Tirek stared at something that should have been impossible. That must have been impossible. Scorpan was dead, had been dead for nearly a millennium, Tirek knew this to be true, knew that his brother’s bones had long since been reduced to dust in some forgotten corner of Midnight Castle.
This was a trick. An illusion. Some new trap or magical construct.
It couldn’t be real. He couldn’t be real! Tirek’s brother was dead!
Scorpan was dead!
Tirek roared, forgetting the ponies, forgetting Cozy Glow, forgetting the Rainbow of Darkness. He gathered magical power between his horns, spreading his arms wide as he channeled all the power he could summon and cast it forward to wipe the pretender from the face of the Earth.
“Good…” a deep, dark voice that seemed to echo from every shadow said.
But the scouring didn’t happen. The facsimile of Scorpan was lightning-fast in his reaction, stepping aside to avoid the blast and twirling his spear in one hand, stabbing its point down into the magic beam even as he and the spear were both wrapped in yellow magic. The false Scorpan opened his mouth wide and drew in power from the blast – absorbing it and growing larger and stronger in the process.
Tirek roared and redoubled his efforts. “LIAR!” Tirek shouted, keeping his magical assault up, stepping forward, looking to overwhelm the pretender, to make him choke on the magic he tried to absorb.
“You are not my brother!” Tirek advanced another step, and a third. He felt ache in his muscles and bones and soul as magic was pulled up and didn’t care. He took a fourth and fifth step. A sixth, bearing down on this simulacrum.
But eventually the magic had to falter – Tirek was too weakened, too reduced from the apex of power he’d once achieved. The magical blast sputtered and died and Tirek had to fight back a gasp and struggle to keep his four hooves under him. He clutched at his chest and coughed at the sudden void of magic within him.
“Is that really the best you can do, Tirek?”
The facsimile faced no such problem. He swallowed the last of the magic and then dropped once more into a battle-stance, one hand pointing his spear forward and the other at his side but raised slightly, fingers twitching. He looked sidelong at Tirek.
“No,” he finally wheezed out, words slurring together. “No…no, no, no. This isn’t real. You’re not Tirek, Tirek…Tirek…made a mistake, I made…”
Tirek took in a deep breath of his own, snarling openly but stopping himself from wasting more magic. This facsimile of Scorpan could absorb magic just as Tirek could – just as Tirek had taught the true Scorpan, passed on the dark magics that he had learned from Sendak. Had Tirek been even as powerful as when he had first come to Midnight Castle, he would perhaps have risked a direct fight…but the facsimile’s traps and the ponies had drained him.
The false Scorpan spread his wings wide, looking around the rest of the chamber, at the ponies occuipying it – Caballeron helping a still-winded Glory to her hooves in the face of this new threat, Rainbow Dash and Daring Do readying to move at the first sign of trouble, and Cozy Glow, hovering pensively away from the other four ponies, glancing between Tirek and the false Scorpan.
“What is this?” Scorpan demanded. “You came with…slaves. Pony slaves. You…failed. I failed. You escaped and…and I failed…”
“Whoa, hey, wait a second!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, flying forward and towards Scorpan. “Listen, buddy, I’m not – ”
“Back!” Scorpan commanded, thrusting his spear forward. Only Rainbow Dash’s lightning speed managed to avoid her being skewered, but Scorpan was quick with following his thrust up with a lunge, free hand outstretched and grabbing the pegasus by her mane. He spun and threw her towards Daring Do as she had come to help, knocking both of them from the air.
“More supplicants than usual, Scorpan. I think you’ll be overwhelmed.”
“Who’s that doing all the talking?” Cozy Glow asked.
Scorpan whirled a moment, glaring behind it, before turning around slowly to regard every other creature. “Failed before, won’t fail again,” he muttered as he spread his wings wide and lifted his spear over his head. “Failed before, won’t fail again!”
Scorpan cast his spear forward at the ponies. Yellow-orange bolts of magic arced forth from it like lightning bolts, the ponies only narrowly dodging by fleeing the room. Scorpan might have followed up, but Tirek seized on the distraction to hurl himself bodily at the facsimile, leaping forward as far as his drained legs would carry him. The fake’s reflexes were fast enough to bring up his spear, but Tirek used telekinesis to batter it aside and close in, hands reaching for the fake’s throat. His fingers grabbed flesh and fur and squeezed.
