Everfree had a way of making one feel both lost and found. The paths that cut through the dark trees were simple to spot and easy to follow. Yet the unnatural way that it governed itself meant that even when one found themselves on the path, doubt would rise in their minds. Was this truly the right way to go? Were they moving forward with the right pace? What if one wasn’t on the path they started, and had somehow wandered onto a side path that would lead them into darkness they could never return from? One often felt that they were at the mercy of Everfree itself whenever they entered its canopy.
Twilight had began the expedition into the Everfree Forest as the head of her and her three friends. The party of Stand Users set out with a clear mission: rescue Fluttershy. Discord had rushed ahead of them as soon as he had been told that Fluttershy was in danger. She had installed several Stand Users back home to defend Ponyville in her absence. Rainbow Dash followed suit and flew to the castle as far as she could on 2 Minutes to Midnight.
This was already bad enough in Twilight’s eyes. She held that the key to victory would be to stick together and combine their powers against any foes that come their way. But now the two most powerful allies have rushed into the unknown on their own. Separately as well. Just from the few encounters she’d had alone, even the most powerful of Stands could face their match alone.
While she was frustrated by this, Twilight was determined not to break down in a panic. The four members that the group still had were all still more than capable of fighting. Even before they acquired Stands they were able to fend for themselves. They had only gotten better with their Stand since they obtained them. Even Twilight had come up with new applications for Night Wish. If they met back up with Dash at the Castle, then they could rescue Fluttershy the same way they’d done before all this business had happened.
“Um Twilight?” Twilight, standing at the front of everypony, making mental calculations about battle strategies involving the four of them. She had already thought of several ways their Stands could synergize with each other. She was so deep in thought that she hardly noticed Pinkie Pie trying to get her attention as she walked along the path.
“Twilight!” Pinkie was louder and more demanding this time. The sense of urgency in her voice made Twilight realize that she had been ignoring her.
“Oh um, sorry Pinkie, I was just trying to prepare for an enemy attack. What’s wrong?”
“We may have a teense problem,” Pinkie frowned, “ I can’t find Applejack or Rarity.”
“What?!” Twilight pivoted around to look behind her. As Pinkie said, she was the only one there. Neither Applejack nor Rarity, were with them anymore. “Where did they go?!”
“I don’t know!” Pinkie threw her arms up into the air and materialized Ta-Da. “I’ve been blinking around back down the path and in and out of trees, but I can’t find them anywhere! They just vanished like punch at a party.”
“This doesn’t make sense,” Twilight slowly started to turn around and keep watch for danger. “Those two aren’t like Rainbow Dash or Discord. They wouldn’t run off on their own. That could only mean that they weren’t separated from us by their own choice.”
“Oh no, I hope they’re ok…”
“They’re fine,” Twilight quickly affirmed, only half confident in her statement. “They can take care of themselves, especially if they’re together. But right now, we have to worry about us. If the enemy is looking to separate us from each other, then that means they’re probably ready to strike.”
“If this is an enemy, why haven’t we seen them?” Pinkie had Ta-Da drew two of its stars out, “How can we fight an enemy we can’t even see?”
“I don’t know,” Twilight sharpened her gaze into the darkness around them, “But if this cult wants us dead, then we have to be ready for anything. Right now, we should assume that whatever separated us from Applejack and Rarity is the work of our enemy. We need to be careful...”
Twilight manifested Night Wish’s quill between her fingers, and its body behind her. She tightened her grip on the purple feather like it was a knife she was ready to stab at somepony who was going to surprise her.
Mere moments after Twilight finished alerting Pinkie Pie to the fact that they needed to be careful, the two of them heard rustling from the brush to their left. Twilight swished her quill and gathered some ink in front of her. Pinkie assumed a stance and was ready to pounce from her spot at a moment’s notice.
From the rustling leapt a timber wolf. The creature’s ethereal green eyes were flaming, its wooden body hurtling towards them with a snarl. Its feet drummed on the ground hard as it flung itself towards them with all its might.
With a couple quick motions of her wrist, and Night Wish likewise doing the same, the ink in front of Twilight shot out and bound around the timber wolf’s ankles. One slashing motion later and it hardened into bindings that caused the wooden canine to fall over mid sprint and tumble into the grass.
Twilight thought that would have been the end of it. But soon after, she heard the wolf whine loudly. She looked back over towards it, and was horrified at what she saw. The poor creature was struggling and thrashing against the grass. It shrieked loudly as it literally withered away. Right before their eyes the timber wolf shivered up into rotten black wood.
Both Twilight and Pinkie needed to take a step back after what they had just witnessed. Twilight felt herself retching and about to throw up. What just happened to it? And would the same happen to them?
