Cozy managed to keep her composure for just another moment as she stepped back into the darkness, but once she was out of Tirek’s sight, she retreated back a few dozen steps, pulled up a wall of darkness to block all sound, and stood with her teeth grit for a few moments. They didn’t last.
“Who does he think he is?!” She demanded at the top of her lungs, throwing her hooves in the air. She began pacing back and forth across the hallway and didn’t care that her dark slaves could see it, or at least hear it and her.
“Oh, so now Lord Tirek is worried about me? Didn’t stop him from shoving me into Erebus in the first place!”
“Or betraying you to the ponies back when you were in school,” Erebus pointed out.
“Yeah, or that – hey wait!” Cozy turned to glare at the shifting form in the darkness. “First, stay out of my memories! Second, that was totally different! He only helped them out of Tartarus ‘cause they were gonna make him miserable there forever if he didn’t! Not like this time where he shoved me into you!”
“Accidentally,” Erebus pointed out.
“Doesn’t matter!” Cozy stomped a hoof, turning to follow Erebus’ movements as it circled her. “He wouldn’t have needed to do it at all if he’d just listened to me!” Cozy whickered and stomped the ground a few more times. “He never listens to me or takes me seriously! Just ‘cause he’s been around for a thousand years, except most of that was being stuck in Tartarus so it doesn’t even count! I accomplished almost as much as he has! I had Equestria in my hooves, just like him!”
Erebus shifted around her in the darkness a few times in silence. He seemed to draw closer, though Cozy still couldn’t make out his true shape. “So…what are you going to do about it?”
Cozy flared her wings and scuffed the ground with one hoof. She was angry. Furious. Even in the darkness she was seeing red. “Well apparently all that work me and him and Chrysalis did at Mount Everhoof was for nothing. Apparently, he still thinks I’m just some little filly. I have to show him that I’m not!” She started pacing once more. “I’ve gotta do something big, something that’ll show Tirek once and for all that he needs to take me seriously and stop treating me like a little filly!
Erebus moved closer. “And what will that be?”
Cozy stopped her pacing, even though she was just as mad as ever. She tried to focus past it. She looked to her three dark slaves, and considered the layout of the chapel to the ancient Lord Tirac. She hadn’t ever seen it clearly before…but even as she thought that, she felt Erebus move and shift a little in her mind, and suddenly she was aware of every nook and cranny in Midnight Castle, the whole complex’s layout, and in particular, the dark chapel to Tirac – its dimensions, the stairs leading down to the dungeons, the other stairs to the north that lead up higher into the castle, the window with Tirac on it that she’d seen, but now she even knew how tough it was, what it would take to break.
“This might help,” Erebus said.
Cozy grinned, as she considered what her enemies had at their disposal…the likely moves of Professor Rainbow Dash, how Tirek would act, what Scorpan could do…
“Oh, it does…now, what I need is the right amount of menace…”
Three words echoed through Rainbow Dash’s head about a million times in the span of just one second.
This is bad.
In the following second, a couple additional words were added to the repetition.
This is so, SO BAD!
And in the second after that, her mind tried to pull itself in three directions at once:
Tirek and Cozy are working with Chrysalis which means that Chrysalis is planning some kind of big comeback and there is no way that they weren’t involved with raising Sombra from the dead but wait can Chrysalis even do that Cozy Glow can’t probably but then who knows what that little pony can do I never would have thought that she could drain the magic from all of Equestria but she totally was just like Tirek was doing and Tirek worked with Cozy before and he also worked with Discord so he’s definitely open to working with others and Cozy worked with him so the two of them would totally work with Chrysalis and Chrysalis had that whole hive and also Chrysalis and Tirek are both like a thousand years old so I can totally buy that one of them learned necromancy at some point and Cozy probably wants to oh no they DID raise Sombra…
At the same time:
Cozy Glow has the Rainbow of Darkness and she’s totally working with it which means that Scorpan was right and it convinced her to work with it but let’s be real it probably wasn’t very hard for it to do she’s such a messed up filly how does a filly even GET that messed up I should probably ask Twilight about that she’s been to visit Cozy like three or four times in Tartarus so it must have come up but between the School and the Wonderbolts and Ponyville I’ve had a lot on my plate it’s not my fault that I can’t do everything at once I mean I know I’m the fastest pony in Equestria but even I have my limits but anyway back to Cozy working with Erebus okay so she can basically shape shadows into doing whatever she wants and she’s probably already made the goon squad into dark slaves and now she’s gonna try to get all of us…
But also:
THIS IS SO BAD ON SO MANY LEVELS.
