Twilight stumbled as she trotted through the dark forest, trying to keep up with the others. She couldn't remember ever feeling quite so drained, except for that time with Tirek.
“You alright, Twilight?” She heard the worry in John's voice.
“I trust I did not take too much, Lady,” Ruby sounded only a little less worried, but when Twilight looked at the ghost pony trotting beside her, to her relief Ruby still looked solid.
“I'll be fine,” Twilight replied and hoped it was the truth. “Like you said, Ruby, you needed some energy from a living pony.” She shuddered like a flyder had bitten her at the memory of that terrible coldness when Ruby set her hoof on her withers – like that of the Frozen North outside of the Crystal Heart's perimeter.
She wondered if this was what John had felt that long-ago night in the Everfree when he'd followed her and her friends to their final showdown with Thorn. They'd been accompanied by Sunny Town's undead ponies, and nearly killed by them and Thorn.
Of course, this time the undead ponies – or one of them – is helping us.
Ruby – or maybe just a conjured image that possessed something of her personality – trotted beside her behind John, featureless yellow eyes glowing like torches in the moonlit forest's shadows; when her hooves came down on sticks or stones or fallen leaves, neither her nor they made any sound. Twilight hoped the pale glow from her didn't alert the Shonokin or Nightmare to their presence.
And that there's enough Luna left in the Tantabus to listen to Ruby rather than just blast her and us.
# # #
The moonlight shined down right strong on the pine trees around Chorazin as all three of us, Twilight and poor dead Ruby and myself, worked our way closer to that place of waste and desolation. Normally I'd be right happy to have so much moonlight shining down at night, but not then. Not when I rightly knew who was a-making it shine thataway and the reason why she was a-doing it.
“Where is Luna?” Miss Ruby asked for maybe the sixth-seventh time. She looked like air living Equestrian pony, the ones they call Earth ponies because of how they connect to the ground and living things. Soft gray coat and golden mane and tail and yellow eyes that looked to be lit up from inside like a soft-glowing lantern. All of her glowed faintlike in the dark, just a slight shining about her like one of those fish from way down in the vasty deeps of the sea I've heard tell of. She didn't watch as careful as Twilight and myself where she put her hooves, but then I saw she didn't air need to. When she set her hoof on a stone or little shrub or fallen bit of tree wood, it went right through her or maybe she went right through it. She sounded unhappy and worried when she said, “You said she was nearby, that she needed my help.” Then, her voice going hard and that soft glow around her getting harsh to look on. “Or have you lied to me?”
“I nair lied to any soul, living or dead, Miss Ruby,” I answered her. I kept my voice polite though it right nettled me to be called a liar, the way it always has since I was a little tad. Even if it was some ghost pony from a place right beyond the world itself a-doing it. I pointed the way ahead as the trees thinned and we came up on Chorazin. “Right there somewheres is where Miss Luna is at.”
We all three looked and saw something that told those two ponies with me that Luna was there, even if I'd said nair word. There were clouds a-flying high across the sky, big and heavy ones like what Twilight told me about the Toller from before. Or like the ones the ponies and I saw when we went into the Everfree after Thorn and Applejack and Rarity and Rainbow Dash's little sisters and tiny Spike, the ones that roiled and boiled with what looked like deep sea things inside them, all clutching tentacles and snapping beaks and mouths lined with sharp fangs eager to be a-biting into you. Airy way, we saw something then and I'm not ashamed to say it gave me a turn when I did.
Those big heavy clouds up high seemed to start spinning, like when they have those tornadoes down in the lowlands. Only set on edge, like, so you could see down the funnel and a-pointing right at that full moon. I wondered me if I'd ever seen such a big moon. It minded me of what Chief Manco told me once they called a supermoon, and how it's because the moon is just so much closer to Earth than other times. I also thought of some harvest moons I'd seen that looked fat and swollen when they hung low in the sky. The moon illusion, science folks call it, and aren't rightly sure why it happens thataway. Whatair the usual reason, we all knew why it was a-happening right then and there.
