//------------------------------// // A Final Plan // Story: Beyond My Grave: Night Terrors // by AnnEldest //------------------------------// I turned and ran as fast as I could to get away from her. She was quick to follow. I passed the corner that Spike and Discord were at. As she followed me, she too passed the corner but instead of running past it she was met by large net that entangled her. Discord and Spike then revealed themselves. Discord ran up to her and began covering her within that as quickly as he could. Spike followed. The possessed Cadence screamed and shouted as she tried to break free. I turned around and began trotting back towards them. Flurry Heart began to cry over the commotion. I started rocking her, telling her that everything was going to be okay. "Shhh. It's okay dear. It's going to be okay. Don't cry please." Flurry Heart only continued to scream louder. As the mare heard the cries of Flurry, she stopped screaming and slowly stood up. She let out one long growl before she gave one big yanked on the net, sending Spike and Discord flying several feet across the floor. They let out a grunt on impact. "Discord! Spike!" I screamed out their names as they were launched. "That's my BABY!" She yelled out. My niece's body begins to twist and turn in unnatural ways. I could hear her bones cracking as they moved in ways they were never meant to. The clicking sound of her jaw followed by an eerie growl send shivers down my spine. I began to back up scared of what was about to come. Her eyes turn a dark pitch black as her teeth begin to grow. The trail of blood grew thicker, paling her skin to a translucent white. With each tick of the clock I wanted her heart to stop, just stop, to watch her eyes become glassy and vacant. Suddenly Cadence was nothing more than I demonic twisted body of hatred. She let out a large ferocious roar that seemed to shake the very walls. Flurry Heart only continued to cry and scream as she too could no longer recognize her own mother. I spent no time to scream or to grasp the situation. I turned and then I ran. I looked behind me only to see her in quick approaching me. I could hear the sound of her claws digging into the ground followed by the uncanny sound for breath. The plan had taken a turn for the worse. Of course, we didn't have much of a plan, to begin with. We had a vague idea of how to save Cadence but, to be honestly capturing her with our main objective. We weren't quite sure what we're going to do with her when and if we actually succeeded. That flawed thinking was starting to show. The Crystal Empire had never seen so unfamiliar during the chase. The walls seem to be filled with fear itself and the atmosphere was thick and heavy making it all that much harder to breathe. In a small attempt, I tried to use my magic only for it to be in vain. Of course, I knew my magic never worked around her kind or at least only specific of the magic kind did. I took another look behind me only to see an empty hallway that took me by surprise. I stopped for a second and looked around. I looked above me in front of me and behind me. There was no way she could have disappeared so quickly without me knowing. I wasn't going to stand around to find out though so I continue to run. I then ran passed the next corner. All of a sudden, she jumped out around the corner and landed on top of me. Losing my grip on Flurry Heart, she went flying several feet; she landed hard on the ground and rolled for a bit before stopping against the wall. I knew that she was deeply confused about why her magic wasn't working as it seemed to be a crutch for her in her life. Every time she got upset her magic would show it but not this time. Cadence started biting at me like a ferocious wild dog. Without my magic, I could only use my hooves to try to keep her at bay. She began to claw at my face and my neck. I could barely hold her back. The warmth from my own blood began to fill my body. She went for my throat as her jaw extended much further than it should have been able to. I put my hooves in the way in an effort to prevent the neck from being sliced open as my hoof took the full force of her bite. I screamed as I felt her teeth dig deep within my flesh. I heard the crunch of my bone and shoulder as she began to whip my arm back and forth. I used my other hoof and began punching her in the face. She released my arm as she roars in my face. Her claws began another series of assaults as blood spewed everywhere. All I could do was scream in fear and pain. My grip was getting weaker. She was going to kill me. I was going to die by the hooves of my own niece. And worse of all, she wouldn't know nor wanted any of this. Then out of the blue, I felt her weight being lifted off of me. I stood up and saw Discord tackled her to the ground. She tried biting him but he quickly dodged and put a rope between her mouth. He then tied around her head disarming her demonic jaw. Spike followed with a bottle of mysterious liquid. "Discord hold her still," The little dragon yelled. "I'm trying. Just hurry up!" Discord yelled back. She began to fight Discord clawing at his arms. Discord surprisingly seemed to take the pain as his grip did not lessen. He held her down as Spike began to pour the liquid on her face. I heard her scream followed by the sound of a sizzle. She clawed at her face and pain. Boils began to appear all over her face as if acid had been poured on top of her. She clawed Discord in the face causing him to jump back. She kicked him off of her and began rolling on the ground. He got up and went back to her. He pinned her down with almost no trouble. It appeared that whatever Spike used on her made her weak. "What was that?! What are you doing to her?" I screamed in horror. "It's rusted iron dissolves in water and superheated by dragon's breath by your truly," Spike said proudly as he held up the bottle of liquid. "It's normally harmless to anyone who's not a ghost," Discord said as he examined his arms. It was pretty scary on the vast knowledge Spike had brought the supernatural, it was