But then about five seconds passed from Cozy Glow disappearing into the darkness, and Rainbow Dash didn’t have time to be having a mental breakdown anymore. She shook her head, smacked her cheek, and kicked the stone floor beneath her with a hind hoof, bucking her conniption away.
She turned to Tirek. “Okay, you and me, buddy? We’re gonna have some words when all this is done.” Tirek probably didn’t hear her right now given the look on his face. She’d deal with that later. She turned to Scorpan, who looked almost as out of it, and took to the air to fly in front of him. “Hey! Scorpy! Wake up! Got a new plan for you – why don’t we just go out that way?” She pointed behind them all, to the giant stained-glass window of Lord Tirac. “A solid buck will break that, right?”
Scorpan was still, and Dash went to repeat herself, but then a tremor went through his body. He shook his head. “Magically reinforced. Whole castle is like that.”
Dash nodded, landing again. “Okay, fine, then we go the hard way, straight down that hall. It’s only, what, a hundred and fifty feet to get outside?” She started stretching, readying her wings. “I can do that in less than a second, even with another pony weighing me down. You stay here. I’ll get Glory out, then come back for Caballeron – ”
“No!” Scorpan shook his head hard. “No, Erebus will…will have anticipated that. It will have created a wall of darkness. You’ll be flying straight into a wall just as hard as Midnight Castle’s. And then it will have you.”
Dash paused mid-stretch. “Okay, so instead we charge straight down the corridor together, all of us protected by the Sun Stone’s light.”
Scorpan’s head didn’t stop shaking. “Too many shadows, too narrow. Erebus can’t exist in the light of the Sun Stone for long…but it can exist. Snatch us, drag us into darkness. Seize us.” He used his spear to indicate the chapel. “In here the room is large…the shadows have to stretch too far to reach us.”
Dash whickered. “Okay, then what do you suggest?”
“Erebus’ focus and awareness is limited by his host body’s. If we split up – ”
“No,” all four ponies vetoed, immediately. Daring Do stomped a hoof and continued for all of them. “Splitting up is the worst thing we could do right now! If we’re not all in the Sun Stone’s light, then Erebus will pounce on whoever isn’t in the light. You’re asking somepony to become one of those dark slaves so the rest can get out.”
Scorpan gripped his spear tightly…but nodded. “Yes. Yes, I am. I told you, I cannot protect so many of you. I don’t believe I can protect any of you.” His eyes narrowed. “If some are going to be lost anyway, it may as well be for a purpose.”
“Not happening,” Dash said. She glanced at Glory Pose. “Any chance your special talent is magic? Could you make something like that with your horn?” She gestured at the Sun Stone.
Glory blanched. “What? No!” She jabbed a hoof at her cutie mark of a shooting star. “This represent me being a rising star. Social climbing, prestige, recognition. Not magic. I’m no Twilight Sparkle.” She sniffed. “I know telekinesis, I know how to use that to fire a kinetic blast. I know a little spell for keeping track of things, and another to make things shine brighter – ”
Dash made a face and gestured with both hooves at the Sun Stone.
Glory responded with a gesture of her own. “Not like that! By polishing things and cleaning them up! If I knew any magic that would be useful here, I’d tell you!”
“Then what good are you?” Tirek asked, speaking up for the first time since Cozy had disappeared into the darkness. Everypony jumped, while he turned to look down at Glory. “It sounds like your magic would be far more useful as my magic.”
“Nuh-uh!” Dash objected, taking to the air, jabbing a hoof at the centaur. “No! You can’t just solve all your problems by draining ponies of their magic!”
“My…” Tirek paused, scoffed, crossed his arms, glanced at Scorpan, then looked away and continue through grit teeth. “My brother is right. At this point, if we are to win, some of us will have to lose.”
“But not you, right?” Dash glared at Tirek.
Caballeron held up a hoof before either of them could get into it. “Arguing will surely not help us. I think Miss Dash may have had the right idea to start with.” He pointed behind them once more, at the stained-glass window. “That is our best option. Magic may reinforce it, but surely only so much?” He looked between Scorpan and Tirek hopefully.
Tirek did nothing to buoy that hope. “The spells protecting Midnight Castle are ancient magic, and they will have only grown stronger with time – ”
“TEN.”
This time, every creature flinched at the sudden word, not just the ponies. It came from every shadow, every patch of darkness at once. It sounded like Cozy’s voice, if it had dropped a few octaves even as it was multiplied in volume – and it had Erebus’ voice layered underneath it.
“What was that?!” Glory demanded. She’d ignited her horn out of instinct, and stepped closer to Caballeron.
