“So what happened while I was off?” Dagmire asked
“Well we found something called a zebra who makes potions-oh and she also has asked to see you at some point, we made an egomaniac fuck off after she brought a huge ass bear to town, and you reappeared right in the middle of our “welcome to Ponyville” party.”
“Huh. Well that’s great. While I was off I ran into an old friend.”
“Really? Who?” Clearance asked
“Remember Stella?”
“That shadow unicorn thing you have?”
“Yep! Her ass was hiding in the basement when we came here! She set up shop and made something of herself.”
“Really? Well good for her! Nice to know I won’t have to worry about her being found inside an empty keg again. What-“
With clearance distracted from the gaurd the stone encaseing her managed to crack enough for her escape
“STOP IN THE NAME OF THE LAW!” She cried while thrusting her spear at Dagmire in an attempt to impale him.
Dagmire quickly sidestepped and easily grabbed the spear out of the ponys hoof.
“Call Stella for me!” Dagmire called out to Clearance while he dogged the attack
“Ok.”
Clearance took a deep breath as a glassy look flowed over his eyes while he muttered the summoning words used to bring forth the bringer of shadows
“Stella...ella ola, clap clap clap!
Say yes, chicko chicko, chicko chicko chak!
Say yes, chicko, chicko, allo, allo
Allo allo allo!
Say one, two three four, FIVE!”
The moment the last word left Clearance’s face the entire bar began to shake as a thunderous booming grew louder and louder until a shadowy figure smashed through the floor boards
“YOU RANG?” Stella boomed
“I need your help subduing this pony” Dagmire said
“But Dagmire...”
“What?”
“She’s already In chains”
Dagmire looked back at his attacker only to find that she was hanging by her hind hooves from a chandelier
“Oh. Thanks Stella!”
“No worries! That and since you called me out here my job just became WAY easier! There’s a library in town that was built into a house so I’m basically here to make sure it’s all up to code” Stella explained
“Up to code? What?” Clearance asked confused
“Well basically when I woke up in this place I suddenly discovered I could talk! It was very strange. Anyway after talking the talk and walking the walk I ended up in a small town called bucksenburg-“
“Ok I think I know where you are going with this. You got a job and your assigned town was Ponyville when suddenly Dagmire dropped in and eventually went to jail.” Clearance said impatiently
“Yeah pretty much” Stella confirmed
Unknown to them the pony Dagmire punched managed to sneak outside of the bar...and end up straight in front of an angry mob that was sick of her shit.
“Well I guess I gotta go do inspection for now.” Stella huffed
“And I’ll join you. It is my friends house your inspecting after all.” Clearance stated
“Alrighty then. Let’s go see the damage.”
Dagmire hid a prideful smile under his mask as Clearance and Stella left the bar. It was always difficult for Clearance to find friends (usually due to him being a basilisk).
Dagmire was about to follow them when suddenly the guard from before spoke up
“I’ll get you someday! Or my name isn’t strong wings!”
Dagmire recognizes the name instantly and simply chose to ignore the guard for the moment as he walked out of the door.
“Ok so according to the records the house should be right over there.” Stella said
Stella approached the tree house (pun!) and began looking at everything the outside had to offer
“Alright so since it’s a hollowed out tree I am somewhat concerned about the structural integrity of the building. I need to see if the owner has any enchantments on the building that would keep it in place. Hey Clearance could you call out the owner?” Stella asked
“Ok”
Twilight was reading a book when suddenly a knocking on her door brought her back to reality. She left the couch and opened the front door.
“Hi Clearance!”
“Hi Twilight. Listen apparently I got someone here to inspect your home and ask a few questions about it.”
“That was quick! She’s ahead of the schedule...(Sigh) ok where is she?” Twilight asked
“Right over here” said a voice Twilight didn’t recognize.
Twilight left the house and was suddenly starring at something that should be impossible. A living shadow. She inspected everything about the newcomer and to her surprise it actually wasn’t a trick of the light. The unicorn was pitch black and didn’t seem to have any unique details on her form. Her face seemed to hold the only two details that allowed twilight to see her as anything other than a dark haze: a horn and a pair of bright red eyes.
“Hello Twilight. I am Stella and I’m here to inspect your house”
-meanwhile inside twilight’s brain
“TALK TO ME DAMM IT!” A Twilight with a helmet screamed
“Miss I’m looking at this thing in every way possible. WHAT THE BUCK ARE WE LOOKING AT?! IT DOSENT EVEN HAVE A CUTIE MARK!” A twilight with goggles said
“Uh check the library! There might be information on it inside!” A twilight with glasses spoke
“Wait! I think It just asked us something!” Goggles said
“Uh did you catch any of that?” Helmet asked
“Twilight is too stressed...and someone zoned out?!” Glasses said
All eyes rested on a twilight with slippers on in a chair beside the sound control...she was asleep.