“Thanks, Twilight…” Pinkie panted, “What happened to it?!”
“I… don’t know,” Twilight was trying to hold down bile, “What’s a timber wolf doing this close to Zecora’s hut? Don’t they normally travel in packs too..?” After the incident with them the last time, Twilight had looked up more information on the wolves. Even if they were hunting alone, which was unusual for them, they normally were found deep into Everfree. Not only that, but they didn’t just rot away when they were attacked.
“Look!” Pinkie pointed towards where the rotten timber wolf lie. At first twilight didn’t see what she was pointing at, but the movement became clearer. It was a hand. A severed, tan, pony hand. It was crawled on it’s fingers like a spider off of the wolf’s body and onto the ground. It shook some of the blackened matter from itself, then it lifted into the air and started flying down the path.
“After that hand!” Twilight ordered. That had to be the fourth most bizarre phrase she had ever uttered in her life.
Pinkie Pie and Twilight ran down the path after the flying hand. Its trajectory seemed to follow the dirt path, taking them past where Twilight assumed Zecora’s Hut would have been. Soon they came upon the end of the path, and to a clearing in the forest. Twilight noted that this is definitely not where this path should have led.
When the two mares emerged into the moonlight, they both looked up to see where the hand had been heading. Standing on the opposite end of the clearing was their enemy, and his Stand. The pony himself was tall and tan. An Earth Pony, judging by the lack of wings or a horn. He was wearing a leather vest and cargo shorts. Numerous teeth lined the breast of his sleeveless vest. Around his neck was a necklace containing one whistle. One of his hands was missing. When the flying one reached him, he snatched it out of the air and attached it to his wrist.
Behind him was what could only be his Stand. It was normal pony sized. It’s entire body was a solid purple, with white spikes sequencing it from head to toe. Several parts of its body looked like they were separate sections that could rotate. Its head was cylindrical shaped with a wavy pattern on the top. It almost seemed like an action figure a foal would assemble, yet the spikes that covered its body made it look more like a demon. It had no mouth nor nose, only a set of large wide eyes that also seemed like they could rotate as well.
“Well then, it seems our ambush tactic didn’t work out like we hoped!” The Stand user called out. The manor in which he was speaking said that he wasn’t talking to either of them, “But what can you expect? Ponies are clever creatures. It’ll take a lot more to break them.”
“Um, who is he talking to?” Pinkie Pie raised an eyebrow and looked at Twilight. Then she turned to the stallion. “You’re supposed to be more subtle about it!”
“Who are you?” Twilight demanded, “Are you a member of the Cult of Discord?” But she didn't waste any time waiting for him to answer. That would just give him a chance to attack them. She made the first move instead and created chains of ink that lashed out all around him and his Stand. Within seconds, both User and Stand were immobilized by the solid black binds.
“See here,” The stallion went on, nearly ignoring their presence, “The unicorn is always the most rash of ponies. She tried to remove me as a threat right away. But what she doesn’t know that tying me up like this is actually useless. Like a typical unicorn, she’s disregarded my Stand, even though she’s already seen everything it can do. Well she’s in for a real nasty surprise then!”
To demonstrate his point to the non-existent audience he seemed to be talking to, the stallion removed his arm from his body. His arm simply detached itself from his body like it was always meant to do that. He did the same with his other arm, as well as his lower half. His separated limbs and torso fell to the ground, before floating up and reassembling themselves. With the slack in the chains, his Stand simply slid out of the ink.
“Thanks to my Feed My Frankenstein, I can detach any part of my body that I so chose in any way I chose. So there’s no way this feisty unicorn can tie up ol’ Burgundy here,” Burgundy had a triumphant grin on his face. He looked as though he had outwitted an inferior animal.
“Stop talking to the audience and focus on us!” Pinkie demanded. Her patience was clearly being tested.
“He’s delusional Pinkie,” Twilight commented while pooling Night Wish’s ink together. “I don’t think he’s entirely well in the head.”
“Well that’s obvious,” Pinkie spun her finger around the side of her head. “I mean, he’s part of a group of ponies who worship Discord. There’s got to be something wrong with you if you do that! At least worship something that’ll get you something out of it! Like cake!”
“But that’s not all,” Burgundy kept talking and ignoring the two mares. “The separation is actually part of its real effect. What these two helpless fillies right here haven’t figured out yet is that when one of my separate body parts is touching something, the oxygen will be removed from its body when it comes into contact with something that another part is touching. As they saw with that poor timber wolf back there. Let’s see their reactions!”
“Oh no,” Twilight sighed and shuddered in revulsion, “That’s, horrible…”
“What?” Pinkie raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What does that mean? I’m not good with elements that don’t involving laughing.”