Dash and Daring had bunched up with their fellow ponies as well. “That…that was Cozy reminding us that she’s not just going to sit around and let us come up with an escape plan,” Daring noted. Her wings were spread as she looked around. She nodded towards the Sun Stone, and the four of them all stepped closer to the light.
“NINE.”
“It’s not Cozy Glow,” Tirek remarked, clenching his fists as he also stepped closer into the Sun Stone’s light. “Or it is not wholly her. The Rainbow of Darkness is corrupting her, using her…”
“I feel the difference is academic,” Caballeron noted. “Cozy Glow or Erebus…they are coming for us.”
Dash fluttered her wings, and grit her teeth. She looked down the corridor – she couldn’t see the other end due to the blackness. If Scorpan was right, there was a solid wall waiting for her to plough into it there, a solid wall that would encase her in shadow-stuff and puppet her for Cozy Glow’s amusement. Didn’t sound like a fun time.
“EIGHT.”
She looked to Scorpan. “What exactly was the plan to subdue Cozy?” Dash asked. “Corner her, shove the Sun Stone in her face or something until Erebus ditched her? Something like that?”
“Something like that,” Scorpan responded. His grip on his spear tightened.
“SEVEN.”
“Okay,” Dash said. “Okay, here’s the plan, then: we’re doing that here instead, right now. We’re making our best go at it.”
“SIX.”
“She’s speeding up…” Glory noted.
“Glory, stay in the center of the room,” Caballeron said quickly. He was the one most used organizing others, so Dash decided to listen to what he had to say. “Scorpan, can the Sun Stone drive Erebus or his dark slaves back in any way?”
“FIVE.”
“Yes,” Scorpan responded. He had stepped closer to the Sun Stone’s light himself; only Tirek hadn’t moved from where he previously stood. “If brought close to Erebus, it will harm it greatly.”
“And the pain for Erebus’ host?” Tirek demanded.
“FOUR.”
Scorpan looked to Tirek. “I endured it. Barely.”
Tirek grit his teeth, but Caballeron stomped a hoof to get attention. “And is there a specific spell required? Or will just sending magic into the stone power it?”
“THREE!”
Scorpan looked to Caballeron. “No, any magic will do…but why…?”
“TWO!”
“Give the stone to Glory so you can focus on battle! Glory, use the stone to keep us safe!”
“ONE!”
Scorpan blanched at the suggestion. Dash thought it was a good one, though, so she kicked off from the ground, grabbed the Sun Stone from Scorpan’s magic and ignored the heat it was giving off, and then tossed it to Glory. The unicorn let out a surprised shock and caught it in her hooves out of instinct. She wasted no time in sending her own magic into the stone and holding it aloft.
“READY OR NOT, HERE – ”
“Yeah, yeah!” Dash called into the darkness, hooves at her mouth. “Just get out here already!”
Out of the corner of her eye, Dash saw Tirek actually flinch. Before she could ask why, however, the darkness at the edge of the Sun Stone’s light screamed – and sounded a lot less like Erebus and a lot more like Cozy Glow when it did.
Scorpan barely paid it any mind – he had started to lunge for the Sun Stone, but checked himself when there was movement at the edge of the Sun Stone’s light, near the corridor that lead back outside. The darkness moved of its own accord, flowing like a solid wall to block that avenue of escape.
Then more movement from the left, the stairs that lead down into the bowels of Midnight Castle as two equine shapes half-charged, half-lurched, screaming, into the light. The screams weren’t the screams of battle, however – the shadows wrapped around their mouths were pulled back, making their cries of terror and even a small amount of pain be heard.
“Biff – Rogue!” Caballeron exclaimed, recognizing two of his hench-ponies.
If the dark slaves heard Caballeron, they gave no sign as they were upon the group. Tirek snorted at the sight of the biggest one, Rogue, spinning around and preparing to buck him. He called up a bubble shield around Rogue to stop the blow – and then let out a gasp of pain at the feedback as the bubble was shattered by the sheer force of Rogue’s buck, followed by a more pronounced grunt as the hooves connected with Tirek and sent him stumbling.
The dark slave of Biff, meanwhile, closed in on Caballeron, reaching out as soon as he was close, shadowstuff around his forehooves granting them unnatural length. Caballeron avoided one hoof but was struck dead-on by the other, and he was sent reeling away.
Dash or Daring would have dived in to help, but they were preoccupied – the two dark slaves weren’t the only ones to attack. Darkness writhed at the edge of the light as though something were pushing against it from the other side, and started shooting javelins of darkness into the air. The two pegasi were quickly forced to the ground lest they be impaled, and that’s when creeping tendrils of shadow struck out at them, racing across the floor and grabbing at their hooves or their shadows. It was everything they could do to keep moving out of the way.