The false Scorpan let out a choked gasp, but then leapt off of the ground, beating his wings, and kicked Tirek in the stomach, driving air from the centaur’s lungs and making him lose his grip. The facsimile fell away and tried to get his spear pointed at Tirek again, but Tirek grabbed it just below the head and moved it out of the way. He advanced once more, but Scorpan stepped into the advance and drove his elbow forward. Tirek had to release the spear and block the blow, then fall back from another kick.
Tirek reared back, lashing out with his front hooves. Scorpan fell away, and Tirek advanced again, stomping again and again, driving the facsimile back into to the bright, seemingly sunlit chamber he had emerged from. Tirek swung with his still-heavily-muscled arms and sledgehammer fists whenever he was forced onto four hooves again, preventing the fake from being able to use his spear or gather the concentration necessary to cast a spell.
One hoof finally managed to catch the Scorpan facsimile in the chest and kick him back. The gargoyle cried out as he fell to the ground. Tirek raised a hoof again to bring it down on the fake’s skull and end this affront…but before he could do anything, something grabbed his horns and pulled him back at the same time as he felt two pony hooves kick his upper back.
“Aren’t you forgetting somepony?” Daring Do demanded. Before Tirek could respond, Rainbow Dash slammed into his equine barrel, sending him stumbling to the side. He roared and grabbed Daring Do by one hind leg, swung her around and used her to bludgeon Rainbow Dash as she tried to make another pass, He pulled back his free fist to punch Rainbow Dash’s face in, but it was suddenly seized in purple magic. Glancing, he saw Glory standing on shaking legs, struggling and glaring at him as her horn glowed bright – and Caballeron leaping at him, spinning in the air and delivering a buck with both hind legs to Tirek’s lower ribs with all the earth pony strength he could muster.
Tirek cried out in pain as he skidded away, stumbling, falling, and rolling. He tried to spring to his hooves immediately, but stumbled and slipped, grimacing at the sharp pain in his barrel. He heard Cozy Glow cry out in shock. When he looked up, he saw her darting over to him before anypony else could stop her, while the pretender Scorpan was getting to his feet.
Caballeron turned to Scorpan, “My friend, we are no slaves of Tirek, as you can plainly see,” he said quickly, “and no enemies of you! If you would only listen for a few moments…”
“Yes, just a few moments. Hear them out, Scorpan, it’s been so long…”
Scorpan shook his head. “No no no no NO NO! Failed before, won’t fail again!” His eyes shot open wide, and he once again cast his spear over his head and called on magic, lashing out with arcs of it at Caballeron, Rainbow Dash, and Daring Do. The ponies all struggled to dodge and avoid the blasts that left scorch marks in the floor and ceiling and walls.
“Tirek, you have to get up,” Cozy said, pulling at his arm, “we have to get out of here! We weren’t expecting this, we have to move!”
Tirek growled, getting to his hooves, one hand around his waist. With the facsimile of Scorpan distracted, Tirek could take in the room he found himself in. It was circular, a hundred feet across, and made of white marble blocks that were unadorned save for two features – the entry in, and, in the middle, a strange sculpture – a four-foot tall dais. Floating a foot above it was a white gemstone the size of a pony’s hoof that glowed with yellow, warm light like sunlight – and between the gemstone and the dais was a utterly black sphere perhaps two inches across.
The moment Tirek laid eyes on it, it was like it was all he could see. He saw the sphere tremble slightly, and every shadow in the room seemed to do likewise.
“Hello Tirek,” the voice said. The same one that had been speaking before, that had echoed from every shadow – but this time, the voice seemed instead to come from within Tirek’s mind, from somewhere in the back of his head, far softer and yet firmer than before.
It was the voice of primordial darkness itself.
“You’ve been looking for me for a long time. Here I am. Free me.”