“If the oxygen leaves our bodies,” Twilight explained. “Then our muscles will slowly shut down. So we can’t move anymore. Then, eventually our hearts will too.”
“Oh, yes, that is really bad,” Pinkie felt herself getting grimmer every second.
“Does your Stand have the ability to separate ponies as well?” Twilight called out, “You seem eager to tell us everything about your ability!”
“Now, we can’t catch and tame these ponies by ourselves,” Burgundy explained to no one, “So we’re going to need to call in some friends whom we’ve already tamed. Get ready to meet the crew!”
Burgundy blew his whistle. The sound was shrill and piercing, yet didn’t sound like a normal school whistle. After only a few seconds, four more timber wolves came out of the trees surrounding the clearing. The savage creatures sat tamely at his command. With a softer blow of his whistle, the four shot up on all fours and all started sprinting towards Twilight and Pinkie at once.
Pinkie reacted immediately. Using Ta-Da, she blinked out of existence and reappeared an instant later right in front of Burgundy. She attempted to use her Stand to grab him, but was blocked by her target’s own. Feed My Frankenstein jabbed its fist at Pinkie, its hands spinning like blades. Without any time to block, she retreated and teleported behind its user.
Now that he was separated from his Stand, Pinkie thought that Burgundy was defenseless. So she prepared to strike with Ta-Da again, this time holding its blades in its hands again. Burgundy was clearly expecting this, however, because he already had his whistle ready and blew a different note on it. Pinkie was stopped dead in her tracks by a loud, avian screech directly to her right.
Meanwhile, Twilight was forced to deal with the timber wolves head on. While Pinkie had the edge in dodging, Night Wish had its strength in attacking. Right as they sprinted towards her, Twilight flung her quill up in her hand, causing a ring of ink to form directly around her midsection.
The canine at the head of the charge lunged through the air at Twilight. A section of the ink shot down towards her feet, enveloping them in it and then springing her backwards. The action caused the wolf to hit the ground right where she had been. When its feet landed, they found themselves trapped in ink as well she’d left on the ground, sending it flying away from her. Then, while it was recovering from landing on the ground, the timber wolf found itself magically levitated and trapped in mid-air. A crush of her aura made it break apart.
Two more timber wolves flanked Twilight from either side. Still using the ink under her feet, she spun herself around while holding her quill out. A solid ink fist formed floating in front of her. It followed and slammed into both wolves, who were shattered into their wooden components.
The last wolf cautiously approached twilight. It bared its wooden fangs in an attempt at intimidating her. All the while it waited for the perfect moment to strike. Without waiting for its next move, she levitated the wolf up with her magic and then made three quick slashes with her quill. Three ink blades slashed through the wolf’s core, causing it to burst apart and its logs to crumble to the ground.
For a brief moment, Twilight felt victorious. She used her magic to hold the components of the wolves apart, preventing them from reforming quickly. But her feeling of victory was only for that brief moment. In the next, Pinkie nervously called her name.
“Twilight…” When Twilight looked over in Pinkie’s direction, she saw the source of Pinkie’s concern. A cockatrice was aggressively walking towards her. Pinkie in turn was slowly walking backwards with her eyes squinted shut. This protected her from being turned to stone by the serpentine fowl’s petrifying gaze. But it did nothing to save her from the timber wolf stalking up behind her that was unable to see.
“Look out!” Twilight shouted out and frantically moved Night Wish’s quill around. A long hook made of ink wrapped around Pinkie’s waist and pulled her out of the way right before the wolf pounced on on. At the same time, a glob of ink from the hook detached itself to form a band that wrapped itself around the cockatrice’s eyes. The now harmless creature squawked in terror as its vision was obscured.
Up until this point, Twilight was keeping a careful eye on Burgundy even as she fought the wolves. She knew that he was still a threat even if he was making his animals do all the work. But that watch was ceased when she saved Pinkie Pie. From the corner of Pinkie’s eye, she could see Burgandy grinning with his arms crossed confidently.
Feed My Frankenstein lunged at Twilight. Since she wasn’t paying attention to it anymore, it was able to catch her off guard and jam something right into her chest. The impact caused Twilight to lose concentration and release her magic. Within seconds, green magic glowed around the broken creatures and began reconstructing their hosts. When they got up, they did not seem happy with the mare that had just collapsed them.
Twilight winced in pain as she looked down at the wound she was just given. It was a small hole, barely a centimeter in diameter. Blood slowly dribbled down from it. When she looked back up at him, Burgundy flashed a grin at Twilight. The missing tooth in his mouth told her all that she needed to know about what he did.