Scorpan wasn’t ignored either – tendrils of shadow reached out for him, lashing at him with far greater force than was being spared for the ponies or Tirek. The gargoyle fell away from them even as he called on his own magic and cast it into his spear, stopping the darkness not with light, but rather by jamming his spear into the ground and causing the stone floor to thrust upwards into a wall that the darkness had to climb over.
For just a second it was almost too much for the erstwhile allies. Dash heard Glory scream – but when she glanced over, she saw the unicorn had leapt at Caballeron with the Sun Stone in tow, her horn alight as she poured magic into the artifact and shoved it right into Biff. The shadows on Biff recoiled and shivered as though burned, and the front half of Biff was freed.
“Boss!” Biff cried out, holding out a hoof. Caballeron reached for it, but before he could grab his fellow stallion the shadows around Biff latched onto the ground and pulled him away, flinging him back into the darkness even as they wrapped around him again.
Tirek had recovered from Rogue’s initial blow. The big dark slave made to strike Tirek again, but he stopped it by grabbing the leg even as Rogue swung, and lifting Rogue off the ground. The shadows around Rogue stretched off of him and kept him connected to the ground, trying to pull him back down. Tirek obliged them by letting go of Rogue – and then punching him in midair, holding nothing back. Rogue let out a cry of pain as he was sent tumbling away, but even as he groaned the shadows stopped his stumble and hoisted him back up onto four hooves again.
Dash had her own problems as a tendril of darkness rose from the ground like a cobra, shadowstuff flaking off of it in the Sun Stone’s light but still looking far more solid than it should have. The tendril lunged at her once, then twice, forcing her back. Dash didn’t even need to look to know that another shadow was probably behind her waiting to strike, and when the dark tendril lunged a third time Dash risked jumping into the air, barely avoiding one of the javelins that still lanced through the air. A glance down showed her that, indeed, the tendril had been trying to force her into an inky black pool of darkness that had been creeping along the floor. The dark tendril merged with it, then both surged for Daring.
But the pegasus adventurer saw them coming, and beat her wings, propelling herself across the ground and away from it, gliding nimbly around and to the other side of the Sun Stone’s light. Dash dropped back to the ground before another dark javelin could skewer her, galloping out of the tendrils’ reach and over to the light. Glory’s eyes were wide and she looked terrified as she shoved the Sun Stone towards Scorpan, dissolving a tendril that had slammed into him and wrapped around his spear, trying to pull it away. Between Scorpan’s magic and the Sun Stone’s light, the tendril broke apart.
“This isn’t good!” Dash exclaimed, glancing every way she could, trying to see something in the undulating, writhing darkness at the edge of the light. “We can’t just be on the defense, we’ve gotta find Cozy!”
“I agree!” Tirek exclaimed as he held up a hand and seized Biff in telekinesis, slamming him into Rogue and shoving the two back. “But Cozy Glow won’t risk herself until we’re already defeated, it’s not her way!”
Scorpan plunged his spear into a dark tendril that lashed at him, setting off a small explosion within it that scattered the shadowstuff. The six of them all bunched up beneath the Sun Stone, and Glory channeled even more magic into it, brightening it further and driving back the shadows – making it bright enough that the dark javelins shooting across the air didn’t make it all the way across before dissolving.
But she swooned as well from the effort, wiping her brow with a trembling hoof. “I – I’m not built for this…” she moaned. “I’m not that kind of unicorn! I can’t keep this up – waagh!”
The last came as a single, giant tendril of undulating darkness reached out from the edge of the light, its form easily as thick around as a stallion’s barrel. It lashed forward at them. Scorpan and Tirek both leapt forward and blasted it with their magic, but the tendril was made of sturdy stuff – its swing was halted, but it didn’t break apart, instead pushing against the magical assault. Glory shoved the Sun Stone forward at the tendril after a second, burning it away – but also falling to her knees and hocks.
And here came Biff and Rogue again…Dash grimaced as Caballeron and Daring darted forward to take care of them, Caballeron apologizing as he bucked Rogue back, while Daring ducked down and then kicked straight up at Biff, sending him into the air, though tendrils of darkness lashed out from him and kept him connected to the ground.
Dash didn’t have time to do much about that as a sheet of darkness, easily twenty feet wide, swept across the ground and towards her. She leapt into the air to avoid it, then had to dodge the tendrils that rose from it and the javelins shooting through the air. It was too much, and one of them finally struck her in a glancing blow through her primary feathers – sending her reeling and down into the darkness, which clawed and coiled its way around her like some kind of ooze.