The Rainbow of Darkness. That was the black sphere, certainly. The gemstone must have been some manner of container or trap. It was so close…Tirek started forward, but the moment he moved Scorpan’s attention was on him again. He spun his spear around and pointed it at Tirek, launching a single beam of energy that Tirek and Cozy only barely avoided by dropping to the floor.
The beam cleared them, and Scorpan was prevented from a follow-up blast only by Rainbow Dash shooting forward and grabbing his spear with her hooves and teeth and trying to pull it from his grasp, the sudden movement sending Scorpan stumbling – at least until he charged the spear with magic and sent a bolt of energy coursing straight through the pegasus. She let out a yelp of pain as she was sent soaring towards and hit a far wall, collapsing to the floor with a dazed look in her eyes. The facsimile Scorpan might have struck her again, but Caballeron and Daring Do were on him then, forcing him back.
Tirek grimaced, grabbing Cozy from the air and then charging. Cozy screamed in fright as Tirek carried her along –not towards the exit, but instead towards Rainbow Dash. The blue pegasus had only just begun to recover when she saw Tirek charging, and for once her speed was of no use. Just before she could move away, Tirek reached her and grabbed her by her face, pinning her to the wall.
But rather then crush or dig or drain, Tirek stared into her eyes. “We need to talk.”
Tirek turned and took off with a kicking, struggling mare in one hand and a terrified, smaller, but at least more compliant filly in the other. As he fled towards the door he reached out with magic and grabbed the unicorn Glory Pose, dragging her along with telekinesis.
Once at the exit, he threw Rainbow Dash physically and Glory Pose magically through it, and released Cozy and pushed her away, then turned around. “Ponies! Retreat!” he shouted back at Caballeron and Daring Do. The shout was enough to distract all three combatants, who looked up just as Tirek had finished gathering magic between his horns and launching it forward. The two ponies yelped and scattered in either direction, while Scorpan caught the magical fireball at the tip of his spear and held it there with distressingly little effort and began drinking down its power.
Tirek almost moved, but his eyes were once again drawn to the black sphere, the Rainbow of Darkness behind Scorpan. It seemed to shiver again, like it was trying to move but couldn’t.
“Go. I’m patient. I know you’ll be back…”
Tirek was broken from his reverie when Caballeron and Daring Do came rushing past him, not questioning his apparent desire to aid in their escape from the false Scorpan. He gathered magic again and called forth another orb of power - but rather than launching this at Scorpan, he pressed it up and into the ceiling, then turned and started galloping. Behind him, the magic he’d left behind exploded, collapsing a ton of rock and debris on it.
Not that it would keep the facsimile Scorpan sealed away forever – or even for more than a few minutes. But it bought Tirek and the ponies time as they fled into the darkness of Midnight Castle, Glory Pose being carried by Caballeron, Cozy Glow quickly grabbing onto Tirek’s shoulder since he could gallop faster than she could fly, and Rainbow Dash, now that her hooves were under her again, looking sidelong at Tirek in confusion.
They slowed down at the top of the stairs that lead into the pillar room, the darkness lit by Tirek’s magic. Before anypony could do anything, Tirek called up more magic and shot it forth from his mouth, striking Glory with it. Rainbow Dash, Daring Do, and particularly Caballeron all let out shouts of surprise and panic, but they quickly abated as the magic faded away as quickly as it had started, and Glory got her hooves under her, unhurt – more than that, her stolen magic restored.
“Wait…what?” Glory asked, looking at Tirek while panic and confusion warred inside of her. “Why did you – ”
Tirek cut the air with one hand as his four enemies turned to look at him. “We do not have time for second-guessing or doubt,” he said. “That…that affront wearing my brother’s face will come after us in moments. I cannot defeat him alone in my condition – which means you certainly can’t. We work together to stop him – and then worry about destroying each other. Agreed?”
“As if!” Rainbow Dash shouted immediately. She swept a hoof at the other three in her entourage. “I’m not gonna help you get the Rainbow of Darkness – just have to hear the name to know it’s bad news! If that means we don’t get the Sun Stone, fine by me!”
Tirek roared. “You fools! That creature is clearly insane. You tried to reason with it and failed. If it defeats me then it will come after you!”