Immediately, Twilight attempted to pull out the tooth with Night Wish’s ink. But the timber wolves seemed none too pleased with her. Right as she got the ink in her, a wolf jumped and bit her forearm.
When Burgundy heard her cry of pain, he detached his from his wrist and put it atop a wolf at his side. The effects were near instant. Both Twilight’s arm and the wolf’s jaw started to turn black. Twilight could no longer feel her arm as it went dead. The wolf released her arm and fell backwards with a limp jaw.
“T-This is too fast!” Twilight gasped, watching as her skin began to blacken right off her bones, “How did he?!”
“Now see here,” Burgundy talked to the audience in his head, “My body part doesn’t have to be touching that specific timber wolf for Feed My Frankenstein’s effects to work on the unicorn. She’ll be affected by all timber wolves as long as my tooth is in her. And all unicorns will affect the wolf as long as my hand is on him. You’ve heard of killing two birds with one stone, how about two species with just one tooth!”
“Stop him!” Twilight ordered. She was growing rather tired of this routine he was putting on, especially with her arm going numb. Her fingers stopped moving, likely due to the lack of oxygen flow down her arm.
Pinkie nodded her head and blinked in front of Burgundy. Right as she appeared, she was forced to blink right away as Feed my Frankenstein attempted to ram another one of Burgundy’s teeth into her face.
Pinkie would not have this. She had only Ta-Da blink back in towards the enemy Stand. It caught Feed My Frankenstein’s arm and pulled the tooth from its grip. Then it pushed the Stand away and wound up to throw the tooth away. With great precision, Ta-Da pitched the tooth directly into Burgundy’s mouth, causing him to gag on it.
Burgundy didn’t take kindly to this at all. He used his still attached hand and blew his whistle. All five timber wolves surrounded the two of them. With a huff, Pinkie simply blinked out of their circle and back towards Burgundy, rearing Ta-Da’s fist again. But as soon as she tried to hit him, one of the wolves leapt directly at her unguarded back. Just as its teeth were about to sink into her shoulder, she blinked away again.
“This is why you should never get too close to a wild animal,” Burgundy reached up towards the wolf now flying at him, placing one hand directly on its face and another on its left leg. He twisted his body into an arc, flinging it away from him before it could hit him. He dusted his hand off and lightly rubbed his jaw, “Always make sure you take the proper precautions when handling these sort of things! Having some professional training never hurts.”
Twilight prepared to aid Pinkie, but had her attention taken away by a shrill shriek. The cockatrice she had blinded earlier was now going completely berserk. It cawed and jumped in all directions, pecking randomly out of terror and anger. Twice over did Twilight have to jump away to avoid getting pecked. Quickly, she surrounded the cockatrice with ink and flung it into the woods.
Just as Twilight thought it was gone, however, she winced as another whistle blow cut through the night air. Burgundy pointed towards where the cockatrice had flown and shouted a few indistinguishable commands. One of the wolves dove into the forest and, after a few seconds, brought back the flailing creature in its jaws. Before Twilight could register what he was doing, Burgundy has taken a cockatrice feather and wrapped his finger around it. That finger was then detached from his body and thrown on the ground.
Now both the wolves and the cockatrice presented an even greater danger to Twilight. The wolves were under Burgundy’s complete control and would attack at his command. The cockatrice was frenzied and unpredictable at this point. This battle had turned into pure chaos, and a single touch of something threatened to be lethal to Twilight.
While Twilight wanted to help Pinkie, right now she had to look out for herself. The five wolves had turned their attention away from Burgundy with two sharp whistle blasts, and were now starting to encircle the mare again. Twilight slowly began to back towards the path, but once she’d gotten within a few feet of its mouth, one of the wolves snapped at her ankles.
The one directly in front of her attacked first. Even if she managed to dodge its teeth, even a single touch could completely immobilize her. Twilight threw up what looked like a sheet of glass in front of her, catching the wolf on it. It scratched and clawed at it, and Twilight could feel its weight pressing down against it. With a heave, she flung both the sheet and the wolf away from her, the ink going liquid and shooting back to her.
The other three wolves, however, weren’t going to let their comrade attack alone this time. Right as she flung the wolf away, the four snarled and leapt at her too. Thinking fast, Twilight formed a cylinder under her feet and caused it to thrust upwards, letting her jump into the air and flap her wings to glide over the head of the wolf under her. The wolves hit the ground and barked at her, leaping towards her now airborne form.
For a moment, Twilight had hoped that her wings would give her the advantage. She hovered just high enough to keep the wolves from being able to bite her by jumping at her. Yet just as she tried to use her ink to bash the wolves into the dirt, she heard a screech. Burgundy had picked up the cockatrice and directly hurled it towards her.