But Glory was there before the darkness could get a firm grip on her. The unicorn grabbed at Dash with hooves and telekinesis both, pulling her free even as she held the Sun Stone high and forced it to be even brighter to burn away the darkness before it could make Dash into a dark slave, though the effort made Glory’s eyes flutter…
…and then the last of Caballeron’s former henchponies, Withers, made his entrance – via a tendril of darkness that literally threw him forward and right at the exhausted Glory and momentarily stunned Dash. The smallest of Cozy’s dark slaves – although the darkness left his body the moment he was airborn – didn’t even do anything other than collide with Glory, causing her to cry out and knocking her away from Dash…and making her lose her grip on the Sun Stone and the magic she was channeling into it.
Instantly the light of the Sun Stone died down – it didn’t go away, but the blackness all around them did close in. Dash was closest to the fallen Sun Stone, so nothing came for her. But a wave of shadows spilled forth, wrapped up a dazed Withers and a screaming Glory both, and then dragged them back into the darkness. Caballeron let out an angry shout at the sight, but it was interrupted as a sweeping tendril grabbed him by both hind legs. Daring grabbed him and tried to pull him back, but the tendril gave a single firm yank and pulled him out of her grip and into the darkness as well.
It was only about a second – by then Scorpan had grabbed the Sun Stone with magic and poured power into it. But Glory and Caballeron were nowhere to be seen – nowhere where the Sun Stone’s light shone.
Maniacal giggling cut through the air as Tirek, Scorpan, Daring and Dash all huddled around the Sun Stone’s light. “Two down…” Cozy sang from somewhere. “Four to go! Or three? Feel like switching sides yet, Tirek? Ready to admit that I’m right?”
Tirek looked to Scorpan. “How were you able to defeat the Rainbow of Darkness?!” He demanded. “It’s toying with us!”
“I told you,” Scorpan responded, holding the Sun Stone high. He was shaking, wings spread wide. “Erebus has almost no power without a willing host. I became unwilling. Cozy hasn’t. I’ve never had to drive it from something else before!”
“But somepony did!” Daring pointed out, waving a hoof back at the stained glass window. “Somehow the gargoyles and centaurs were able to defeat Tirac!”
“Oh, that…” There was laughter. “Erebus speaking now, not Cozy. Tirac wasn’t slain in some super battle with big spells and a big alliance or with the power of friendship or anything dumb like that. Tirac was defeated…because a gargoyle snuck up on him while he was asleep.”
Dash’s ears folded back at that. “Oh.”
“That little flashlight of yours can slow me, Scorpan…but it can’t stop me. Me either!” There was a giggle, and Dash guessed that Cozy was speaking again. “This is soooo GREAT! Ready to say you’re sorry yet, Tirek?”
“No,” Tirek said.
Cozy growled. “Fine! Then I guess we’ll keep at it!” The shadows vibrated – and meanwhile, from the darkenss straight ahead, five dark slaves could just barely be seen, one of them now sporting a glowing horn.
Dash shook her head. This was a losing fight, no question about it – she hated to even think that, but it was true. Cozy was toying with them, messing with them, and as long as the Sun Stone could provide only so much light…
She glanced behind her at the window again. It didn’t let in any light, which seemed like the opposite of what a window was supposed to do. Tirek and Scorpan had said that it was magically reinforced…which meant that what she was about to do was probably going to hurt, a lot.
Dash grimaced, but also started beating her wings. “Scorpan! Make the Sun Stone as bright as you can! Fill this whole room…I’m gonna need the space!”
“What?” Tirek asked, turning to her. But she was already in the air. She picked a direction and shot off towards the darkness. She had to trust that Scorpan would listen to her.
He did – he didn’t have much of a choice if he wanted to avoid her becoming another dark slave. The light of the Sun Stone surged, the heat it gave off multiplied a dozen times over. Dash had maybe a tenth of a second to register that before the wall she was shooting towards suddenly appeared from the retreating darkness. She turned a hard left, shot down along the wall, then turned left again…
Speed wasn’t the issue here. Control was. Dash could make tight turns with no problem normally – though normally also included being outside, where if she messed up and failed to turn she’d go flying rather than splat. Beyond even that, Cozy Glow was hardly being idle while Dash flew in circles. The hail of dark javelins began again, and all Dash could do was tighten her spins, shrink her turn radius in an effort to avoid them.