“Nightmare Moon and the Shonokin are getting ready for their summoning,” Twilight said, and shook to say it. She looked down into Chorazin, down at those odd lumpy houses like big overgrown mushrooms under that pale moonlight. I saw me how vines grew on and around them. I reckon it was the moonlight that made it look like those vines twitched and crawled, like they were eager to be grabbing someone. “They're getting ready,” Twilight said, her voice getting firmer, “which means Luna and the others need our help, right now.”
She trotted forward then, going quicklike. Ruby followed her and so did I, hurrying but not running. You nair want to be running into some place like Chorazin when you know bad men are a-lying in wait for you, but you don't rightly know how may or where they are or whatair weapons they may have. From what Twilight and the other ponies told me, and what I'd seen happen to Dash and Chief Manco, I knew me they'd have a lavish of guns and be right ready to use them. Too, they'd be having other weapons, ones noways natural. It may sound odd but right then those weapons frightened me the less than the rifles and pistols I figured on them carrying. I knew ways to be protecting myself and others like Ruby and Twilight against whatair bad magic the Shonokin and maybe even Nightmare Moon might be having, and I reckon they did too. I know some ways to try and defend against guns, with charms and Heaven Letters and the like, but the best way to not get hurt by a gun is to not be getting shot with it.
Right afore we reached the town I set myself between it and the ponies. Twilight stopped. Ruby looked ready to keep going even if she walked through me. She got close enough that I felt a right hard chill from her, like if you ever fell into a pond through winter ice that wasn't as thick as you thought. I lightly ran my fingers along the silver strings on my guitar and she stopped with a little shiver.
“Ladies, be careful,” I told them both, real soft and quiet. I pointed at the town, looking dark and nasty even under that bright moonlight. “We need to be going there, but we don't know who might be a-waiting for us. We won't be doing Miss Luna or the others air good if we get caught or killed dead on the way.”
Twilight looked like she wanted to push by me, but when Miss Ruby raised her foreleg, I guess you'd call it, she held still.
“Goodpony John is right,” she said, her speech sounding even more old-timey then mine, if not quite so much as Luna's. She turned her burning yellow eyes on Twilight aside her. “Twilight, in my breathing days, even young mares did serve their turn among the guards of villages and towns.”
“I know something about military service,” Twilight answered her. “My brother was Spellguard.” She pointed her horn at me. “And John was in his country's Royal Guard. He's... 'seen action'.”
“Good.” Ruby turned her eyes from Twilight to me and back again to her. I made myself not shudder at the sight. Miss Ruby was here because of us, and she noways wanted to be what she'd become. She deserved better than to be treated like some haunt.
“I like this not. The folk you say dwell within this place... Are like the stories Mitta would tell me as a filly, about wicked fairies made of smoke that lived under the ground and sent bad dreams to ponies.” She gave a shudder. “We must plan now, and gang warily after, if we seek to save them and our own selves.”
Twilight nodded and looked at me.
“Don't you be a-looking at me, Twilight,” I shook my head. “You're the one who knows about Equestrian magic and what that Nightmare can be doing. And you beat her once afore this. You were in Chorazin afore this as well with Chief Manco. I reckon you're the one to be giving orders here.”
“No,” she shook her head and spoke soft, like I and Miss Ruby had, making sure no sneaking Shonokin could be a-hearing us. “This all started with Shonokin magic, and you're the expert there, John. And this is your world.” She sat with her rump down on the ground, like a dog or cat; Miss Ruby just stood and watched like she nair got tired now. Maybe she didn't at that. “Let's hear your ideas.”
I looked from Twilight to Ruby and made my decision. “Alright. Going by what you told me, Twilight, and what-all I know of the Shonokin, they'll all want to be seeing what happens when they give Miss Luna and Applejack and the rest to those gods of theirs. And if they do it the way they did it afore, they'll be needing one to be conducting the sabbat. That'll likely be that one that you talked with. He seems to be their leader.”
Twilight shuddered. “That makes sense. He acted like somepony used to giving orders and being obeyed.” She wrinkled up her brow as she thought. “So him leading the working, and those twelve others – No wait, only ten left,” she sounded sick to be saying it, “with four of those wearing those bad Nightmare Night costumes like in the Dream Realm. Unless they don't need them?”