Twilight had to dodge to her right in order to avoid it, but doing so caused her to hit into one of the trees surrounding the clearing. While not enough to down her, it caused her wings to freeze up out of reflex. The wolves already reacted to her change in position, lunging right at the tree. As she fell towards the ground, her horn lit up and she teleported herself towards a spot behind the wolves. When she reappeared with a sparkling flash, she formed a small shield around herself with her ink.
“Looks like they’re both getting worn out,” Burgundy confidently announced. “But they’re not quite ready to be caged and trained just yet. We need to really drive home who’s the boss here. I think it’s time for the rest of our friends to make an appearance.”
Burgundy blew his whistle as loud as he could. For a second, everything seemed to stand still. Then the whole ground started to shake as the sound of monstrous footsteps echoed closer and closer towards the clearing. Both Twilight and Pinkie gulped. Even the timber wolves stopped in their tracks to look towards the newcomer.
Out from behind Pinkie, a large and vicious cragidile rushed through the trees and straight towards the mare. She barely had time to blink away before the stone reptile closed its jaws on her. Its tail thrashed as it turned around, trying to look to where she’d gone. To be safe, Pinkie now sat scrunched up on a tree branch.
At the same time, Twilight bore witness to an ursa minor walk up behind Burgundy. The starry creature let out a growl from its throat, looking around the clearing. When it leaned down to see Burgundy, it immediately bent its head down so that he could get atop its back. The Ursa let him stand confidently right behind its neck. Burgundy reached out and stroked its neck as a sign of praise.
Now safe atop the mighty beast, Burgundy detached one of his bare feet and set it to rest on the ursa minor’s back. He took the other one off and tossed it to the cragidile, who took whole of it inside of its mouth. Rather than chewing, it let it rest right inside of it, owing to whatever sort of training he’d done to make such a ferocious beast obey his commands.
Twilight was feeling vastly overwhelmed by everything she needed to keep track of now. Just any of these creatures that Burgundy has sicked on her would be bad enough to encounter on their own. But they were attacking her together in a coordinated manner. And the longer she engaged with them all, the more at risk she was at of being killed.
This situation needed to be taken care of methodically. One step at a time. That’s how Twilight worked best. If she could go step by step, then she would ensure no fatal mistakes.
Firstly and most importantly, Twilight needed space to work with. The pause in the wolves assault had given her the time she needed to figure out the best spell. A simple expanding magical force field accomplished that well enough. The magical wave pushed back the five timber wolves and the cockatrice violently towards the surrounded trees. They each fell the ground, dazed and disoriented.
Only the huge cragidile was unaffected by the blast. But Twilight was already working on a solution for it. The stone reptile hissed and swung its mighty tail at her. Twilight responded by dropping a large ink weight on its tail and continuously applied pressure to it. The weight was so heavy that the beast couldn’t free itself.
Now that she had space, Twilight could focus on her disabled arm. She had a theory on how she could reverse Feed My Frankenstein’s effects. It worked by taking away oxygen from the objects that are linked by it. So, if she could control the flow of her oxygen, she could restore her arm. Slowly, she pressed two fingers of her good arm to the affected skin and inhaled.
At the same time, Pinkie’s solo fight with Burgundy was not having much luck. It wasn’t even the ursa minor he was riding that was the problem. It was slow and lumbering, something she could easily get around. With Twilight having taken out the cragidile for now, it let Pinkie leave her tree perch and appear in front of Burgundy again. Yet Burgundy, without even moving, simply had his Feed my Frankenstein appear in front of Pinkie with a tooth pinched between two fingers again. Pinkie and Stand both dodged to the right, yet then she saw Burgundy’s own fist holding another tooth going for her stomach.
Pinkie was forced to teleport back down to the ground. Unfortunately, now that she was in front of a beast such as the Ursa, she had to deal with its massive claws. The paw nearly as big as her body came swiping at her from the right, and only a quick teleport stopped her from turning into the ribbons she used to wrap gifts for parties. The ursa was stunned, allowing Pinkie to back away from it with a series of quick pants.
If Pinkie could incapacitate Burgundy, then she could end this entire fight. The problem was that every time she tried to teleport on top of it and behind Burgundy, Feed My Frankenstein would be ready to attempt to stab a tooth into her. This forced her to teleport to the ground, where the ursa would try and claw her. If the cycle kept going on, she’d eventually run out of stamina from overusing Ta-Da, and that would leave her too slow to continue dodging these attacks.
“As you can see, while Unicorns are the most crafty of the pony species, Earth Ponies are the most persistent. If you leave your guard down, they’ll get you; and if they don’t get you then, they’ll just try again. Fortunately,” Burgundy smirked, “They aren’t the best at adapting to the situation.”
