“Twilight Sparkle,” the mare growled again. She lurched forward, scraping her hooves against the dirt.
The stallion with the question mark scrawled on his mask raced forward and clamped onto the mare’s right shoulder. He drew close and hastily whispered, “Equality, what are you doing? I thought the plan was to free these foals before they’re further tainted.”
Equality stopped. Her taut features still pressed against her mask, but after a moment that allowed the stallion to gulp, her muscles slackened and the animosity erupting from her face faded behind her equal sign. She let out a deep sigh that sent chills down everyone’s spines. “Thank you, Enigma. Must remember the plan.”
With that, she brushed Enigma off her shoulder and strode out from behind the asymmetrical creature’s encircling body. Twilight remained tense, but sensed that Equality’s gaze had widened over the entire class. “Ah, young ones, it is such a relief that I’ve come upon you before you were fully spoiled. We are here to liberate you fr—”
A shadowy hoof sparkling with starlight came crashing down on Equality from the right. The air beside her face popped before the hoof struck her. A shield went up at the last second around her face, but the blow still launched her off her hooves and sent her sprawling across the field.
Tantabus slammed his hoof back on the ground and it spread out in an inky wave towards the group of villains. The asymmetrical creature’s eyes glowed bright and Tantabus’s attack veered around it and Enigma. The other villains were caught in it and began to scream at the top of their lungs. A few managed to jump back or take to the air, but many were engulfed in Tantabus’s attack and were swallowed up into the darkness.
“Get back to the chariots!” Tantabus ordered. “Spitfire! Cover the—”
A blast of magic washed over Tantabus, but it parted around him. When the attacked faded, the earth besides Tantabus was scorched and smoking, as was Equality’s horn. An inky wing had sprouted out of Tantabus’s side and still sizzled from the attack. With a snort, Tantabus flung his tendrils at Equality, but they crashed against a shield of turquoise aura.
While the tendrils could not penetrate Equality’s shield, they could force her back. Her hooves dug into the dirt, but she dared to look away from Tantabus and over at Enigma. “Do not let them leave! Use the Paradox if you have to!”
Enigma gave a curt nod and then galloped after the class, which was already fleeing for the chariots. A blast of fire rocketed towards Enigma and the asymmetrical creature they called the Paradox. The blaze spiraled around the Paradox and Enigma and locked them into a flaming tornado.
Spitfire beat her wings, sending out more sizzling air and trails of flame to feed her attack. Behind her, the class had stopped to marvel at her display of power. Keeping her eye on the tornado, she ordered, “Keep going!”
The class spun back around. The chariots were only a few yards away, but the sounds of roaring flames, blasts of magic, and battle cries stretched the distance out into miles. Applejack and Dash were at the head of the group, but they came to a stop when they reached the chariots.
The guards that had been hitched to them had vanished.
“What the hay?” Applejack exclaimed.
“No time to worry about that!” Twilight huffed. “We need to get our flyers hitched instead an—”
“Sorry, but I can’t allow that to happen.” Enigma slid out from behind one of the chariots. Most of the class stepped back, but Applejack, Twilight, and Sunset stood their ground. Dash snorted and spread out her wings. Pinkie stood still, her eyes transfixed on Enigma. “You’ll all b—”
“You!” Pinkie squealed. A smile exploded across her face. She took off like a rocket at Enigma.
“Pinkie!” Applejack, Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy screamed after a moment of being caught off guard by Pinkie’s bizarre reactions. They galloped forward to pull her back.
“Idiot!” Both Sunset and Dash cursed before rushing forward to attack Enigma.
“Oh, damn.” Enigma’s horn crackled with aura. Just as Pinkie came within striking distance and held out her hooves wide, a bolt of magic zigzagged through the air and stuck Pinkie. A current ran through her and spiked up her mane. She tried to cry out, but the magic forced her teeth together. Enigma sighed, “Have to think on my hooves.”
The current exploded from around Pinkie and latched onto Applejack, locking her into a similar pained stasis. It then leapt into the class and caught Derpy too. There was a flash and then the three of them were gone.
A blue hoof hooked Enigma from the left while a blazing crimson hoof struck him straight in the barrel. Sunset glared up at him while Dash dared to grin. Shock crept onto both their faces when their legs continued to slide forward, into and then through Enigma’s body until they were locked into him.
“Equality really blew it on this one.” He shook his head and then glanced down at Sunset. She snorted and threw back her other hoof. At the same time, Dash raised up her free foreleg and brought it down towards Enigma’s head.
“Watch where you’re looking, freak!” she roared.
Aura spread out from Enigma’s head and barrel instead of his horn and caught Dash and Sunset in the same electrifying current that had trapped Pinkie. Through gritted teeth, both Sunset and Dash tried to launch another attack, but the spell holding them kept them from even moving a muscle. With the two of them subdued, Enigma turned his attention on Twilight. “I’ll have to make sure there’s some distraction for Equality before she gets to that one.”
