Twilight's Nightmare

by Nightsclaw


CH 28.1 The Dark Disciple


Dark Disciple was having a good day overall, at least until he realised that the prisoner was gone. That was twenty minutes ago. The door ahead of him to the warehouse was thrown open in his aura. The ponies that he was puppeteering has already relayed the message to rush the Dark Magic bomb. He at least wasn’t disappointed when he came in view of the silver circle and saw it nearing functional completion. 

Looking it over he saw it wasn’t perfect, it was nowhere close, but it was good enough to hold what they had or at least would be in about another half hour. “You, get all the puppets on lookout. We could have company from the Royal Guard at any moment. We probably have a few hours, but we can’t take any chances.” He could feel the need to inflict all the pain and suffering he could to any that served Celestia.

He headed over to the circle and spent the next half hour helping get the silver liquified and poured into the carved channels. As they completed their task, he sent a magic pulse through the circle to test its integrity. Barely solid enough to function, but it will have to do. We don’t have time to fix the imperfections. He thought while motioning the rest to gather around. 

They had about one hundred and fifty ponies bound by compulsion spells who were forced to do things around the city. Another fifty ponies were being directly puppeted by the cultists that were adding their power to the five unicorns that were about to channel energy into the circle.

This wasn’t the easiest thing to do either. Channelling another's power while controlling your own and maintaining a mental spell form for this was going to be taxing on his mind. Fortunately, it didn’t matter in the long run because their sacrifice would provide more energy to Sombra. They didn’t need to survive this.

“Everypony in position?” Disciple asked as the rest were arrayed around the circle. Each unicorn at equal distance around the circle. One pegasus and one earthpony behind each of them, adding their own energy. They all nodded. “Then let's get this started. Lord Sombra, we make this sacrifice to you so that you may return to your rightful place.”

The power started flowing as the dark magic miasma seeped from their eyes. The green glow providing a bit more illumination to the silver circle. 


An hour later, things seemed to be going well. No royal guards had shown up, the power was still flowing, one of the puppets was still going around passing around the now cold hayburgers. 

Suddenly a powerful wave of magic washed over them. Everypony flinched, their magic momentarily fizzling. The channelling instantly ceased. “What the hay!?” Disciple exclaimed as he felt out for what just happened. A dark presence was outside somewhere. He could feel the menacing power and anger pouring from an Alicorn. It was only a moment before he realised it could only be Princess Luna. “Get back to channelling! NOW!” he ordered. 

It seemed as if every shadow held sharp-clawed, hungry monsters, each one just waiting for somepony to look away before striking. Disciple hoped this was just some sort of fear effect, even if it was not, his course was set.

They all rushed back to it. Pouring as much energy as they could, as fast as they could. The flow rate didn’t matter now. The forcing of too much mana was going to damage their horns, but they didn’t care. They were out of time. They started sacrificing life force just to get more power into it. The puppets started taking defensive positions around the warehouse.

The fear of the shadows dissipated. Apparently, it was just a calling card of some kind, inviting ponies to surrender. He glanced at the gathered magic, his mind working out the quickest way to detonate it should they try and undo all his work.

An explosion rocked the warehouse, his senses recoiled. There was debris flying inside like a part of the exterior wall had detonated. Trying to get his bearings after the flash and trying to see through the dust, he winced as a painful vibration danced along his horn cutting off his magic. What in Tartarus was that? He looked at the circle and saw that the magic had been disrupted. Most of the energy they spent the last hour pumping into it was lost. In the middle stood a white mare with golden mane and tail. Alicorn like wings spread and glowing with power. 

The magical disruption faded, releasing his magic. KILL The one word pounded into his mind and forced him to act. A small library of spells flashed through his mind before he grabbed one and started to cast it. A part of his brain noted that one of the pegasus cultists was injured and out cold.

He rushed to complete his spell, but she was faster. Right as he was about to cast, a part of the circle was enveloped in her white aura. It crackled with static and then exploded, destroying a not-insignificant portion of it. It would take a couple of hours to fix the damage. The force of the blast buffeted him knocking him to the side a bit, by the time he was able to try for his spell again, his target was gone. 