“WAKE UP!” Helmet screamed
“Hey come on! That was the most rest I’ve had in months!” Slippers said
“WE GOT A SITUATION!” Glasses screamed
Stella was looking directly at them with a face that displayed impatience
“DONT WORRY I GOT THIS!” Slippers said while pressing a button
-meanwhile outside of Twilight’s head
“BOOK!” Twilight screamed at Stella before teleporting inside.
Twilight began frantically looking for something that might hint at what Stella is. Twilight couldn’t understand why she was mentally cussing out somepony named “Slippers” for “dropping the spaghetti” but she continued searching for the book while Stella waited outside.
Twilight couldn’t find anything on Stella in the library and in her frantic search she didn’t notice Dagmire enter the library until he shut the door
“House keeping! I come in? I come in now.”
“Not now Dagmire! I gotta...gotta.”
Twilight stopped when she realized who was talking
-meanwhile inside Twilight’s head
“By Celestia...” Helmet said
“He’s alive! I knew it! I knew we didn’t get him killed!” Slippers said while getting up from her beating
“But how?! He has been missing for months!”
“But now he’s back!” A twilight with hair styled like pinkie’s screamed out after suddenly appeareing behind Helmet
“GAH! LIGHT! Don’t scare me like that!” Helmet said
Light giggles a bit and after skipping over to the controls she began rapidly bashing in the “hug” button
“Do it.” Light commanded forcefully
“No we still-“ goggles tried to talk before getting cut off by both Slippers and light at the same time
“DOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOIT!”
“OK FINE!” Helmet said in defeat
-meanwhile outside of Twilight’s head
Twilight made a noise that to
Dagmire sounded like a ding (somehow) as she realized he was back. She promptly teleported behind Dagmire and hugged him. He patted her head awkwardly and eventually she let go
“Where were you! I’ve been so worried about you!” Twilight said
“I was in jail.” Dagmire said bluntly
Seeing twilight’s shocked expression Dagmire took a moment to explain to twilight what happened
“Ok I just wanted to check in. I gotta go back to the bar now. I’ve got some business with one of the guards” Dagmire said
“Wait!”
But Dagmire was already through her window and back at the bar. The party was mostly gone by the time Dagmire arrived and only a few stragglers remained.
“Alright then.”
Clearance entered through the same window as Dagmire.
“Dude What the hell?”
“Hey Clearance I need you to set up the snake rave again.” Dagmire said
“Wait are you telling me that the guard has someone here!?” Clearance asked
“Yeah pretty much” Dagmire summarized
“Could you please let me down already?” The guard said from the chandelier with annoyance
“Ok but you’ll have to do something for me before we untie you.” Dagmire said
“And that is?”
“Oh just wait for a bit” Dagmire said while lowering the chandelier and releaseing her from it.
Clearance quickly pulled the lever and began the rave.
“GAH!”
“Just calm down. Oh and also look to your right.” Dagmire said while opening the curtains and exposing the full moon once more
Strong wings looked reluctantly at the snake to her right...a snake with a familiar scar
Her eyes widened in realization as the snake began letting out a somewhat dopey laugh that she was all to familiar with
“Quick steel!” She called out at the snake.
The snake nodded and quickly slithers over to the pale moonlight, the snake bursts into a rainbow of colours as it hits the moonlight and eventually the light fades enough for strong wings to see her old unicorn friend
“Well you haven’t changed much” the ghost said
Dagmire quickly removed the chains and freed strong. Confused, strong looked at Dagmire
“Well go on. Say goodbye”
Strong rushed over and began frantically apologizing
“It’s not your fault.” The ghost began
“But I left you to die!”
“And now I’m leaving you to live. We are even.”
“But-“
“Just get out and live your life...also I need you to do me a favour.”
“Yes?”
“Avenge me. And please help me do it”
A photo of the prison guard that broke Dagmire’s mask dropped from the ghost as well as a wrapped up package
“Ok steel. You have my wings.”
“And you have my horn...literally.”
Inside the package was a golden spear with a horn on the end instead of a spear head.
“I need you to stop the corruption of the guard strong. Oh and Dagmire.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you. I’m glad I listened to you.”
“It’s what I do. Though I’ll admit I have somewhat of a selfish reason to help you all.”
“Really?” The ghost asked
“Well yes. Every soul I appease gives my scythe more power. If I help all of you I will finally have the power to break my curse”
“Well regardless I wish you luck with that”
The ghost wavered and sighed
“I need to go strong. My time is up.”
“Steel...”
“Hey. I said I would be your friend until the bitter end.”
“But this is the end!”
“...well I lied...
I’ll be your friend forever”
The spirit gave strong a hug and to strong’s surprise steel grew wings. Steel smashed through the window and once more the sky echoed with a dopey laugh as it was pierced by a spirit moveing on. A key appeared on Dagmire’s scythe.
“Uh Dagmire...” Clearance said while tapping his shoulder
“Yeah?”
Clearance pointed to twilight standing outside the other window who had finally looked back down with wide eyes at what she witnessed
“Well shit”