Time slowed around Twilight, even while her mind continued to race. This was a worst-case scenario. Villains were attacking. A bolt of magic had burst off of Sunset and was coming for her. Tantabus and Spitfire were locked into battle with enemies Twilight could not gauge. The bolt was getting closer. All the guards were gone. Cloudsdale was the closest area with other heroes, but it was miles away in the sky. The bolt was almost upon her now.
“Twilight!” Spike leapt up to catch the attack in Twilight’s place, but the bolt arced over him.
“Spi—” Twilight tried to call out before the spell struck her and then leapt over to Fluttershy. They were then gone just like the others.
“You!” Spike roared as he turned towards Enigma. “What did you do to Twilight?!”
Instead of immediately acknowledging Spike barreling towards him, Enigma sent Rainbow Dash away and then zapped Spike in the same manner. That left Bulk, Aloe, Lotus Blossom, Bon Bon, Rarity, and Lyra, and Maud. Bulk inched back, as did Aloe and Lotus. Bon Bon and Lyra stood their ground. Maud summoned her shadow and Rarity crystalized her legs. Tree Hugger raised up a hoof and jabbed at the air. Enigma scratched at his chin.
“Ah, still too many,” he muttered.
Two more bolts arced out of his horn. Even though the remaining students knew it was coming, it still caught Bon Bon, Lyra, and Rarity in one and Bulk and Aloe in the other. With just Lotus, Maud and Tree Hugger remaining, Enigma took up a stance.
“Well, I need to make sure Equality has enough time to vent, so I won’t go too hard on you.”
“You’re going to tell us where you sent Pinkie,” said Maud.
“Yeah, you weirdo!” her shadow screeched. “Nopony lays a hoof on Pinkie!”
“You’re, like, totally off balance,” Tree Hugger commented. “We’ll straighten you out.”
Enigma shook his head. “Why does she have to make things difficult?”
~~~
Tantabus sensed powerful magic going off. In front of him, his hooves bore down on Equality’s shield while his tendrils whipped it from other angles, trying to pierce it. His glare intensified on Equality while Equality grinned. “Vile interloper! What has your kin done?”
Equality let out a chilling laugh. “Just making sure the youth are no longer within your foul grasp.”
“Save your self-justification!” Tantabus plowed forward and brought a blazing horn down on the shield. Fissures spread out from the point of impact. Equality’s horn glowed and she vanished. Tantabus jumped back as Equality reappeared from his right and swung her horn down. It grazed his wing and dissipated a part of it. The two of them squared off.
Nearby, the flaming tornado Spitfire had summoned burst apart into a cacophony of molten metal, foul-smelling gases in sickly shades of blue, purple, and green, and droplets of fire that rolled along the ground, but left streaks of mucus rather than ash. The Paradox coiled through the air and serpentined at Spitfire.
“The taint of chaos is upon you!” Tantabus snarled. “And your bloodlust against Twilight Sparkle is undisguisable! By the end of this day, you will tell me what miserable hole he has hidden you in all these centuries!”
“Heh, cute,” Equality replied. Tantabus could sense her eyes were on his wing. The part that had been cleaved off by her horn refused to reform. “You’re not looking so good there… Luna.”
With a snort, Tantabus flared out his wings. Out of his body came silver armor that enclosed around his legs, barrel and head. His form slimmed and gave way to the outline of an alicorn mare. “If you know who I truly am, then you are all the greater a fool to challenge me! Prepare to face your worst nightmare!”
Luna charged at Equality, but she remained in place with a grin pressing against her mask. “You have no idea what my nightmares are like.”
~~~
The air fizzled with electricity. Above, dark-grey clouds rumbled and sent down a light spray of rain. Sparks popped, but they were not of electricity, they were colored teal with magic. An arc of aura rent through the air and Applejack, Pinkie, and Derpy reappeared feet above the ground and flopped onto it. A few currents of magic still ran through their fur and manes, but they managed to shake it off and get onto their hooves.
Pinkie shook out the last of the magic still curling through her mane. “Okay, let’s not do that again.”
“Or rush at a villain we know nothing about.” Applejack looked forward and spotted the center of the WTF from afar. “Darn, we gotta hightail it back!”
“We’re on the edge of the monsoon area,” said Derpy. “We should get out of here before the storm rolls in.”
A pair of laughs filled the air. Applejack’s fur bristled and her jaw clenched.
“Oh, be we’ve got something fun in store for you,” came a chuckle.
“Indeed, we do, brother,” came another chuckle.
There was a flash of light and then all around Applejack, Pinkie, and Derpy were thugs and changelings. Two vested unicorn stallions stood directly in front of the students. From their straw hats to their red and white striped manes and tails, they looked identical save for one brother bearing a mustache while the other wore a slicked back mane.