Looking around, he saw all the puppets suddenly fall to the floor, their strings cut, the direct mind control broken as the maintained connections were disrupted. Making things worse, there was now a massive magical flux sitting right in the middle of the circle. Nopony would be able to reliably cast magic in that area until it was cleansed. How had this mare disappeared so fast?

He felt one of his companions reach out with a blood detection spell, noting the good idea, he went one better. He started casting a blood hold spell, keeping the power week until he found his prey. A couple of flashes of movement in the shadows and two more of the cultists were down.

KILL!

With a sadistic grin and an effort of will he started to use her blood to crush her heart. As soon as he felt like he had a grip though his spell just failed. A faint echo of that disrupting tone rippling out from where she was. 

The attacker was visible though for a moment before she suddenly flash cast something and then she was gone again from view. The others were firing kinetic bolts at her to reveal her location in the shadows, even though none of them seemed to be able to hit her.

Who is she? Is she some sort of wanna-be Batmare?

One of the other unicorns was charging a particularly nasty dark spell meant to detonate anypony that didn’t have dark magic in them. No sooner than he started charging it though, the white mare seemed to just appear in front of the caster. She smacked him in the horn with her hoof, causing the spell to short out and his fellow cultist was unconscious. So she isn’t going for kills. She is weak. Fast but weak. He thought, determination and hope filling his heart at a weakness found.

As soon as his fellow unicorn’s horn was hit, another was casting the blood hold spell on her. He decided to double down on the attack and used the mind puppet spell as well. He couldn’t feel any mental shielding when the spell contacted her. And she’s done for. Now we just have the Princess of the Night to deal with. Wait, how is she resisting? He saw unformed magic flood his target as the mind spell was overpowered with what looked like a foal casting technique. She was simply throwing a lot of magic at a problem and hoping it would achieve something. Unfortunately, it worked. Even if she had a lot of power, she will have to be weak after that. 

That chaotic ripple of magic emanated from her again. He grit his teeth at the remembered pain. Great she’s doing that magic flux thing again. He thought, his anger building.

The mare reared up on her hind legs, keeping the flux field up and nullifying the dark tentacles of magic that were about to grab her. Buck me, seriously? How many tricks does this mare have!? The rest cancelled their castings as their pegasus and earthpony cultists advanced on her.

He saw them lunge and in a blur of movement, two of the earthponies were down. One was feather slashed in the eyes and the other was laying on the ground, unconscious. The third one that had advanced was currently sailing through the air towards the warehouse door. Despite her expert martial arts, she had finally made a mistake. She had let her attention narrow to just the melee. 

Seeing an opportunity, his servants wasted no time at all in telekinetically bringing the ceiling down on her. As the ceiling fell, one of the pegasi got caught in the debris and was down. A flash of white and the other was out cold at the same time the debris landed on the floor where that blasted white mare was supposed to be.

What’s almost as infuriating as her fighting is the fact that she hasn’t said a single word. Disciple saw there was him and three of his fellow unicorns... make that two of his fellow unicorns still standing. Once again she was suddenly just there and smacked a nearly fully charged spell out of his fellow casters horn, again. Now she seemed to be moving at regular speed though. Looks like she is finally out of energy. Whatever she is using to create the flux though is still going. I can’t cast anything while in this. He decided to leave the flux zone as quickly as his legs could carry him. When he looked back, one of the remaining two cultists was down, and the white mare was in melee with the other one. Frustration and anger flared in him. This mare had dismantled the entire operation. He couldn’t let this stand. She must die.

KILL The command is his mind roared like the Royal Canterlot Voice. One final spell filling the whole of his mind. He wanted to grin, he wanted to laugh, but there was no time. His blood magic turned inwards, charging his body with explosive power. His unicorn magic transmuting his bones, hardening them and breaking them in jagged sections to add more shrapnel to the blast. He felt his body beginning to swell as the power sought to escape, and his blood formed into blades rending his insides. The pain was indescribable, but it did not matter, she would die. “DIE!” He used his last moment of existence to roar at her. The sound more carried by his magic than merely the air.

BOOM!