All this was happening in a matter of seconds. She was becoming a literal tornado here, rainbow contrail of pegasus magic looping around itself again and again with Dash flying through it, the outside world becoming a complete blur, which was the real problem. She needed speed right now, because speed translated into force when it hit something. She didn’t know how much force she needed, so she was shooting high. But it meant that her aim absolutely, positively could not be off. Fortunately, she was Rainbow Dash – and a Wonderbolt. She had the training, the skills, the talent, and more hours logged on the Dizzytron than almost any other pegasus. She knew how to keep herself oriented even in the middle of a spin.
“What do you – ” Cozy, or Erebus, started to demand. The first syllable began about a second after Dash had taken off. The last came out when Dash came out of her spin – aimed straight at the stained-glass window of Lord Tirac.
This is gonna – was as far as the speed of thought carried Dash’s internal commentary before her hooftips touched the glass…but that was all she achieved, as a wall of shadow collided with her side and sent her flying. Dash cried out in pain at the impact, and at the second one with the floor that send her rolling right into the waiting shadows.
Her eyes went wide. Her hooves scrabbled at the stone, trying to stand up – but she was too late.
The shadows grabbed her and wrapped around her. Dash struggled and yelled and even bit at them, but it was like a complete sheet of darkness enveloping her while also dragging her away from the light of the Sun Stone that she could still see. Actual panic rose as she tried to beat her wings, but those were already seized by darkness. She tried to pull herself back into the light, but her hooves were consumed as well. Then even the light of the Sun Stone disappeared as she was dragged even further back into the darkness, and even up several steps of a spiral staircase, one that went up into the castle rather than down.
The shadows seemed to suffuse her, bending her limbs against her will – in fact with no regard for that will at all. She was stood up, and somehow, she knew that Cozy Glow was now in front of her even though she couldn’t see the little psychopath.
She felt a hoof lightly tap her muzzle. “Knew you’d do that,” Cozy said, and giggled. “You’re so predictable, Professor Dash! Well guess what? This time it’s costing you!”
Dash wanted to say something defiant, or failing that something rude – but the shadows didn’t even let her open her mouth.
Cozy giggled a little more. “Aw, don’t be like that! Or do, whatever. Now get in there and join the fun!”
Dash wanted to say something to that, too, but remained powerless to so much as speak. Her limbs moved of their own accord…but she couldn’t see where she was going. Couldn’t even see how close she was to whatever was happening until something slammed into her and sent her flying. She grunted in pain but was already being forced to her hooves. She was literally fighting blind – and it wasn’t even her doing the fighting. But it was definitely her taking the punishment.
How the hay are we gonna beat this? Dash wondered. She had no answers.
Whatever Rainbow Dash had been planning on doing – Tirek guessed trying to break the stained-glass window in spite of him telling her of the impossibility – it had failed spectacularly. A column of darkness, perfectly timed, had struck out at the pegasus and knocked her into the shadows, and that was that. Erebus had a dark slave with wings now, though Rainbow Dash kept to the ground for some reason as she attacked Tirek, Scorpan, and Daring Do.
As much as he hated to even contemplate it, Erebus was winning – winning without ever even exposing itself to danger, picking them off when they made mistakes or grew tired while it sat in Cozy Glow’s body safely surrounded by darkness, on another floor entirely for all Tirek knew.
Tirek physically grabbed Daring Do just as she bucked away the dark slave of Glory, and pulled himself close to Scorpan as well. He conjured up magic, but not to attack – instead, he surrounded the three of them with a shield, giving them a moment to breathe.
“We need a strategy!” Tirek exclaimed. A tendril of darkness slithered from the shadows and slammed itself down on the shield. It held, but Tirek himself nearly buckled. He redoubled his efforts as Scorpan flared the Sun Stone’s light, dissolving the black tendril. But another was already creeping forward, while the dark slaves circled just beyond the light.
“There is no strategy,” Scorpan said. He gripped his spear tight and held the Sun Stone over his head, but his voice carried no determination at all, only doom. “I tried to warn you. I tried to warn all of you…but you didn’t listen.” He turned and looked at Tirek. “You never listened to me!”
“Now isn’t the time,” Daring interrupted before Tirek could respond. She was breathing heavily, her eyes locked on the dark slaves of Caballeron and Rainbow Dash. “Tirek, can you move this?”
“Yes.” He grimaced again when the next dark tendril hit the bubble from the side. Scorpan destroyed it with intense light. “There’s few enough of us now. Scorpan, keep the Sun Stone bright. We’re going outside.”
Scorpan looked to Tirek, then the direction of the exit. “Erebus will have created solid walls of darkness – ”
“Then we destroy them.”