“If they used them then, they'll rightly be using them now,” I told her. “I don't do their kind of bad magic, but I reckon I know enough to be able to say that if you do a ritual one way once you'll be needing to do it that way airy time.” I figured in my head. “And they'll be needing two more Shonokin in the coven to be replacing the ones that died in dreams. So, at least thirteen Shonokin doing the ritual and spellworking, along with Nightmare Moon.”
“We are already badly outnumbered,” Ruby said, and she sounded worried.
“Maybe not so much,” I answered her back. “If all those Shonokin are in the ritual and a-trying to call back the Shonokin gods, I doubt me they'd be paying attention to air thing else. It took all my concentrating to be calling you here, Miss Ruby. What they'll be a-doing has to be even harder.”
“So they are removed from our worries, at least until the ritual itself be done,” Ruby looked at Chorazin and frowned. “Yet they cannot be all that live within this place. Others may be guarding them or at least witnessing their moment of glory reborn. And there is the Nightmare.” She scraped one forehoof against the ground. “We must be freeing thy friends as swiftly as possible, Twilight, Goodman John. And keep the Nightmare from interfering.”
“We figure that's where you come in, Ruby,” Twilight made to set one hoof on Ruby's withers like to comfort her. Ruby saw and twitched away. She didn't step, kindly, so much as she just seemed to flicker a few steps away. Twilight set her hoof back down. “You knew Luna, and your, well...”
“Thou canst say 'my death',” Ruby looked to smile the least bitty bit. “'Tis something I have had time to grow used to.”
“Okay,” Twilight looked nervous but she said, “Your death is what made her decide to fully become Nightmare Moon. The Tantabus is apparently formed from her fears and shame over her actions – and her memories. If she sees you those memories will shock her, maybe even push her into going back to Luna.” She added, “I hope.”
“Miss Ruby will be distracting the Nightmare,” I said to her, “and Twilight, you'll be freeing the others, starting with Miss Luna. She's the strongest after yourself, and if she can be getting away that'll still ruin the ritual.”
“And what about yourself?” Ruby inquired me. “Thou shalt be warding against the Shonokin?”
“Yes,” I said, setting one hand to my guitar and hefting my ash stick with the other. “Like you said, Twilight, I know more about their magic than the either of you. I've got silver, and ash, and other things to use against them.” I doubled my fists and said, “If worst comes to worst, I have these, and if I don't like using them I know how to when I have to.” I looked around on them both, the living and the dead pony. “I reckon that's all I can figure on.” I didn't go adding what else I knew, that nair battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Right then I'd be happy if all of us survived contact with these enemies, and I said me a quick prayer to whoair might be listening on the other end, that these young ladies and their friends were in killing bad trouble all because they'd tried to be helping me, and whatair help we could get would be mighty welcome right then.
I saw me how Twilight closed her eyes, and the light in Ruby's dimmed a little like she concentrated too. I wondered me if dead souls could pray like living ones did, or if maybe she was just thinking on what was going to be happening soon.
Because Lord knows, even as we started sneaking down the dark streets of Chorazin among and through those odd lumpy houses towards whatair end to this, all I could be thinking of was all the ways this could end the worst way for all of us.
# # #
Twilight wished that nervous tickle along her horn was less distracting as she followed John and preceded Ruby into the magical resonance pattern of Chorazin. The town with its houses and “gardinels” set at the nodes and foci looked even less prepossessing than before during the day. And, over their roof- and tree-tops, at the center of that pattern, the topless tower. Magic flux twitched in her horn as she passed over the outermost of the pattern's ley lines.
Those twitchy vines with the flowers like little red sucking mouths seemed even more agitated than before. One even reached out for her flank as she passed by the house it grew on and over. She instinctively swatted it with her tail and told herself that it did not look just like a large snake as it recoiled back to the house.
“This place reminds me all too much of Sunny Town,” Ruby muttered behind her. “Yet worse still. There is a, a glee in the foulness here such as,” she swatted her tail back and forth unhappily, “such as I only e'er knew in one pony before.”