Clearly Pinkie couldn’t fight Burgundy alone. But Twilight was too busy trying to deal with all of the animals attacking her. Pinkie realized that if she wanted Twilight’s help, the creatures would need to be dealt with first. Despite how hard it was to turn her face away from the smug stallion, she needed to help her friend.
Getting rid of Burgundy’s body parts seemed like the best way to mitigate the danger. This way his Stand wouldn’t be affecting Twilight anymore. Pinkie’s plan for doing so was to gather up every part up so Twilight could trap them in the air like she did to the wolves earlier.
Pinkie made note of Twilight’s location. She looked somewhat tired, but she seemed all put together, and her arm was healed. There were still the five wolves around her, but they were still mostly stunned. The cockatrice was a mitigatable threat for now.
Pinkie spotted the wolf with Burgundy’s hand on it’s back and blinked over. It was still trying to get up from Twilight’s forceful attack, so plucking the hand was easy. What she didn’t anticipate, however, was the separated hand suddenly leaping from Pinkie’s own and onto her shirt.
Almost immediately, Pinkie heard Twilight’s cries of pain. Just as fast as she heard them, Pinkie blinked away and left the hand behind. When she appeared, Twilight had fallen to the ground. Every so often she would twitch in pain, but wouldn’t move otherwise. Her muscle functions must have been shut downed like she warned Pinkie.
Since Twilight was no longer putting pressure on the cragidile’s tail, it was able to slip it free. It snorted and ran at the imobile Twilight. Ta-Da grabbed her and blinked the three of them away. It then blinked away from where it blinked to when the Ursa pounced.
“I’m getting us out of here!” Pinkie declared when her, Twilight, and Ta-Da appeared to at the edge of the clearing.
“No…” Twilight struggled to mutter in her state. “Stay…where he can see us…”
“But Twilight!” Pinkie teleported away again as soon as the ursa minor got close to them again. “It’s dangerous to stay here! You’re almost dead!” Despite her concerns, Pinkie obeyed Twilight’s ordered and simply teleported to the other side of the clearing.
“I know Pinkie, but,” Twilight looked down at the hole in her chest. “He probably doesn’t know it, but the tooth Burgundy’s Stand put in me, has slightly punctured my heart. I think he was aiming to pierce it, but couldn’t get deep enough. Right now, it’s plugging the hole he made.”
Twilight coughed. It hurt. Pain was one of the only things she could feel at the moment. Right now, she couldn’t even breathe properly. The tooth would have to come out if she were to restore her muscle functions again.
“But if the tooth is removed without careful precision, I fear it’ll create an even bigger hole. And if we leave Burgundy’s sight, he’ll simply call the tooth back to him. Like… like he did with the hand...”
Pinkie teleported them out of the ursa’s way again as Twilight kept talking, “I need to use Night Wish to take it out, carefully. But that’ll take time. Time we don’t have while all of our enemies are attacking us. So right now our only option is to defeat him”
“But how do we do that? He’s got us super outnumbered! And you can’t even move your body!”
“I can move my wrist,” Twilight used her head to motion down to the quill in her hand. “That’s all I need. I just need you to get him off of that Ursa. I have a plan for defeating him. Can I trust you to do that for me?”
“You can count on me!” Pinkie saluted and instantly blinked away from Twilight. She still wasn’t entirely sure about this. But she knew Twilight well enough to have full faith in her.
When she appeared again, Pinkie saw that Burgundy had given up chasing them for now and focused on something else. She saw that he had ordered all of his animals into a new attack formation. Or rather, Pinkie didn’t see that because every creature was hidden from sight in the surrounding trees. But she could feel their eyes on her with Ta-Da. The only animal still in sight was the Ursa that Burgundy was riding on.
“Just get Burgundy… off that thing…” Twilight shook as Pinkie sat her down on the ground, “I know you can do it, Pinkie Pie…”
One blow of Burgundy’s whistle and one timber wolf leapt out from the trees at Pinkie. She was able to sense where it was coming from and used Ta-Da to grab it out of the air. The wolf couldn’t even process what had just happened before it was thrown over to the other side of the clearing.
Pinkie blinked herself to the opposite end of the clearing, wiping the growing sweat beads from her forehead. Doing so lead the creatures away from where Twilight lay immobile. Despite the exhaustion using her Stand like this was taking on her, she couldn’t stop. She sadly, however, didn’t get nearly as much time to prepare herself as she wanted.
After another blow of the whistle, the blind cockatrice came running in Pinkie’s general direction. Pinkie simply stared at the frenzied snake-chicken and wondered what the point of it was. She wondered so much that she didn’t notice the two new wolves ambushing her from behind.