“The Flim Flam Brothers,” Applejack spat. “I thought we had you locked up for good.”
“That what your lummox of a brother told you?” Flim sneered.
“Well, that wouldn’t exactly be a lie, brother of mine,” said Flam. He rolled his hat onto his hoof and twirled it around. “Oh, we certainly did suffer in sing-sing for a time, but we got let out early on good behavior.”
“Good behavior?” Applejack stomped a hoof. “You two are the lowest varmints to ever cross through Ponyville!”
Pinkie waved a leg through the air. “Wait a minute! How come I never heard of them then?”
“Before your time, Pinkie.” Applejack raked the ground. “Happened when I was just a filly. Those two varmints came in and tried to run all the hardworking ponies in town out of business. Luckily, my brother and the other heroes managed to find out their business was rottener than a five-week old apple.”
“Oh, labor laws and…” Flim flexed his leg, “… what’s considered illegal are all rubbish. We did business better than you yokels, and that’s just a fact.”
“What’s also fact is we’ve got a prime chance to let out how it felt being locked up all those years.” Flam tossed his hat back on his head and smacked his hooves together. “Not as good as getting our hooves on your brother, but you’ll have to do.”
“Looks like prison didn’t set you right,” Applejack snorted. “I’ll kick some sense into you!”
~~~
A frustrated cry echoed through a collection of mountains, loosened snow, and sent it tumbling down the peaks, and into abysmal crevasses. The wind howled around Dash as she stomped the snow below her. Flurries blew in from every direction, leaving the world around Dash black speckled with streaks and dots of white.
“I’ll clobber that freak when I get my hooves onto him!” She beat her wings to shake off the snow buffeting her. “Dammit, the wind’s too strong to get a good take-off.”
Is it really, Dash? the slimy voice asked. C’mon, this is the chance of a lifetime. Just fly back, kick that freak’s flank and you’ll be a hero tha—
“Shut up! Shut up!” Dash stomped the ground again. Taking a breath, she watched the air around her fog up and swirl off into the blizzard. The majority of her breath went east. Spreading out her wings, she confirmed the wind’s direction and began trudging off that way.
“Ah, very impressive,” came a voice through the storm. It was deep and had a thick accent to it. A pair of goggles appeared out of the blizzard, followed by the rest of a pony cloaked in snow gear. Other geared-up ponies appeared and surrounded Rainbow Dash. A few changelings buzzed in, their shiny exoskeletons unfazed by the cold.
The first pony that had appeared lifted up his goggles and pulled down the mask shielding his face, revealing a five-o-clock shadow, a salt and pepper mane, and eyes brimming with malice. “You must know this place well to already be heading to the next safest area. However, you will not be going anywh—”
“Stop.” Dash held out a hoof. “Look, the weirdos facing teach and Spitfire had a pretty good act going on, but this is just sad. I mean, what, you couldn’t think of an original idea for ‘bad guy’ so you just went with Dr. Caballeron? Save it, buddy. What, you gonna sick an Ahuizotl cosplayer on me next?”
“No,” Caballeron snorted. “I was thinking of beating you within an inch of your life, but for that insult, I’m going to take my time now.”
“Oooh, the fake accent really intimidates me.”
“It is not fake!” Caballeron stomped a hoof. “I am Dr. Caballeron and you are quickly becoming just as annoying as Ms. Do!”
“What?” Dash shrugged. “You’re saying A.K. Yearling actually bases her stories on real ponies?”
“To my infuriation, yes,” Caballeron growled.
“Oh.” Dash let her head droop, her mane fell across her face. “So, in other words, nopony believes you actually exist.”
“They will after today!” Caballeron cackled. “After today, the name Caballeron will be one of the most feared in Equestria! And there’s no Daring Do to ruin my plans this time!”
Caballeron bellowed again, but a bolt of lightning whizzing by his face cut him off.
“Nopony will know. Nopony will know.” It was Dash’s turn to laugh. Some tiny part of Caballeron felt an inkling of wanting to run. Dash lifted up her head, ruby eyes ablaze and crackling with lightning. “Nopony will ever know, so it’s okay.”
The mighty crash of thunder rang through the air, but the blizzard insured that it did not carry far enough for anypony outside of the area to hear it.
~~~
Spike landed on something hard. He groaned and raised up his head, but all he saw was darkness. He crawled along the ground until he came up against a wall. Pressing his hand against it, he could feel a spire of rock narrowing upwards. As he got to his feet, he heard the drip of water echoing around him.
Taking in a little inhale, he let out a tiny burst of flame, just enough to illuminate the cavern around him long enough to get an understanding of where he was. It was a small chamber with a low ceiling and a few stalagmites and stalactites filling it. Spike was glad he had only used a little fire, but the formations around him and the drip of water assured him that he was not fully sealed in. So, air, while limited, was not going to run out anytime soon.