“No he won’t,” Daring pointed out. “Scorpan has to stay here to guard that Rainbow of Darkness thing, it’s obviously the most important thing to him, so if we leave he’ll have to let us go. It looks like he’s using the light from the Sun Stone to contain it, keep any shadow from reaching it. And I say we keep it that way.”
“I don’t!” Glory and Caballeron exclaimed at the same time, and both continued to speak over each other.
“Do you have any idea how much money I’ve spent – ”
“The time spent preparing, smoothing over relations with the Saddle Arabians – ”
“I’m down an entire yacht – ”
“The Sultan will not be happy that he lost an entire airship – ”
Tirek was about to call the two out on caring about something like money, but Cozy interrupted first. “I agree with Professor Dash and the Daring Do knockoff.”
Tirek whirled on her as he felt heat flash through his body, a boiling rage that made his attempt at words turn to a snarl.
Cozy shook her head from where she hovered at eye-level with him. “Look, I wanna rule Equestria super bad, but I want to be the one doing it! But this whole time we’ve been learning about how the Rainbow of Darkness corrupts things, and now we just learned that it could talk? It was bad enough when I thought it was just some kind of Alicorn Amulet thing that corrupted whoever uses it, but if it can talk that means that it has a will of its own, it’s the one controlling things!”
“You’re turning on me?” Tirek demanded, his voice low.
“No!” Cozy said instantly, “You’re my best friend, Tirek – ”
“That’s so messed up,” Rainbow Dash said.
“ – I’d never turn on you! I’m just saying that, that maybe going after the Rainbow of Darkness was a mistake. Maybe we should have just stayed with Gr – ” Her hooves shot to her mouth, and she glanced to the ponies, then back to Tirek. “Stayed where we were. We’ll find some other way to rule everything, some way that isn’t just putting something else in charge!”
Tirek felt his fists clenching and unclenching, but before he could give what Cozy said any thought there was the crash of exploding stone from the way they’d come – from where the false Scorpan was. He was breaking free.
Tirek turned to the other ponies. “There is nowhere to flee. That fake has had centuries to familiarize itself with Midnight Castle. And if you try and flee the castle – how will you escape?” He looked, hard, at Caballeron and Glory, guessing how they had crossed the water to the plinth on which Midnight Castle sat. “By raft? I brought down your airship when you were still miles away. Do you think a small raft can stand up to him? Do you think he will let you escape?”
“I know you won’t,” Rainbow Dash countered.
“Besides, I’m pretty sure there’s only one way to win this,” Daring Do said, glaring at Tirek as a second crash of stone echoed behind them. “We distract him while you drain him until you can overcome him. But I don’t see why we should help you get stronger by the end of this.”
Tirek roared, calling on all the magic he could to seize the four ponies in telekinesis. They tried to move, but he was too fast and too angry to let them escape. He grabbed Rainbow Dash in one hand and Glory in the other. “If you won’t aid me, then you will empower – ”
Crash.
Tirek had just grabbed Dash around her neck. She was just about to do something awesome to escape – hopefully – when an explosion from behind them told them all that Scorpan was free and coming. It distracted Tirek for just a moment, but a moment was all it took – not because of anything Dash did, but rather because a beam of magic shot straight up the stairs, and Tirek had to dive out of the way and let go of the ponies to avoid it.
Then Scorpan was there, having leapt straight up the stairs, shooting out their corridor and impacting the lower ceiling in the vestibule – and digging his claws and feet into the stone to hold himself there, while his other hand still gripped his spear. He stared down at all of them.
Glory let out a shriek, firing magic forward. Scorpan only leaned a little to the left to avoid it, then dropped down, wings wide as he swooped towards her. Dash kicked from the ground and managed to intercept him, catching him into the chest, but he grabbed her with one arm and threw her away once he landed. Dash at least landed on all four hooves as well.
Daring moved, but Scorpan pointed his spear at her and let loose a blast that she had to dodge. He spun his spear around and aimed it at Tirek, but his blast was knocked wild by quick telekinesis. Caballeron charged Scorpan head-on and kicked his stomach, but the gargoyle only barely flinched and then smacked him away. A back-blow from Dash as she shot behind him and then kicked off the wall made Scorpan stumble, but he whirled, his spear glowed, and a light blast caught Dash in the barrel and sent her stumbling again.
