiding place beneath a fallen pillar totally unaware of her presence.
“Oh, looky here, a little unicorn me.” The monster reached in and grabbed one of the foals.
Aurora gasped when she saw Pumpkin's hind legs in the evil mare's grip. Unfortunately, this alerted the siren to her presence and she found herself being yanked out from her shelter.
“What do we have here?” the siren said. “How are you not under my spell?”
“Let Pumpkin go!” Aurora demanded.
“Oh, is this one of your friends?” the siren asked in a mocking tone. “You want me to let her go?”
“Yes, and everypony else, too!”
“Hmm,” the siren scratched her chin in mock thought. “No.”
The siren spun Pumpkin around and brought the helpless filly down on the pillar with a sickening crack.
Aurora's world seemed to slow as she watched the spray of crimson erupt from her friend's head and paint her former hiding place red.
Her fellow Crusader.
Her best friend.
She wanted to deny it. Se wanted to wake up, but she knew this wasn't some awful nightmare.
“Pumpkin...” Aurora whimpered.
“Oops, clumsy me.”
In a flash, Aurora's sorrow and pain vanished, replaced by a burning feeling she had only felt once before.
But this time, it was far stronger.
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Ah, that felt good Adagio thought, grinning wickedly at the broken expression on the annoying little intruder.
It was even more amusing when her tiny little face twisted into one of pure rage.
And then everything exploded in a blur of motion and sound as the filly let out an ear shattering wail and a magic burst that could rival even the most experienced battlemages.
Adagio was slammed into the far wall and collapsed in a heap.
“I'm so going to kill you,” she groaned as she struggled to get back into the air.
However, instead of taking off, the fell back to the ground with a thump “W-What?” She tried again. “Why can't I...”
Her anger gave way to unbridled terror as she looked up to see the filly floating in mid air, eyes glowing with power as tendrils of magic flowed into her from all around.
“Wh-what are y-”
The filly yelled, sending Adagio crashing through the wall in a blinding flash of light, rubble and stone falling around her.
Adagio forced herself up again, staring in panic through the hole her body made. The monster in filly skin was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was only the hunched figure of a creature she had only ever read about in the other world. Its body seemed to be comprised of solid white light, even the large bat-like wings and twin horns.
It rose to its two hooved legs and leveled its two, glowing red eyes on her, the only bit of color on the otherwise colorless being.
As fast as she could blink, the demon filly sent Adagio through another wall with a powerful right hook. This time, though, she had the presence of mind to curl up to reduce the damage. Of course, all this meant was that what would have likely been fatal just left her without one eye and probable internal injuries.
Still, she wasted no time crawling away. Whatever that thing was, she could feel it sucking away her magic, leaving her grounded and defenseless. The only option she had was to scurry away as fast as possible.
As she crawled for her life, another pony leaped from the stairwell; a blue pony with a rainbow colored mane.
“P-please!” Adagio pleaded. “Help me!”
“What's going on? Where are the foals?” the other mare demanded.
Adagio opened her mouth as the wall behind her exploded.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
“There they are!” Applebloom cried.
Ahead of the trio, a large group of those mutant ponies were already in the city, slaughtering everypony they could.
Twilight unleashed tendrils of shadow as Sweetie fired volleys of ice spears and Applebloom flung herself with an earth pillar, hammer raised.
Twilight blinked into the army, glaive cutting wide arcs, digging into flesh and severing limbs. Her seal and unicorn magic worked in tandem, shadow tendrils flinging foes away as beams from her light seal piercing them midair, while a shield spell protected her from harm.
Sweetie's rapier cut through the air with deadly precision, puncturing organs and cutting tendons and arteries. The occasional bolt of green plasma melted foes from a distance.
Applebloom swung her hammer in wide circles, crushing anyone unfortunate enough to be caught by it. With the exception of the rare stone spike, she focused her magic in her body seal, increasing her speed and agility in order to keep up with the horde of mutants.
“Where's Sombra?!” Twilight asked over the din of battle. “Sweetie, can you do a scan?”
“Dot, scan for magi sources other than us and these mutants,” Sweetie commanded.
“Scanning,” replied her computer's VI. “No others detected. However, there is an anomalous energy coming from the harbor. It matches the profile of a temporal rift.”
“I think he's in the harbor,” Sweetie called. “Dot's picked up on temporal magic.”
“Go kick his flank, Twi,” Applebloom said. “We got this.”
“Got it!” Twilight's body darkened and sunk into a nearby shadow.
Applebloom shook her head as she crushed a mutant's. “That'll never stop being freaky.”
