//------------------------------//
// Fourth Day, Afternoon Part II—Acrimonious Anomaly 
// Story: Cutie Mark Crusaders Fantasian City-State Historians, YAY!!!!!! 
// by Dragonborne Fox 
//------------------------------//

The Crusaders gasped at what they saw, hearts briefly plummeting in their chests as the entity that hurt to look at seemed to sneer at them. Lance, Anna, and Natalie had already fallen, their weapons at their sides, with odd, black crystal growths adorning Natalie's body and staff, twisting it into a sinister scythe. They turned to regard Matt, who stood his ground alongside NoLegs, contemplating their odds. His golden-winged blade glinted, his head turned, his mane and tail twisted into writhing shadows with more darkness pooling at his fetlocks, and he angrily asked the Crusaders, "What the hell are you doing here?!"

Sweetie's horn flashed as a scowl set itself on her face, and she replied while glaring at the entity, "We want to help!" She rushed over to Anna and tried to shake her awake, but while she was still breathing, she wouldn't stir. Apparently, the shifting entity had hit her something fierce, yet no bruises or cuts were to be seen on her body. She eyed the suspiciously large, wooden harp Anna was clutching, and uncurled her wooden claws with her magic as she lifted the instrument up. For something that was the size of a fully grown pony, it was surprisingly light.

Nearby, just out of the reach of Anna's legs, was a small booklet with a glossy sheen. Sweetie used her magic to lift that up too, and flipped it open to find a collection of musical notes on lines, with what was probably the names of the compositions scrawled above the songs in a language she could not read, yet oddly matched the strange alphabet decorating the youngest Lieutenant-General's body. She turned to Matt and asked, "Is this a music sheet?"

Matt frowned. "Yes, and also her grimoire," he replied bluntly. "Look, just—" He melted into shadows and sidestepped an attack from the entity, resolving back into his default form as the monster jeered at him. "You're probably not old enough to use her sheet music, and she'll tear a strip off of me if I let you even try!" he said as soon as he reformed.

"But I gotta try! Otherwise, we could be done for!" Sweetie argued, her expression hardening.

Matt groaned at the resolute expression on the filly's face, and facehoofed. He turned to the other two Crusaders, both of whom had been given some very odd things by NoLegs in the time he melted into shadows: in Apple Bloom's hooves was a moderately-sized monkey wrench, one side bladed and with a guard to protect her pasterns and odd, hollow indentations in an otherwise solid surface. In Scootaloo's grasp was a wooden trojan horse with googly eyes, and a cornucopia that she was contemplating.

Matt then turned to look at Sweetie Belle again. "Fine. Just… try not to cast the more advanced spells in that thing, please?" he pleaded, before noticing that the entity was splitting off parts of itself that resolved into smaller, yet equally strange, entities that also wore sneers on their shapeshifting faces. He grabbed the fillies and cat with his shadows and hid in them, as the entities stretched across the room in another attempt to whack them upside the heads. As soon as the four hopped back out of the shadows with the attack passing harmlessly through them, the still-standing Lieutenant-General got a nod of understanding from the young unicorn.

He then turned to Rhinoc and Katie, both of whom kept their distance. "Both of you, be prepared in case that thing goes after you," he said, noticing the Major was juggling the clawed shoes that the wraithling wore during her foray into the slime ranch. "And don't try to use ice; it'll eat that stuff up and knock you into a wall."

Katie slipped her deadly shoes on with a nod of understanding. She eyed her target, and made a lunge that would have been fatal were it anyone else making the risky move. She slashed at the entity with her front claws, spun in a pirouette that let her hind claws land another hit, and then bit at the entity right in its shapeshifting face, causing it to shriek and flail its head as she latched on. It tossed its head from side to side, screaming as it moved its front legs in an attempt to force her off. Its underlings latched onto her back legs, but she plunged her front claws into the entity's neck and refused to let go.

Rhinoc conjured a massive blaster, copper and steel and oddly adorned with the crooked hands and face of a warped clock. He zipped around the entity, raised the blaster with his front legs, and smashed its barrel into its backside before pulling the trigger and letting loose with a magic blast that, strangely enough, resolved into a spinning, roaring buzzsaw blade that didn't seem to damage it very much.

The entity bucked with its shifting hinds, slamming into Rhinoc's prone stomach and dislodging the buzzsaw blade in one go. Rhinoc went careening into a wall with his weapon, and crumpled in a heap without any visible bruising on his chitin as the rotary blade arced up into the air and back down on one of the entity's underlings, killing it as it missed the wraithling by the hairs of her tail. A moment later, he stood up, clutching his stomach as his safety vest glowed with the same unfamiliar alphabet briefly shimmering across its surface in vibrant green.