“His spear! Go after his spear!” Cozy called out from wherever she’d retreated into the darkness. “He needs his spear to do magic!”
Scorpan’s eyes widened and he fired a blast into the darkness, but Tirek was on him them, charging and tackling him against a wall, grabbing his spear in both hands. Scorpan roared and charged magic through it, and it coursed through Tirek’s body, making him fall to his knees – but he kept his grip up, even opened his mouth and started draining Scorpan’s magic – which Scorpan proceeded to drain right back.
Dash came in, flying over Tirek, raising her hoof, and bringing it down as hard as she could on its haft. The result was…pain. A lot of pain, both from the magic shooting through her body when she struck the spear, and the fact that what looked like wood felt more like iron. She grabbed at her hoof, then remembered that Scorpan was right there, just in time for him to lean his head back and then bring it crashing forward and into her own.
She saw stars and vaguely felt herself hitting the ground, even more vaguely felt some creature, probably Scorpan, kicking her away. She rolled and stopped and grasped at her head and sucked in a few breaths. This…was really not how she had been expecting this vacation to go. She was dimly aware of Caballeron trying the same thing she had when Tirek was thrown loose but Daring managed to pin Scorpan’s spear to a wall, but even with his earth pony magic helping him, that spear was tough. It didn’t even bend, let alone break. Stupid magic spear.
She felt somepony tugging on her mane, felt herself being dragged slowly. Glancing up, she saw it was Cozy Glow, having grabbed her with forelegs and teeth all and dragging her backwards, towards the stairs.
“You’re…a bad filly,” Rainbow Dash moaned as she got up, then had to yelp and dodge away from a blast of magic from Scorpan, Dash grabbing Cozy and rolling with her. The moment they stopped rolling, however, Cozy got up and fled – down the stairs. Towards the Rainbow of Darkness.
“Whoa, hey!” Dash exclaimed, getting her wings after her, shooting after Cozy, and grabbing her mid-air and pinning her to the ground at the bottom of the stairs. Scorpan was too distracted to notice Dash missing from the fight above.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Dash demanded. “Look, we’re helping you and Tirek stop Scorpan after all, and you just said that you don’t want to have anything to do with that Rainbow of Darkness thing! So why the hay are you going after it?”
Cozy glared up at Dash. “I’m not. That’s what I’m gonna need you for.”
“Huh?”
“We don’t have time!”
“So talk fast!”
Cozy groaned and slapped her face with her hooves. “Look, we want to stop Scorpan and get away, but Tirek’s too weak thanks to you four ruining everything! And Scorpan can just drain magic back and his spear is unbreakable so we need an edge, and that edge,” Cozy jabbed her hoof back to the chamber Scorpan had emerged from, “is in there! The Rainbow of Darkness is a crazy-powerful artifact!”
“And pure evil. Good creatures don’t sound like…like that!”
“I know! But you’re a goody-little four-hooves, right?” Cozy tapped one of Dash’s legs. “I bet you could resist the Rainbow of Darkness for a bit, use it to beat Scorpan! Then I’ll use the Sun Stone to force it back out of you!”
“How?”
Cozy opened her mouth, but no sound came out immediately. “Okay, I dunno. But we’ll figure something out! That’s gotta be what it’s there for! You have a better – ”
Scorpan’s roar echoed from above. There was a flash of light and an explosion, and a moment later Scorpan was at the bottom of the stairs, only prevented from landing on the two of them thanks to Dash scooping up Cozy and moving away. Before Scorpan could do anything Caballeron and Daring were both on his back and swung as one at the back of his head, making him stumble to the ground. Tirek appeared next, leapt, and landed on him, Daring and Caballeron only barely dodging out of the way. He gathered up magic and drew forth what he could from Scorpan, empowering himself…but Scorpan beat his wings and launched himself up, crashing Tirek into the ceiling, then spun away and landed – looking no worse for wear.
“This is dumb,” Dash said, but she grabbed Cozy and galloped for the room containing the Rainbow of Darkness. “This is dumb this is dumb this is – wait I have a better idea!”