“That's the Shonokin for you,” Twilight whispered. “They remind me of Sombra's herd, the Umbrum, and the Dazzlings' herd, the Sirens. Joy in cruelty for its own sake.” She kept moving her ears about, turning them this way and that to catch every strange sound. And Chorazin had plenty of strange sounds, half-heard whispers, voiceless mutters, and worse. Like the odd scratching noises of something with sharp claws and pale eyes that could see in darkness crawling over the houses and vines, looking at them from hiding, reminding her of Parway. At one point as they passed by the gardinel-houses, keeping well away from them, she froze, one hoof held off the ground in mid step.
“Twilight, whatair is it?”
“Mistress Twilight, what dost thou hear?”
Twilight ignored them a moment longer, listening as hard as she could, before saying, “Nothing. I think.” No need to say that she'd not heard but felt something in or beside the magic flow, a sort of low distant thudding coming through the dirt under her hooves like some massive heartbeat. “Let's keep going.”
They did that, passing from cover to cover, heading for the open area Twilight remembered near the biggest house, a sort of Town Hall facing that tower across a sort of town commons. She remembered some piled cut wood nearby, a sort of community stockpile of firewood. That would provide cover. A better cover than those horrid houses, anyway. If the Shonokin planned any sort of ritual, they'd do it there, at the heart of the pattern. And as they got closer, she began hearing soft whispering voices, many of them in that odd echoing effect Shonokin voices had.
And then Pony voices, not soft, not whispering, but familiar and very angry.
“Y'all get these ropes offa me, or so help me when Ah get loose Ah'll show ya how Ah can use 'em!”
“You tell these creeps, AJ!” Rainbow Dash else yelled in her rough scratchy voice. “When I get loose I'll show you guys why nopony messes with the Dash!” Then muffled cries from them both, joined now by others.
Twilight dashed the final distance to the woodpile, Ruby and John close on her heels. The three dropped to their bellies, crawling until they were able to peer through holes in the piled wood.
The moon shone down its cloud-funnel like it did when Luna arrived that first Nightmare Night, lighting up the town commons like a silvery theater spotlight.
The Shonokin wore those same clothes, the white-shiny shirts and black frock coats and rock-farmer hats over their lank black manes, their dragon eyes shining like green-gold glowgems in the moonlight. The leader stood at the center of the commons, clutching his amulet and leading his herd in a low atonal chant, harsh as their multi-pitched voices both harmonized and clashed. Behind him the tower at the pattern's focus half-hid in shadow, jutting up like a rotted broken fang.
Facing him were the four in the bad Nightmare Night costumes – Gaudy Robe with long crozier-staff, Tin Peytral with toy sword, Mortarboard Hat in his robe, and Seedy Top Hat with his cane – responding to his chant like Discord had organized a vocal quartet. That's five...
“They may not be a-holding their guns,” John whispered in her ear, “but they're keeping them right close.” Twilight followed his pointing finger, saw the bolt-hurlers stacked like harvested hay or piled spears at the edge of the light-circle, metal parts gleaming. Not in their hands, no, but close enough to be grabbed and used if needed. First step, get rid of them....
The other Shonokin – she counted eight, making thirteen total – crouched around a trio of containment circles with strange inscriptions within and without. Like the ones Luna had shown her in Dream, the conjuring circles the sorcerer Dee had used to summon and attempt to contain Nightmare Moon. Double circles woven together with one marked in Old Equestrian; she couldn't see or sense the containment dome that arced above them, but she knew they had to be there. Reinforced by the eight Shonokin crouching and chanting around them, positioned in reinforcing node locations.
“I almost do recognize those,” Ruby whispered beside her, her voice shivering like leaves blowing over her grave. “Luna did once show them to me in a book she kept locked away. 'Twere used for binding and holding beings of worlds beyond Equestria, that they may work no ill.”
“Like conjure magic,” John whispered from her other side, pointing at the containment wards. “The Shonokin aren't taking the least chance with your friends, Twilight.”
Six equine forms lay hobbled and staked out in the three circles.