“It’ll be like moving through quicksand, quicksand that is crushing us – ”
“Then it will be like that! And we will push through anyway! There’s no other choice!” Tirek took in a deep breath, redoubled his efforts, and started forward across the chapel to Lord Tirac, heading for the exit as he maintained the bubble. Daring Do and Scorpan moved with him, quickly at first as they closed on the exit corridor.
But Erebus realized what they were up to, and the shadows moved. The light of the Sun Stone ran into a wall of darkness ahead, the light slowing down unnaturally as the darkness pressed back against it. The darkness continuously lost ground to the light, but the light didn’t banish them nearly as quickly as it should have. The darkness fought for every foot.
The bubble reached the wall of darkness, and Tirek found that Scorpan was right. It was like he was pushing against a wall of sand, packed sand that didn’t want to be moved. It gave way before the light of the Sun Stone anyway, but it felt like trying to roll a massive boulder uphill.
A hill that actively fought back. It pushed against the bubble from every side it could, like Erebus had formed the darkness into a fist and was crushing the light within it. Orange-black magic danced over Tirek’s form at the strain he was putting out trying to maintain the shield and keep himself going at the same time. He shrank the bubble shield to conserve as much magic as he could, made it barely large enough for him and Scorpan to stand side-by-side
Out of the corner of his eye he saw that he wasn’t alone in his struggling. Beside him, Scorpan’s eyes were wide as he held the Sun Stone aloft in his magic, spear glowing bright as he made their one and only hope for salvation glow to the point of nearly blinding them. The heat that poured was far more intense now than even the Nether Lands. Bright enough that even the dark slaves couldn’t get close, not without the shadows covering them being burned away. The same orange-black magic as Tirek’s own was arcing like lightning across Scorpan, draining him inch by inch from the power he was pouring into the Sun Stone.
Daring Do was not contributing – but at least she was small enough that she could fit into the bubble just behind Scorpan, where there was room for her since the bubble had to be large enough for Tirek’s equine body. She wasn’t a liability. Her wings were shielding her eyes from the Sun Stone’s glare, and she was shouting something, probably words of encouragement, but Tirek couldn’t hear them over the pounding of his heart, the cacophonous pulse of blood in his head from the power he was putting forth trying to hold back Erebus.
But then…light, true sunlight. Just at the front of the bubble, a tiny speck at first but one which grew as Tirek pressed forward. Erebus’ darkness tried to wrap around and pull them back, but Tirek pushed, roared, strained, and kept putting one hoof in front of the other no matter the cost, until finally the three of them stumbled out of Midnight Castle and out into the glare of the Nether Lands’ sun. Tirek sucked in a breath but didn’t let up his shield until he’d galloped forward right to the edge of the cliffs.
When he finally cut off the magic powering his shield, he found himself trembling, gasping for breath as he collapsed to his knees and hocks and hands. Sweat poured off him. His limbs shook. Residual magic arced across his body….Tirek lifted a hand and looked at it, and bit back a moan of frustration at how drained he’d become…not as bad as he had been when he’d first escaped Tartarus, but not much better, either.
Scorpan looked better, but only because he’d started with more power, hadn’t had it drained. He was on his knees, leaning against his spear to keep himself upright.
Daring Do was still upright, facing away from the two brothers and instead looking back at Midnight Castle. Eventually, Tirek forced himself to look at it as well. It almost looked unnatural in the true sun’s glare. The skull-like entryway was still a chasm of utter darkness as before, however, though that darkness now seemed to undulate and writhe.
And giggle with Cozy Glow’s voice. As Tirek, Scorpan, and Darin Do watched from the edge of the cliff, the unnatural darkness seemed to pull back, fall in on itself until, ten feet back from the entrance, it revealed the jet black alicorn-like body that Erebus had wrapped Cozy Glow in, standing in the middle of a line of her six dark slaves.
The blackness pulled away from Cozy Glow, revealing her true form. She was smiling. “Heehee! That was fun! Kind of mad that I didn’t get all of you, but that Sun Stone is pretty useful so I’m not that surprised. Still, I definitely think I won there!”
Cozy trotted forward a few feet, though she eventually flinched before putting down one hoof apparently too close to the light. She frowned at it, but then looked back to the three of them. “So, Tirek! Ready to start listening to me?”
Tirek sucked in breath, and stood up, doing his best to ignore his shaking legs. “No. Not until I know that I am listening to Cozy Glow, and not to the Rainbow of Darkness.”
Cozy’s eyes widened, and she stomped both front hooves. “Why not?! Look at what I’m able to do with Erebus! You’ve got all kinds of power already, why are you so jealous now that I’ve finally got power of my own?!”
“Because this isn’t about that!” Tirek roared, throwing his hands wide. He took a step forward himself. “This is about you. You and proving that you are in control!”