“Okay, Spike, nothing new,” he said to himself while feeling along the wall, tapping every couple of paces. Something about one the taps made him stop and he faced the wall. “Time to bust out of here and get back to everyone else!”
~~~
“N-n-no.” Rarity inched back, trying to hide between Bon Bon and Lyra.
“C’mon, Rarity,” Lyra pleaded while rising onto her hind legs and raising up her forelegs in front of her face. “We can take these guys.”
A cackle sent goosebumps up Rarity’s legs. It rang out from the snout of a red-scaled dragon. He sneered at the students through the mists that surrounded them. Outlines of scaly tails and leathery wings could be seen through the fog. “This really is a joke. Can’t believe that loser pony roped us into dealing with these wusses.”
He pounded one claw into the palm of the other. “Oh well, she did say we could do whatever we wanted, so let’s play a little game. It’s called dragon rampage.”
Bon Bon crouched. “I think we’ll pass.”
~~~
Twilight felt the wind whipping around her. Her eyes cleared just as she crashed into water. She oriented herself and swam upwards, but a bit of the brackish water went up her nose and into her mouth. It was stagnant and thick with silt and Celestia-knew-what-else, but she managed to keep her head above it, even while she felt like gagging.
Something burst out of the surface beside Twilight and grabbed onto her leg. It was webby and sticky and she reared back her head to aim her horn at her would-be attacker, but stopped short of charging up a spell when she saw that a webbed yellow hoof was holding her up.
Fluttershy looked down on her, but continued to hold her above the water. Her pupils had widened into horizontal bars and her entire body now had a sheen to it. A bit of her tongue stuck out of mouth. She croaked, “S-sorry.”
“It’s okay, Fluttershy. Just give me a second.” Twilight closed her eyes and lit up her horn. A glow surrounded her hooves and encased them in a veil of aura. “Okay, you can put me down now.”
“Are… are you sure?”
Twilight nodded and Fluttershy complied. Twilight’s hooves touched down against the muddy water, sank an inch, but the rest of her remained above it. Glad Princess Celestia drilled the water and cloud walker spells into me.
“Well, at least I won’t have to worry about you swimming through this crap.” Sunset strode over, steam rising up from where she stepped. Her hooves glowed crimson and she stood fully above the water, but she sent out small waves with each step she took. “Enough doting around. We’ve got some ass to kick.”
“W-we should find the others,” Fluttershy mumbled.
“And get out of here.” Twilight shuddered thinking of Equality. “I don’t know why, but that mare is targeting me. If we leave and alert the authorities, she’ll probably retreat.”
“Spoken like a true pansy!” Sunset stomped a hoof, splashing Twilight and Fluttershy. “That mare’s got a lot of nerve to come in here and think she can take on Equestria’s best. If Tantabus hasn’t beaten her silly I’m gonna get some good kicks in on her and anypony else that tries to take me on!” She turned and glared into the fog. “You hear that, you yellow-bellied cowards?!”
Her voice echoed until it faded away, but it left Fluttershy shaking. “D-do you think there are other villains out here?”
Twilight tensed up. “It’s not out of the question.”
“Classic move.” Sunset strutted past Twilight and Fluttershy. “Split up a large group and pick them off. Staying in one place will just make it easier. I’ll kick anypony’s flank that gets in my way, but I won’t let them get the drop on me.”
“She’s right, we need to move.” Twilight followed Sunset, who gave a snort and marched onwards.
Fluttershy gulped and trailed behind Twilight.
Deep below the water’s surface, a trio of figures watched the trio above making their way through the swamp. All three of them looked like a bestial mix of pony and fish. They had massive dorsal fins erupting out of their backs and spiny fins sticking out from behind their jaws and legs. At the center of all three of their chests was a pulsating red crystal.
“Oooh,” the blue siren purred. “I like the yellow one, she’s literally boiling!”
“Isn’t the other unicorn the one the boss told us not to touch?” asked the purple one in a droning tone.
“That’s right.” The yellow siren grinned, displaying her fangs. “We can’t ‘touch’ her, but luckily for us, we don’t need to touch them to put them under our spell. Seems there’s a bit of animosity up there already. Let’s give them an Adagio of Anger!”
“A Sonata of Rage!” Sonata cheered.
“An Aria of Fury,” Aria snickered.
All three sirens opened their mouths and began to sing. Even underwater, their voices carried and invaded Twilight, Sunset and Fluttershy’s ears. The sirens chanted in unison, “We will feast on your hate, there’s no running now, it is your fate. Listen to our violent symphony, and let us eat your anger in tranquility. Your doom has come, there’s no turning back! Now, turn on each other! Stab, betray and attack!”