One for Princess Luna, wings tied down, spread-hooved between four stakes, mouth muzzled, head tossing. Moonlight erupted from her horn, fizzling into nothing before it could splash against the containment dome.
She's weakened? Too weak to break the containment? No! Anti-magic grounding, like a horn-ring restraint but wrapped within the wards!
One for Pinkie Pie, wrapped in ropes like Daring Do being toted off by Pony-eating Puckwudgies, mane and tail half-poofed. She lay quietly, then lifted her head and for a moment stared right at the woodpile and Twilight. Her mane poofed a bit, and Twilight saw her smile through her gag.
And a third for the other four, trussed up and piled together in a heap.
“You ruffians have no idea how much trouble you are in!” Rarity neighed at the top of her lungs, fighting her bonds and tossing her head like a Canterlot noblemare. A similarly-tied Fluttershy pressed shivering against her, a bag over her head. Twilight had to smile at the idea that even the fearsome Shonokin were taking no chances with the Stare.
“Silence the beast,” the lead Shonokin ordered from where he stood, amulet glittering blood-crimson in his grip. A Shonokin rose and stepped into the containment circle; for a moment Twilight wondered how he did it. Their magic allows them to pass their wards? Caster not affected by his own casting?
“If Twilight or Spike were here – MMMMMMPH!” The Shonokin whipped a scarf over the unicorn's head and into her open mouth, gagging her like AJ & Dash. Rarity glared at the Shonokin, violet magic forming around her horn; the Shonokin hit her on the horn, fizzling the spell before it could form.
Weaker than Luna, even without the wards; we need to dispel all three and untie them all at once. She gulped. Nothing is ever easy, is it?
The Shonokin leaped back out of the containment circle, careful not to touch the pattern itself, and crouched with the semicircle of the others. From the way he moved – limping and holding one arm stiff – her friends hadn't let themselves be tamely hobbled. Rarity snorted after him, head high as an offended Thoroughbred, then lowered it and craned her neck around the shivering Fluttershy's.
“John,” she whispered to the human beside her, remembering the portal ward they'd cast on Zecora's threshold those years ago, ”If we smudge or disrupt those circles, would that dispel the wards?”
He nodded; Twilight's wings rustled.
Okay; charge out airborne, land trampling the containment circles – no, TK something into them... Luna first, then the others... Wait! Where's the Nightmare?
“The ritual is about to begin,” The Shonokin leader called as he stood out in front of the others; one hand clutching his amulet, the other raised over his head clutching that knapped-stone knife of his. It looked longer than it's dream-version as he moved it over his head in what had to be a spell-pattern. “Years ago at Araby, Those We Serve were taken from us! By a human meddler, the accursed Thunstone!”
“Taken,” the crowd of Shonokin moaned in their eerie echoing voices.
Twilight mantled her wings and glanced at John.
He shook his head no just the tiniest bit.
“We were cheated of their Power, their wisdom, their guidance,” the leader chanted, shaking his hands high in emphasis. “Our people are scattered and weakened, our leaders felled by the usurping savages and their allies summoned against us,” he stabbed the knife at the ponies. “But no longer! Tonight we have an ally, one who will return Those We Serve from their exile, who will restore the power and rule that is rightfully ours!” He raised the knife in a ceremonial gesture. “Come, O Terrible One!”
A midnight-blue mist glittering with stars rose from the shadows, coalescing into the shape of a full-sized Alicorn Major made of shadow and Night. A low hissing cheer went through the Shonokin like a pit full of snakes as the form shimmered and solidified into a familiar silhouette – the Tantabus, Nightmare Moon. The shimmering sparkles migrated to its ethereal mane and tail, turning them into sparkling cloud.
Beside Twilight, Ruby shivered at the sight.
“Luna, dearest of friends,” her voice quavered. ”Is this what became of thee?” She turned her gaze to the Shonokin, and for a second her form seemed to be fiery bones. Her voice rasped, “Is this what these have made of you?”
The star-filled shadow-mane and tail streamed like chimney smoke in a breeze, though the air was still. Then two turquoise dragon/Shonokin eyes opened in the darkness of the face and the Royal Canterlot Voice boomed over all Chorazin.