While Pinkie felt Ta-Da’s warning, she couldn’t react in enough time to fully move out of the way. Thus, she instead ran forward towards the cockatrice. The tiny creature cried out and lashed its feet out at her once it heard her footsteps, drawing two sets of three slashes across Pinkie’s leg. The pain caused her to shriek and stumble forward, just as the wolves hit the ground and lunged at her again.
Pinkie turned her head around, having Ta-Da blink her right atop the two wolves. She landed on top of them, smashing them into the ground with her feet and jumping off them. The wolves scampered back into the trees immediately. Once she was on the ground again, she turned her attention directly towards Burgundy.
“It looks as though we might have managed to down our first Unicorn!” Burgundy made an ‘oohhh’ sound, “But it seems retrieving it will require us to first take out is partner. Unlike most species, the pony will defend its own kind. Of course,” Burgundy’s smile turned dark, “We can always employ pain as a tactic to break that spirit.”
By turning her attention to Burgundy, Pinkie had forgotten that there were in fact five wolves and not two. Another whistle caused the two wolves to run full pelt towards her. She leapt backwards, putting herself closer to the ursa. As it reared to attack her, another whistle blow emanated.
Pinkie teleported away, but right as she landed, the third wolf had emerged. Burgundy had predicted right where she’d teleport to and had the wolf already barreling towards her! As she turned to see it, Pinkie knew she couldn’t dodge in time. With a wince, she started to draw her arms up in the air to defend her face.
But before it could bite her, the wolves found themselves decapitated. As the bodies ran around frantically, the heads, as well as Pinkie, looked bewilderingly for for the culprit. From the darkness, Pinkie could see large blades flying away from the spot the wolves had just collapsed in. The blades returned to reveal the culprit of the attack.
Twilight stood, her quill pointed out towards Pinkie. Since she was unable to move on her own, Twilight had to use her Stand to do it for her. She had ink rings around her wrists, shoulders, and waist. They were lifting her into the air and moving her like a puppet. Neatly floating behind her were the four swords that she had fashioned out of ink. One of which was just returning to position after being used.
“I’ll hand the animals,” Twilight ordered. “You focus on Burgundy!”
“Got it!” Pinkie turned her head towards Burgundy, “Hey! Animal guy! Still think your little animal friends are enough to take on two ponies?!”
But Burgundy would not make that easy for either of them. He blew on his whistle as loudly as he could. This signaled for all of the animals to come out of hiding and attack at once. He had intended to have them split off and attack both targets equally. But Twilight used her ink swords to attack each and everyone except for the ursa minor. This ended up provoking all of them into attacking her.
The wolves that had until now focused on Pinkie once more pooled their full attention to attacking Twilight. With determination in her eyes, Twilight flicked her wrist, sending her body flying backwards. The four swords came flying out from behind her, spinning about and cleaving into each of the wolves as they collided. As their parts fell onto the ground, Twilight turned two of the swords into a liquid that then pooled around the pieces and completely hardened, preventing them from reforming.
The enraged cragidle rushed towards Twilight and tried to bite her with its fearsome jaws. Twilight used Night Wish’s sword ink to form a large pillar inside of its mouth and prevent it from closing. The creature tried to chomp down on the ink, but found it didn’t budge. In response, it quickly spun its body around, sending its tail directly at her.
Using her ink, Twilight lifted her body up into the air, narrowly avoiding its attack. Her two remaining sword swung down to attack the creature, but bounced off of its rocky exterior. As she landed back on the ground, the creature trashed its head, causing the pillar to come loose. Once she noticed, she reformed it into a sword to join the other.
In response to this, Twilight let the cragidile lunge towards her. Right as it was about to make contact, she levitated her body once more, sending the two swords directly on either side of its neck. While it didn’t cut through the exterior, it prevented the creature from moving. In seconds, this ink melted and formed a neck brace that was driven into the ground, preventing it from moving. It let out a cry as it tried to thrash its way out, all to no avail.
Pinkie was focused entirely on Burgundy. The ursa was focused on her. It clawed and pounced at her, but she kept jumping out of the way. After expending so much of her energy, she wasn’t skillfully dodging them. Each evade was an extremely close call. She could feel the wind of its swipes ruffling her mane as she dodged each attack, and more than once swore she could see the glint of Luna’s light on its claws. Burgundy noticed after about five dodges that Pinkie wasn’t using her Stand to easily avoid his Ursa.
“Seems like… our prey has really made a comeback!” Burgundy called out, “Well, its nothing to worry about. All we need do is make sure that they can’t escape! Every creature has their limit.”
Burgundy reached up and took a tooth out of his mouth, handing it to Feed My Frankenstein. Turning around, the Stand reared its fist back and threw the tooth as hard as it could, causing it to lodge inside of a tree. Twilight’s expression twitched in response.