super helpful but still scary. I looked down at my own arms to see them covered in blood. I could feel long streaks of blood going down my neck and past my chest. "Rusted iron repels ghosts, but we just enhance its effect," Discord said as he brought out a rusty iron chain out of nowhere. He wrapped it around Cadence. She screamed even more in agonizing pain as it began to burn her. She couldn't break free and the chain managed to completely subdue her. Spike helped me to my feet and helped me trot over to Cadence. She continued to scream as she frantically tried to escape. Discord held her down. We all surrounded Cadence in disbelief at the monster that was before us. I looked around to find Flurry Heart curled up in a little ball crying in the corner. I felt unbelievably bad for the poor little pony. Her mother was a monster and she no longer had her magic to help her. She had to feel so helpless. "Flurry, don't cry your ok. It's just me, Luna." Flurry looked up at me with tears in her eyes. She screamed as she curled back into a ball. "No, honey, it's me. I'm not gonna hurt you." I looked down at my blood-soaked chest. I didn't want to get her cover in my own blood but without magic my options were limited. I went up to her and slowly hugged her. I looked down at her and met her little innocent eyes. She uncurled herself just enough to cling onto me. I felt bad knowing that my blood couldn't have been too comfortable for her but I was happy that she seemed better in my hooves. I held her tightly and sat down. My neck and hooves began to terrible burn. But I choose not to let it affect me too much. I sat there staring at Cadence as she continued to scream. Discord was still holding her down as Spike sat next to him. I sat in my own thoughts. My niece was possessed, her daughter was going through hell, everyone was thinking that Cadence was crazy, and I was the one who had to buy the stupid toy that started all of this, to begin with. I was tired, cold, and was fed up with all of it. Cadence and Flurry Heart didn't deserve any of it and I was gonna fix it. I had too... "What do we do now?" Spike asked. "I don't know. Isn't there something you can do to get ghosts out of creatures?" "Discord, that kind of thing takes years of practice. It's nothing I can do." Spike's words echoed a bit in my head. Its nothing I can do. Well, that's why improvise was a thing. "Then we're gonna do something that I know we can all do," I said. Spike and Discord looked at me with worried faces. I could feel my rusty breath. My voice had serially expressed it. "You guys said that you met her real baby and his heartwarming father right?" Discord looked at Spike with serious concerns. "Yes… we did," His dragged on his voice almost made me chuckle. We had dealt with that before and we all knew that the painful crappy road was typically the right one. "What are you thinking?" I chuckled, "I'm thinking to screw this. Let's just give the bitch what she wants; let's take her to her baby." Their mouths dropped open as their eyes widened in disbelief. "No no no, this is a horrible idea." Discord's protest told me that we were on the right track."Please don't make me do this." I had a theory that, once again, on paper, it seemed pretty solid. If we could somehow get Cadence to the old store were the Rosetta had lost her baby, maybe we could get her to move on somehow. It was the only lead I had with limited time. The only issue was that we couldn't safely travel that far without Rosetta being "asleep". I had proposed that in order to keep her asleep Discord could try to somehow connect to her again. Like going into her dreams just using different magic than he was used to. It was going to lead to another fun adventure for Discord, but it was all we had. He signed heavily. "Give me a minute." He snapped his fingers, only to be reminded that his magic didn't work. He then walked out of sight. Spike and I looked at each other. "Where is he going?" I asked. "Don't worry about it. We had a feeling we might have to go back there. So we had a small plan prepare of our own," Spike explained to me. "I don't hold a strong hope for this plan," I said. "Well you shouldn't," Spike responded. "Now come help me with Cadence. If we're taking her back to her house we need to get here out of the castle before anypony notices." While Discord was off to who knows where Spike and I carefully dragged Cadence out of the castle. We ended up gagging her to silence her screams. I had Spike sent a letter to Discord, telling him where to meet us at. Discord was gone for about 20 minutes before coming back with a small surprise. "So you all ready to do this?" Discord said. "YUP!" Big Mac frantically agreed as he pulled up to the castle with a large covered wagon. "What?! This is your plan?" I asked angrily. Spike shrugged. "I did say not to hope for that." "What?! It is the perfect means of transporting a demon possed pony. Besides I don't trust you to move her without proper backup," Discord said. "Hey!" Spike retorted. "Did you forget who saved you back at the house?" "Umm did you forget who saved you as well? So we're even!" Discord fought back. "That's beside the point." "Okay then. You think you can stop her?" Discord challenged Spike. That left him speechless. Spike groaned and crossed his arms. "Fine okay...we might need some backup," Spike agreed. "Excuse me!" I shouted, causing them to stop talking and look at me. "Did you both forget that my niece is possessed?!" I shouted. They both jumped and gave a quick glance at Cadence. "Oh...yeah," They said at the same time. Discord then laid down next to a Rosetta possessed Cadence. She continued to scream and howl as Spike and I held her down. Spike had a bottle of another mysterious liquid. Apparently, it could put someone to sleep near moments after inhaling it. Discord closed his eyes and gave us a thumbs up. "I'll see you on the other side." We were still holding her down, waiting for Discord to work his magic. All we could do now was hope and pray that the plan would work and we could save Cadence.