“LOYAL SERVANTS! TRUSTED ALLIES!” Nightmare Moon neighed, sounding louder then ever compared to the whispering Shonokin speech. She held her head high, proud and majestic, turquoise eyes flashing like the Shonokins' as she looked them over. Twilight wondered if she sneered for a second before saying, “TONIGHT WE SHALL ALL RECEIVE OUR DUE!”
One can only hope, Twilight thought.
“I shall take my revenge on the traitors that thought they defeated me,” she snorted and pointed her long horn at the ponies in the containment wards, “as well as on my weaker half, who sought to cast away her Stronger Self.” Her horn pointed directly at Luna, who writhed against her hobbles and gag and wards at those words, a fizzled blast of moonlight outlining her containment dome before dissipating. The Nightmare smiled, showing fangs. “And I shall do so by bringing back from the darkest realms of Dream, where they yet live within thy minds, THOSE YE SERVE!” She flared her wings wide as she cried out, their shadow falling over the ponies.
Ruby whispered beside Twilight.
“Luna... No...”
“Ruby!” Twilight hissed back at her. “Not yet!”
The ghost-mare shivered and twitched as with a fever, her golden eyes locked on the Nightmare.
“Wait,” John's voice whispered from Twilight's other side. “Miss Ruby, wait.”
“For what?” Ruby hissed back. “For them to be slain as I was?”
“He's right,” Twilight whispered back. “Nopony is dead yet..” Except you. “We wait until they're too far along to pull out, when they have to put all their attention into channeling the magical energy, then we charge in and break the spell!” And let all that built-up energy backfire onto them.
Ruby stayed silent. Twilight hoped that meant assent.
“YE THOUGHT ME DEFEATED BY THE ELEMENTS!” the Nightmare neighed at the six ponies prisoned in the containment wards. “LEAVING ONLY THY MEMORIES OF ME!” She stepped towards Luna, pointing with hoof and horn.
“Now Thou shalt be only a memory of mine as I take claim of first this world, then Equestria! And as many more as my allies can open for my Night that Lasts Forever!”
The Shonokin leader looked annoyed as he waited for the Tantabus to finish; then as she rejoined him he turned and motioned at the tower behind him, holding his stone knife before him as he bowed to the broken fang of stone. All twelve others bent the knee with him, the eight in “normal” garb resuming their atonal chant as he rose and turned back to them.
“Let the Worship begin,” he pronounced, his voice so deep and grave Twilight wasn't surprised to see Pinkie giggle through her gag where she lay. Even the Nightmare rolled her eyes.
Holding out his knife, the leader made the same spell gesture with it he did in Dream with his hand, drawing out a long vertical line then a horizontal one, crossing the first near its bottom.
John gave a brief start beside Twilight.
“What?”
Then she saw the half-smile on John's face, while on the commons Gaudy Robe stood and repeated the leader's gesture to the other three in Nightmare Night garb who still knelt before him.
“What that low-flung Shonokin is a-doing,” John whispered back, one hand reaching to the pocket where he kept that spellbook of his. “It's what some folks call a Black Mass. It's done by some folks to go a-praying to devils, what I reckon you called windigoes that one time. Foolish old ladies, mostly, and city folks who like to think they're doing something mighty scary. I'd have reckoned they'd be doing something more original than this.”
Wings flared and head held high, The Nightmare stood beside the Shonokin leader, a luminous blackness growing around her horn as he recited words she'd heard before in Dream.
“End without World… Forever and Now… Be shall ever it as… Beginning the in was it as… Glory the and Power the…”
Only now with John's explanation, she knew what it meant, and why it had sounded all twisted around the first time she'd heard it. They were reversing some sort of invocation to Harmony to appeal to spirits of discord. Parasitic “Magick” like Thorn's, leeching off the magical energy of beings outside their worldstream. Like us.
The chant grew with it, an atonal clashing. It sounded like anything but music to her, and to judge by the revolted looks on her friends' faces they felt the same.