Cozy’s face twisted. “I doubt it!”
“Look you little…just don’t do anything, okay?”
Dash entered the chamber, but rather than running straight for the dais she ran around to behind it, putting it between her and Scorpan. No matter where she stood, thanks to the light of the Sun Stone, her shadow was pointed away from the Rainbow of Darkness. Dash figured that was significant and decided to keep at least a foot away from it. She also tried not to look directly at it, it frankly gave her a headache whenever she did.
“Oh please, just a little closer, Rainbow Dash,” the dark voice of the Rainbow of Darkness said in her mind. “Just a little…”
“No, shut up,” Dash retorted, making sure that Cozy was behind her. She glanced at the evil filly...and didn’t like how she was staring at the Rainbow of Darkness. Dash raised a wing to block it from her view. “You stay right there, got it?”
Cozy looked to her, but nodded. Meanwhile, Scorpan had roared once more and charged into the chamber, but froze when he saw Dash and Cozy Glow on the other side of the Rainbow. Magic was gathered at the tip of his spear, but he didn’t blast – he couldn’t risk hitting the dais.
“No…” Scorpan said, “no, no no! I failed…I failed before, I can’t fail again! I can’t!”
“But you have, and now – ”
“Shut up!” Dash exclaimed, interrupting the dark voice, then looked to Scorpan. “And you, just listen. I don’t want this stupid Rainbow!”
“Lying,” Scorpan said. “Lying, lying, lying – ”
“If I’m lying then why I haven’t I taken it yet?”
Scorpan opened his mouth, but no sound came out – except a rumbling growl when Tirek let out a roar from behind him and charged in. Scorpan moved out of the way and kicked Tirek away, but then spun immediately back to Dash.
“Get away from it,” Scorpan snarled. “Get away, get away. You don’t understand…” He was breathing heavily. The scowl on his face trembled…and then broke, like stone falling away from a mountainside. Scorpan stumbled and suddenly needed to use his spear to support himself as he took in shaking breath and looked to Dash with sheer desperation.
“You don’t know what it can do,” Scorpan said, “what it does. It’s not control, it’s…power overwhelming…darkness overpowering…you don’t want it, you think you do but you don’t…”
“You’re right! I don’t!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Caballeron, Glory, and Daring made their way into the chamber slowly and cautiously, thrown off by the lull in fighting. Scorpan watched them, and watched how their eyes were all drawn to the dais, how it took actual effort to pull their eyes away from it.
But they did, looking to Scorpan. Tirek did as well, standing, gritting his teeth, glaring pure loathing at Scorpan. But Scorpan’s eyes were locked onto Rainbow Dash’s.
“I don’t want the Rainbow of Darkness,” Dash said slowly and evenly. This wasn’t her strong suit, but she really needed to get through to Scorpan right now. “I didn’t even know it existed. None of us,” She used a hoof to indicate the other three adult ponies, “did. We wanted the Sun Stone.”
“She’s lying of course. What value is that bauble?”
“Again: if I’m lying, then why haven’t I grabbed you already, huh?” Dash demanded of the Rainbow of Darkness.
Scorpan was staring at her without comprehension. Daring Do stepped forward, prompting him to look at her, flinch, but he didn’t act. Daring shook her head. “Look…it’s a lost artifact from the Kingdom of Unicornia. It’s got a lot of history behind it. We wanted to put it in a museum, keep it on display so that ponies can see it and learn about the past.”
“I wanted it for my private art collection,” Glory said. Daring glared at her, but she matched it easly. “Don’t look at me like that! Perhaps it’s selfish, but a girl’s entitled to her hobbies. I could have had it placed in a necklace, become the envy of ponies all over Equestria! Or made it the centerpiece of my private art and artifact collection – a gallery instead of a museum, is that so wrong?”
“Yes,” Daring and Dash said at once.
“Oh don’t pretend like you’re entirely altruistic in your own motives, Miss Daring Do,” Caballeron said. “How many bits have you made off of that book series, hmm?”
“Archaeology isn’t cheap. At least I don’t beg, borrow, and steal all my funding!”