“Our ponies would do well to remember that there is more to living things than just animals!” Burgundy grinned, “Now no matter what, we can wear them out right here and now. And first, we should take care of our little Earth Pony…” His voice trailed off as he looked down in front of him to see Pinkie dodging yet another swipe Stand-less.
That was because Ta-Da was elsewhere. Pinkie could see it resting on a high up tree branch behind the two of them. But Pinkie could tell that they couldn’t see it. Exactly how she wanted it to be. The ursa roared, a sound that shook leaves from the treetops as it slammed its paw directly on top of where Pinkie stood.
With a final jump backwards, Pinkie landed cleanly on her feet. A millisecond passed and Ta-Da blinked itself from the tree branch and onto the ursa’s back. Burgundy noticed it just before it grabbed him by the shoulders. He was lifted straight up from its back without even a moment’s hesitation.
“TA-DA!” Ta-Da cried out as it threw him hard into the dirt in front of the Ursa. The impact caused the whistle to fall from his mouth.
“Twilight now!” Pinkie shouted.
Burgundy groaned as he got up. He had his eyes closed as he tumbled across the grass. When he got up and opened them, he saw the piercing eyes of a now unblinded cockatrice, suspended in ink. His expression didn’t even have time to change before his entire body froze over and turned completely to stone. .
Grabbing Twilight’s shoulder, Pinkie blinked the two back onto the path. The ursa blinked and looked around the clearing for a few moments, stomping around cluelessly as it tried to figure out what had happened to its orders. It leaned forward and sniffed at the petrified form of its trainer, but after nudging it a few times, the creature slowly turned around and lumbered back into the forest.
Once the two had landed, Twilight gasped hard and shook in Pinkie’s grasp. The ink around her body began to drip down her body until her quill swished and gathered it up again. Slowly, her arm began to move, and after her arm came the rest of her right side. A few moments later and her left side had joined the right in the glorious sensation of motion.
“Did that do it?” Pinkie looked Twilight up and down, “Can you move? Do I need to make you a wheelchair?!”
“I...I think, I’m fine now, Pinkie…” Twilight coughed. The pain was still coursing through her body, but the oxygen-canceling effects of the Stand seemed to have worn off, “I… just, need a few minutes to get this tooth out of me…”
“Understood!” Pinkie saluted, “I’ll stand guard while you do!”
Twilight nodded thanks to Pinkie, slowly closing her eyes and letting feeling fully return to her body. After she was able to fully move her arm again, she slowly began phasing ink down into the wound created by the tooth. As Pinkie stood nearby with Ta-Da at the ready, panting herself and the smallest bit of shivers going down her back, Twilight began the process of pulling the tooth out. The remaining ink from the clearing sped back towards her and joined with the rest of the mass to help in the process.
After those few minutes, Twilight shut her eyes and let out a little shuddering groan as finally, the ink extracted the tooth from her chest. Twilight filled the wound up with ink, placing a small amount over the hole that the tooth had made in her heart. Slowly, she began to use magic to stimulate the growth of her heart tissue, filling the gap filled by it.
“Hey, Twilight?” Pinkie asked once she saw the tooth, “What do you think we should do with that?”
“Huh?” Twilight blinked and looked towards the tooth floating in Night Wish’s ink, “I was just going to throw it away. Why?”
“Hmm… one second!” Pinkie smiled widely, then blinked away for a moment. When she returned, she was holding Burgundy’s whistle in her hand. The bit of brown string making it a necklace dangled from it.
“What?” Twilight shook her head, “Why do we need that?”
“You know how you get those little touristy things when you go to places like Filidelphia and Baltimare?” Pinkie pulled out a shuriken from Ta-Da’s waist and used it to puncture a hole in the tooth. She undid the string around the whislte, stopped the whistle into the dirt, then slid the tooth on it, “We should keep this so the others will believe us!”
“It… we…” Twilight paused, then she slowly nodded, “You know what, Pinkie? Sure, let’s keep it. I bet Dash would never believe us if we didn’t have that to prove it.”
“Okie dokie loki!” Pinkie nodded and slung the necklace around her neck, stuffing the tooth itself unde her shirt, “If you’re still feeling bad, maybe Zecora will have something?”
“That’s a good idea…” Twilight slowly forced herself up onto her feet, “If Applejack and Rarity were ambushed, they’d head there too. Let’s meet up with them, then we need to find out how we were separated in the first place.”
With that, Twilight turned her head back down the trail the two had come, putting a hand over her heart as the two mares slowly walked away from a clearing that now contained only broken wolves and a frozen statue of a wrangler behind.