Beside her John crossed two of his fingers and began whispering, just loud enough to be heard, “I, John, and those beside me, go on God's way today...” After he finished he took his guitar in his hands and softly stroked the silver strings, drawing the lightest of music from them. She understood what he was doing, and began softly singing the oldest song of Equestria she knew, Dream Valley. Ruby echoed it with her as best she could. A faint chill that had seemed to be settling on her faded as she sang against what she was hearing.
The clashing not-a-chant faded away; the Shonokin leader was talking to Luna and the bound ponies, as he'd tried to do with her in Dream when she'd been the helpless prey. Here, however, was no disguised Princess of Night to interrupt. Here was a Tantabus turned Nightmare to watch in approval, licking her lips and fangs.
“...Your friends and defenders stand before you,” the Shonokin leader sneered at Luna and the others, pointing at the four Shonokin in the bad Nightmare Night costumes before him, one after the other:
Tin Peytral with his toy sword, “The man of war and violence.”
Mortarboard Hat in his scholar's robe, “The man of learning and knowledge.”
Seedy Top Hat with his equally-seedy formal wear and cane, “The man of wealth and greed.”
And finally Gaudy Robe with the crozier-staff and tall mitred hat, “The man of faith and religion.”
“All four of them telling you lies about the world and your own importance in it. The Terrible One has told us what cravens your species is,” Nightmare Moon grinned, smug, “like the savages that stole our world from us. Let us see then if these four can defend you as well as they have defended humanity over the millennia. Let them stand against the Power of the Shonokin! Let them defend against Those We Serve!”
As he finished Nightmare Moon turned towards the tower, her long horn glowing darker, a faint whirlwind of dark energy flowing like grease through the still air to gather on its tip. Dark Magic, yes, but nothing like Sombra's or even Thorn's from years ago. This was something from an older and darker age, when great and alien beasts ruled over dead sea and withered land, slithering through poisonous muck under a blackened sky.
The tower darkened even further, like the moonlight was unwilling to illuminate it and its inhabitants.
The Shonokin leader ritually spat at the ground by his feet, passed the stone knife over the spot, then turned to the Nightmare.
“Now, O Terrible One. Those We Serve were long ago driven from this world, to live like ghosts in dreams. Let these be given to Them...” he swept the knife over the containment circles and their equine contents, “...and be Whole once more! Call them forth, with the Words of Power we taught you!”
The Tantabus began to speak, words hatefully familiar to Twilight.
“I MADE MY WISH BEFORE THIS! I MAKE MY WISH NOW! I NEVER SAW THE NIGHT MY WISH DID NOT COME TRUE!” Then not words but a litany of sounds, metallic and howling and clashing and never intended for any throat other than Shonokin. Sounds that burned in Twilight's head, lashed across her mind like a horsewhip.
The Nightmare reared, wings flared, fangs bared.
“BY THE BARBAROUS NAMES, BY THE NAME NOT TO BE UTTERED, I COMMAND IT!
A sudden wind arose, bending the grass and weeds, blowing bitter and cold towards the tower, scented with sickly-sweet spice mixed with grave dust.
“LET THE EARTH GIVE UP ITS DEAD! LET THE GROUND CAST FORTH THEIR BONES! LET THOSE WHO HAVE BECOME LESS THAN NIGHTMARES BE RESTORED! LET THOSE YE SERVE BE RETURNED...”
“LUNA! NO!”
And Ruby was off, leaping over the woodpile and galloping straight for Nightmare Tantabus.
HORSEAPPLES!
Twilight and John took one look at each other, then both were off after her.
He shot up with ash stick in hand and guitar across his back, charging around the end of the woodpile.
She reached out with her magic, snatched the stack of bolt-hurlers and sent the whole pile flying, vanishing into the darkness beyond reach of the moonlight. The Shonokin screamed as one, a reverberating screech pulsing from their throats.
Twilight screamed herself, the scream of a pony in full battle rage, and leaped over the woodpile, her wings catching her aloft as she shot like Rainbow Dash for the containment circles that held Luna and her friends. As she charged, her horn snatched a dozen and more split logs from the woodpile and she flung them at the Shonokin.