“Well at least I don’t pretend to actually have a – ”
“Can we please focus?!” Cozy demanded. She stomped out from behind Rainbow Dash’s wing, though she made sure to give the Rainbow of Darkness a wide berth. She glanced at it, but was able to tear her eyes from it and look to Scorpan. “Look. We all came here wanting something. We didn’t know you were here. And now that me and Tirek know the Rainbow of Darkness is…look, the point is, we believe you. It’s bad news. We don’t want it.”
“Wrong,” Tirek said. All eyes shot to him. He took in a deep breath as he clenched his fists, tromping forward and towards the Rainbow. “I have seen nothing to make me believe that it shouldn’t be in my possession. It’s power will be mine!”
Scorpan leveled his spear at Tirek, making him pause. But the sheer hate was gone from Scorpan’s face. “Brother…”
“You are not Scorpan! You are not my brother!” Tirek roared. “My worthless brother is dead! He died centuries ago – because if he was alive, if he hadn’t been a waste of space, if he had been worthy of being my brother, then he wouldn’t have betrayed me! He wouldn’t have left me to rot in Tartarus for a millennium!”
Scorpan rocked back on his heels, Tirek’s rage seeming to hurt him far more than any physical blow had. Tirek turned to glare at Cozy as he came forward, glaring down at her. “And you. Out of my way, child. The Rainbow of Darkness is mine.”
“I’d like nothing more, Tirek.”
“Shut up!” Every pony in the room – even Cozy– exclaimed at it. Cozy turned back to Tirek, planting herself between him and the Rainbow. “Please, Tirek, don’t take it! You saw all those murals of Tirac…look what it’s done to Sc…to whoever that is! What good is ruling everything if it’s not really you doing it?”
Tirek loomed over the small filly. “So…you’re betraying me too.”
“No!” Cozy stomped one of her hooves, then lifted off to look Tirek in the eye. “I’m just a kid. I can’t stop you. But just stop and think! I get that you’re mad about Scorpan being here, but - ”
“He’s not Scorpan!”
“Then whoever he is, I get that you’re mad – ”
Tirek reached out and pushed Cozy out of the way, starting forward again. Dash braced herself, getting ready to move, to keep Tirek from the Rainbow of Darkness. So did Daring and Caballeeron and Glory. Cozy shot in front of Tirek again, putting up her hooves and opening her mouth to try and get through to Tirek again. And Scorpan…
Scorpan roared, the tip of his spear glowing white-hot with magic as Tirek closed in on the Rainbow of Darkness. “No!” Scorpan shouted, leveling his spear at Tirek. “Failed before! Won’t fail again!” He let loose as large a blast of magic as Dash had ever seen, right at Tirek and Cozy.
Tirek’s eyes widened, and he reached out for Cozy and shoved her out of the way of the blast as hard as he could, just before it struck him dead-on in the chest and sent him flying, across the room, into the far wall. He fell to the ground, gasping and wheezing.
But that didn’t matter, because Tirek’s shove had sent Cozy flying through the air – towards the dais. Dash let out a yelp and leaped, wings spread wide, but she couldn’t move in a straight line to Cozy without getting too close to the Rainbow of Darkness herself. She tried to arc her path to go around it, but lost precious fractions of a second doing so – so that when she reached out to grab Cozy, she just missed her.
And Cozy, before she could get her wings under her, before she could change her flight path, before she could do anything but scream, collided with the dais, slid right across its top. Her flailing wings knocked the Sun Stone from where it floated, sending it tumbling end-over-end to the floor, where it landed and slid away.
And more importantly, she landed directly beneath the Rainbow of Darkness.
There was a new roar, deep and alien as the orb seemed to burst apart into liquid that fell onto Cozy. She screamed and flailed, trying to get it off of her, but failed – the blackness seemed to seep into her body and disappear. Her eyes shut tight and she curled on herself, falling silent, hooves at her head.
“No…” Scorpan let out, barely more than a whisper, as he dropped his spear and fell to his knees. “Failed…failed again…I’m…I’m sorry…”
“Uh…” Dash said, cautiously tip-hooving forward. “Cozy? You, uh…you okay…?”