“And what, the only way I can prove that I’m in control is if I just give up my power?! Fat chance! This isn’t like Mount Everhoof, you want Erebus more than anything!”
“That was before!”
“Before what?”
“Before…” Tirek paused, the words catching in his throat. He clenched his fists, looking behind him, at Scorpan. His brother was only now getting to his feet, shaking off the weariness of the magical energy he had expended. Tirek looked back to Cozy…to Erebus, wearing Cozy’s body, making her say things in her voice and…
Tirek shook his head. He glanced upwards at the sky. The Sun was slowly arcing downwards. Night was hours away, but it was coming, and with it long shadows stretching across half the planet…and Erebus’ freedom from Midnight Castle. The darkness of the night would give Erebus practically unlimited power…even with the mere shadows of Midnight Castle, there was no doubt that it had been winning the battle inside the castle, had, if anything, been merely toying with Tirek and his erstwhile allies.
There was movement – Daring Do stepped forward, looking at Cozy. “Look, I hate to intrude – ”
“Then don’t, you dumb cosplayer!”
The older pegasus rolled her eyes. “There’s a way for you to prove you’ve got control over Erebus.” She nodded her head at the dark slaves behind Cozy. “Let them go.”
Cozy blinked. “What? Why would I do that?”
“To prove that you can.” Daring Do waved a hoof at Midnight Castle. “You were kicking our flanks in there with just the normal powers of the Rainbow of Darkness. You don’t even need them. And it would go a long way towards convincing us that you really are in control.”
“I don’t care if you think that!”
Tirek crossed his arms, considering Daring Do’s plan and deciding that it had some merit. “But you do care that I do. Release your dark slaves.”
“And then you’ll believe me?”
“I’ll start to.”
Cozy chewed on her lip a moment, one hoof at her mouth. “I kinda’ want to catch up with Professor Dash…how about I give up half of them.” She waved a hoof, and three of the dark slaves – Doctor Caballeron’s hench-ponies – came forward, trotting right up and out into the sunlight.
Within moments the shadows around them dissipated and pulled back into Midnight Castle. The three earth ponies – all of them nursing bruises and black eyes from the punishment they’d received at the hands and hooves and magic of Tirek and his erstwhile allies – stumbled and nearly fell over when their independence was returned to them. They took one look at Tirek, another at Scorpan, and almost turned and ran – but then they remembered what was behind them, mostly because Cozy waved at them.
So instead the three galloped up to the only semi-friendly face, Daring Do’s. “I. Didn’t. Touch. Nothin’!” the smallest of the three exclaimed as he fell to his barrel behind the pegasus. “This one isn’t my fault!”
Cozy looked to Tirek. “Okay. Now I’m gonna go catch up with Professor Dash for a little bit. I’ll be back in a few!”
The impermeable darkness of Midnight Castle’s entryway returned, making Cozy disappear into shadows once more. Tirek clenched his fists, and did his best to ignore the ponies as he turned around and set off and away from them, wanting space.
He didn’t get it. Scorpan followed him. “This is a ploy,” he said, “a trick. All Erebus is doing is stalling for time. Wasting time, until night falls. Then Erebus can enslave us or slay us at his leisure – or even forget all about us and simply fly across the Nether Lands to the nearest city. Conquer it and make the inhabitants his playthings.”
Tirek grunted, hands behind his back. He tried to force his mind to think over what had just happened. “…no.”
“No? What do you mean, no?”
“Erebus doesn’t have a reason to trick us. If it wanted to wait, then it just could. No reason to release any of its dark slaves…” Tirek heaved out a small sigh, and stroked his beard. “Cozy, though…she does. She is in there.”
Scorpan shook his head. “No. Don’t start thinking like that, brother. You don’t understand how Erebus thinks. Pain and suffering and torment are goals unto themselves for it. Snuffing out light, snuffing out hope, is its greatest desire.” He waved his spear back at the former dark slaves, now free and talking animatedly to Daring Do. “Releasing a dark slave only to take them back…that is absolutely something it would do.”
Tirek scowled. He’d never had the inclination for pointless cruelty like that…but there were many who did. He should hardly have been surprised. He honored bargains struck and kept in good faith, but it seemed that Erebus was not the kind to do either…but it would appear to. Tirek stroked his beard. So it was treacherous…but reliably so?
He looked to Scorpan, and to the Sun Stone that his brother still kept close, hovering nearby even though a light far more powerful was shining down from the Sun above. Their only weapon against Erebus. An Erebus that was either puppeting or play-acting as Cozy…
Tirek had a plan.