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Silent as the shadow she rose from, Twilight materialized a couple dozen feet behind her target. He was standing before a massive stone arch, doing... something. Whatever it was, it reeked of powerful magic.
“I see you've embraced the darkness,” Sombra said, not even looking up.
“It's not the same,” Twilight replied, giving up on stealth. “Your darkness is born of evil, mine is pure, elemental shadow, neither good nor evil.”
Sombra smiled maliciously as he turned toward her. “Yes, it is quite the cold, emotionless magic you now wield.”
“Surrender now, and I won't kill you,” Twilight threatened, pointing her glaive at the ex-tyrant. “You know you have no chance of beating me. Be smart.”
Sombra let out a deep, cocky laugh. “You're right. I can not beat you. Which is why I brought something that can.”
Sombra's horn flashed and the stone arch came to life. Glowing black runes lined every inch as the air inside shimmered and sparkled. Ebony lightning seemed to tear the very fabric of reality.
From within the rift came a low, angry rumbling, almost like...
“Come forward, Fenrir, Devourer of Gods!” Sombra commanded.
The earth trembled as the sound of shattering chains reverberated through the air.
Twilight's ears pinned themselves against her head, pupils shrinking to pinpricks, as a head the size of a house slowly came through the rift.
Its massive head lowered, one minotaur sized eye locking with hers as its lip curled back.
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Rainbow Dash stared, wide eyed, as the demon stepped through the opening. Fear started creeping into her mind as recognition set in. The minotaur-like legs, the draconic wings, the two curving horns on its head all brought horrible memories rushing back.
“N-Nag-Ta?!” Rainbow stammered.
No... his ghost? Do demons have ghosts?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the creature's deafening bellow. It charged wildly, prompting a reflexive lightning bolt from Rainbow Dash. The bolt struck true, but only seemed to vanish into the beast's body.
Its blood red eyes bored into Rainbow's and faster than she thought possible, its hand wrapped around her body.
A thousand terrifying thoughts swam through her head. Was she going to die here? How would her friends take her demise? Who would save the foals?
Then, it threw her behind it as if tossing a candy wrapper. She tumbled through the air, only saved from a painful landing by years of experience in the art of crashing.
Rainbow sprung to her feet, ready to fight. Only to see the beast had already vanished, along with the siren.
Before she could pursue them, though, she heard a young, distraught voice. “Pumpkin... get up, p-please.”
She was on the move before she even realized what she heard.
Jumping through a hole in the wall, she found herself in the throne room of the old palace. In the center, stood a large cage filled with all the Ponyville foals.
“M-Miss Dash...” Pound Cake was at the front of the crowd, staring up at her with tear filled eyes. “Pumpkin's not moving.”
Ice filled Rainbow's veins as she turned to where the colt was pointing. Pumpkin laid in a pool of her own blood beside a fallen pillar. Rainbow approached her hesitantly, praying there was hope.
The empty, vacant eyes would haunt her till the end of her days.
“D-don't worry,” Rainbow said, unable to look away. “We'll... get her to the hospital.”
“What about Aurora?” Pound asked. “She's not here.”
Rainbow's heart skipped a beat. She couldn't have failed another, especially one she was so close too. It was hard enough keeping it together seeing one filly that called her 'Auntie' dead. She didn't think she could handle another.
A loud crash pulled Rainbow's attention away, reminding her she still had a town's worth of living foals to protect.
“Alright, you guys,” Rainbow turned to the cage. “I'm going to let you out, but you have to do everything I say, exactly how I say, when I say, got it?”
“Wh-what about Pumpkin?” Pound asked.
Rainbow looked back at the murdered filly. What could she do? How could she assure Pound?
“I-I'll take her to the hospital, okay,” Rainbow said. “But you have to get somewhere safer. I want you to go through that door,” she pointed at an empty door frame to the right of the dais, “and up the stairs to the left. That'll take you to a tower. Wait there until somepony comes for you.”
She raised her hoof and focused on her fire seal. “Here, this'll help you guys.”
Four orbs of heatless fire shot off and hovered over Pound and three others.
“Anypony that passes by will be able to see those from the tower,” she explained to the foals, “and it's high enough that monsters won't be able to get you. Now, go on.”
The group rushed out of the cage and toward the door. All except Pound.
“You have one of the lights, Pound,” Rainbow said. “You need to go with them.”
The colt hesitated, but complied, running to catch up with the others.
As soon as they were gone, she let her scowl show. She didn't know if the siren did it herself or if that Nag-Ta wannabe did it, but she would ensure they both suffered for what they did to Pumpkin and Aurora.