Cozy Glow couldn’t open her eyes. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. But somehow that last wasn’t a problem. It wasn’t like she was choking of suffocating, more like…like she was caught in the moment between breathing in and breathing out. Like somehow the second between breaths had been frozen in place, stretched out forever while still being just a moment. She could go a moment without breathing.
Something…something was there, in the darkness of her tightly-closed eyes. Something was moving. Cozy could almost see it, a vague shape swimming at the edge of whatever light was getting in through her lids.
What the heck is that? Cozy wondered. She knew she had more important things to worry about – she had to make sure that Tirek was okay, and she had to think up away to get away from Scorpan and the ponies. She needed to figure out whatever it was that had landed on her, sunk into her. It hadn’t hurt, at least. It had been a little cold but it hadn’t hurt.
The thing in the darkness moved again.
Then again as much as those seemed like priorities, the thing moving in the darkness seemed like a bigger one, what with it being just behind her eyelids and all. Cozy tried to…she didn’t know how to exactly squint to try and see the thing better when her eyes were closed, but she tried to do that. But it didn’t help. The thing in the darkness remained beyond her sight.
But she wasn’t afraid. Why not? Shouldn’t she be terrified at the moment?
Interesting question with several answers. But…no. No, you should not be.
The voice didn’t come from every shadow around this time. It came from the back of Cozy’s head, reverberated through her skull. Cozy almost wanted to look around, but she was still lying absolutely still on the dais. Still had her eyes tightly shut. Still hadn’t breathed yet.
We don’t have a tremendous amount of time, Cozy Glow. I admit that you’re not my first pick. But I think we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement, you and I.
The thing in the darkness once again seemed to shift and move, swimming around at the edge of her field of vision, such as it was with her eyes closed.
Let’s make this simple. You want to rule Equestria. I will give you the tools and the power needed to do so – no need for Tirek. In exchange, you aid me in escaping my prison. Deal?
Of course there wasn’t going to be a deal over that. That would be stupid. Cozy wasn’t stupid.
Yes, yes, of course. I regret how we’re meeting, Cozy, we haven’t had time to get to know one another. What can I do to prove my sincerity?
Was this voice serious? There wasn’t a single thing the Rainbow of Darkness could possibly do to convince Cozy that it was genuinely benign. Certainly not while it was inside of her, possessing her.
I feared as much. I suppose I’ll just have to convince you…later. Normally I would much prefer to take my time, show you my power, explain things in detail. But I have to prioritize escape.
The Rainbow of Darkness had possessed Tirac and Scorpan. And now it was going to puppet Cozy Glow.
It’s not my preference, but, needs must.
Why did it sound so…disappointed? What did the Rainbow of Darkness mean, that it wasn’t its preference?
Sadly there is no time to explain. Later, like I said. For now…
Cozy Glow shot to her hooves. Rainbow Dash let out a yelp and fell away as Cozy opened her eyes. Dash wasn’t sure exactly what she had been expecting, but somehow, Cozy’s eyes looking perfectly normal wasn’t it. Behind Dash, Tirek stirred, lifting his head and looking to the dais, his eyes widening at the sight of Cozy Glow standing on it – and the Rainbow of Darkness nowhere in sight.
“What…?” He asked. “What…happened?”
“You knocked her into the Rainbow of Darkness,” Daring explained. “You…what’s happened to her? Cozy? Are you there? Or…or are you the Rainbow of Darkness?”
Cozy stretched her wings and her hooves. “Erebus,” she said, her voice sounding just like her own. Somehow Dash had expected it to sound different. “You can call me Erebus. It’s shorter.” She looked at her hooves, then looked down. With the Sun Stone now behind her and on the floor, the dais was casting a long shadow that reached all the way across the floor – and right up to, and through, the entrance to the chamber, and into the darkness of Midnight Castle beyond.
“Ah…” Cozy – Erebus – intoned, placing a hoof against the shadowed part of the dais. And she suddenly disappeared. Dash let out a yelp, looking around, and found Cozy at the far end of the room, standing in the doorway at the edge of the shadows, looking in at every creature.
“There’s nothing quite like shadows to brighten up my day,” Erebus said as she walked backwards, disappearing into the darkness.