//------------------------------// // Meanwhile, In Canterlot // Story: Entropy // by Rose Quill //------------------------------// I sat up as a noise sounded just outside the window. I pushed my glasses up my nose, ears swiveling around to focus on the portal showing the gleam on the rising moon. It was still an interesting sensation, feeling my ears move on their own. Between that and the increased sense of smell, everything seemed to be more present, more real on this side of the mirror. It also made it easier to get nauseous as of late. I took a few tentative steps towards the window, tilting my head slightly as I approached. I saw what looked like a firework go off in the sky, dim and distant, a brief flare of orange light. I blinked in curiosity as another orange-red flare went off, then a bright white spark followed by a flash of lightning. I stiffened when in the flare I saw birds wheeling around some sort of writhing form, their confrontation slowly nearing the palace. Phoenixes, I thought dimly, backing from the window quickly. Moondancer had filled me in on some of the additions to security during lunch earlier today while Starlight heard petitioners. And if I was seeing flares, then something was trying to breach the perimeter. I shoved the doors of my suite open and rushed down the hall, startling the guards posted outside my door. I came up to the door where the two aides had been housed and burst through, startling them. “Sunshine, what in the world is the matter with you?” Moondancer asked, sitting up straight as Starlight looked over her shoulder. “Something’s coming,” I panted breathlessly. “The phoenixes are fighting.” Starlight whipped the curtains to the nearby window open with her magic just in time for another nova of light to flare into being as a nightwing blew into its resurrection conflagration. And this time, we got a good look at the serpentine beasts making their way towards us, writhing and horrendous. She had barely released the drapes when the window shattered, a tall form flying in and climbing onto misshapen hooves. Blood ran down its limbs, pustules dripping and tentacles writing around a sharp-edged beak. The blood-red eye rooted me in place, fear flooding my being. My ears pinned against my head as it shrieked wordlessly, but in my head I heard words. Where are the False Ones? it hissed. Underneath the expressed words I heard whispered voices speaking multiple bits of nonsense. The torrent of noise suddenly in my head made me stumble backwards in disorientation. Then the words cut off shortly, a shriek of pain cutting through the air. Starlight stood with her horn blazing with light, Moondancer moving to step between myself and our interloper, eyes hard. “Get away from her,” Starlight growled. The abomination turned its sight on her and started shuffling forward. “Come on, Sunshine,” Moondancer said. “We need to get out of here. Starlight will hold it off as long as she can.” She pulled me along as Starlight lifted herself into the air with her flight spell, beams of energy lancing out from her horn as she attacked the Blight. I hesitated, spells flying into my mind. “But-“ “Now!” Moondancer insisted as she hoisted me in her magic and raced out of the room. I saw a table fly through the air as we turned a corner, the sound of crunching wood one of the last things I heard before we were too far from the room for anything but the shrieks to be heard. “Put me down!” I shouted as we turned another corner. “We’ve got to help her!” “Neither of us are exactly versed in battle spells,” Moondancer said as she set me down. “And I’ve been told to keep you safe, just as Starlight has.” She turned and looked me hard in the eyes. “You’ve got two lives to look after right now and-“ A chair flew through the air and smashed into the mare, shattering and knocking Moondancer into the wall, winding her and knocking her glasses loose. I spun, seeing the Blight shambling forward, a battered Starlight held in some sort of magic and dragging behind it. I powered up my horn, settling my hooves as I faced the monster. “Put her down,” I demanded, feeling my wings start to manifest as I pulled on mana. The Blight looked at me, letting Starlight’s limp form drop as it spread its tentacles again. You are a fool, it taunted. I fired a blast of telekinetic energy at it, infusing it with as much anger and force as I could. I saw it strike the monster and it stumbled back a step or two, and I grinned. I started to power up my horn again as I saw Moondancer’s glasses lift in her aura. I leaned forward in preparation to fire and I suddenly felt vertigo wash through me, my wings vanishing and spell fizzling. The voice in my head had started laughing harshly as I wavered when another bolt of magic lanced out and struck it in one of its legs. “Run,” Moondancer gasped, stepping forward with her horn blazing. A small trickle of blood stained her coat from a split lip. She fired another blast, her power not quite pushing her target back very far but still stalling it a little. The mare spitted me with a harsh glare, and I saw my pale reflection in the lenses of her glasses. “Go!” I took a few steps back, partially turning in hesitation. Moondancer proceeded to fire again, the Blight now barely being staggered. She kept firing until the creature reached her and slapped her aside, just as I turned and took off running, pulling various furnishings down to attempt to slow the beast. Fear was starting to chill my bones as I heard the creature crashing through the obstacles. I saw the doors leading to the main wing of the castle and the main body of guards. I was so close, and I was sure that a few of the Royal Guard could easily take care of the abomination. That’s when another wave of vertigo hit me and I stumbled, trying to hold the course I was on. I missed a fold in the ornamental rug I was racing along until my hoof caught it and tripped me up. I struggled to climb back to my hooves, winded and the slow hoofsteps of the Blight. I glanced back to see how far it was just as I managed back upright. The Blight’s face didn’t change, but I had the sense that it was smiling. I tried to pull mana to my horn, but it kept fizzling, throwing sparks and nothing else. I kept trying to cast any sort of spell, wishing we had spent more time figuring out why my magic had started being so unreliable since I had gotten pregnant. The Blight then burst into light, sparks arcing between its tentacles as it twitched and screeched. “Sheesh,” a low voice complained from behind me. “Seems like I get back just in time for a fight.” I turned and saw a plum colored mare with a fuchsia mane standing in the doors, a pannier belted across her barrel. But that wasn’t the most striking feature, that was reserved for a short, snapped horn still sparking above her turquoise eyes. She had a hard look to her, but her easy smirk reminded me of Sunset after a fashion. The Blight screeched again and lurched forward, and the tall mare grinned as though pleased. “Bring it on, fishbait,” the mare said, horn sparking again. Her horn burst and the power flashed out, its path causing my coat to stand on end. The Blight flew back, breaking into a fresh set of convulsions and screeches as its coat crisped and curled. It’s eye burst, black ichor flowing down its face as it fell into a lump on the floor. The mare stepped up and prodded the motionless body. A short snort was given as she turned to me and narrowed her eyes, curiosity on her face. “Are you ok?” she asked. “Just what is this thing?” “Who are you?” I stammered. A broken horn was completely against everything I had heard from both Sunset and Twilight about Unicorn biology. “I guess you are new to the area.” The Unicorn rubbed the back of her neck, looking down sheepishly. “You can call me Tempest, and the princesses could tell you more. Speaking of whom,” she looked back towards the door she had entered through. “Where are they, anyway?” I just slumped to the floor and sighed. “It’s a long story,” I said. Tempest reached down and offered me a hoof. “I’ve got time,” she said.