The entity kept roaring, still bucking and thrashing as it tried to dislodge the persistent wraithling, who began to rotate her head vertically, sickening cracks coming from her spine as her skull went upside-down on her own neck without dislodging. The Crusaders winced as they saw her head rotating a solid three-hundred-sixty degrees with as much effort as would come from someone trying to push a mountain, a piece ripping slowly and bloodlessly with her effort. Doing this enabled her to tear a strip off of the entity quite literally, which dissolved in her mouth even as she went for another chomp to keep holding on.

Matt capitalized on this, moving in a burst of speed so fast he crossed the room all the way to Rhinoc in effectively one step, the only other indication of his movement being his golden-winged blade glinting in the light with him, felling the second smaller entity and cutting a large gash into the main enemy that persisted even with its changing facade. Somehow, he didn't damage Katie with the attack, save for a few stray severed hairs that had fluttered to the ground. He picked up Rhinoc and his weapon and zipped back to the Crusaders, performing what could only be called a quick slash with his passing of the entity, carving another gash into its side that remained.

Rhinoc grimaced as he was put on his hooves. "Good thing our safety gear is enchanted…" he groaned, rubbing his stomach with a forehoof.

Sweetie, still contemplating the harp and grimoire, turned to Rhinoc. "Was it because of this thing?" she asked, pointing to the entity that Katie was still trying to perform repeated death rolls on.

Rhinoc nodded. "I wouldn't recommend pushing the enchantments to their limit, though," he replied.

Sweetie nodded, and tugged a few strings of the harp, using the first spell she came upon in Anna's grimoire for reference. The harp glowed with both her aura and the aura Anna must have enchanted it with, melding into a meadow green that pulsed across the room, blanketing those who were standing. The air felt… lighter around them as she played the brief tune to its end, almost as though water had parted from the area despite the lack of its presence.

The entity stretched to the ceiling, crushing Katie against it in an attempt to force her to yield her hold. She did not comply, her head still twisting and turning as she tried to rip another chunk of its face off. The entity howled and made to slam downwards, ripping holes in the wraithling's delicate wings with the maneuver, yet still she continued with her assault, jamming her hind claws into its chest to have a firmer hold.

The Crusaders only had seconds to react before the attack would connect, and Scootaloo took initiative, grabbing the trojan horse, the cornucopia, Apple Bloom's tail, and Sweetie's mane with her hooves, her tail, and her teeth as she buzzed her wings to boost her speed. While nowhere near as fast as Matt had been with his attacks, she managed to bring her friends and their borrowed weapons onto the trojan horse and let the wheels do the rest, safely dodging the strike that sent Katie into a wall. Whatever spell Sweetie had cast made her quicker and lighter, further fueled by adrenaline as, finally, her body registered the very real danger she had gotten herself into.

They turned to the entity, who pulled back to its initial size, and found the enchantments on Katie's safety vest glowing, enabling her to stab and bite at the monster with continued, increasing impunity. She didn't show even a hint of pain, though then again, constantly being in that state for much of her unlife must have deadened her nerves somewhat. She probably didn't take much heed of the creature continuing to thrash beneath her assault, instead single-mindedly striking it with all the hatred she could muster. Apple Bloom snorted, and turned to look around the room, finding that the entity had kicked the buzzsaw blade to a nearby computer monitor in a way that enabled it to stab its screen.

Gears tumbled in her head, and she turned to Rhinoc. "Y'think ya can make more of those saws?" she asked.

Rhinoc frowned at the question. "Why?"

"I wanna try something," Apple Bloom replied, offering no further answer even as the Major gave her a strange look that persisted for a few seconds. "It might need more materials," she added as the staring contest was held.

Matt took the opportunity to zip past the entity in tandem with NoLegs, both moving imperceptibly fast as they made another attempt to slice and dice the confusing eyesore masquerading as something living. They made passes at its legs and body, once more narrowly avoiding their undead soldier and carving new swaths and avenues of pain that were slowly mounting with the assault.

It bucked its hinds, trying to make passes of its own at the mobile pair of slashing blades, but none of its hits connected with its intended targets, instead hitting computers and cracking screens with the same sledgehammer-like force it had knocked down three of the army's best with. Apple Bloom turned to an intact monitor, shuddering at the visage of a red-eyed, dark-furred unicorn stallion only visible from the neck up, scowling at the battleground with hatred in his expression. "Who the buck're you?" she growled.

"I have no time for impudent fillies playing pretend, and no time for pretend soldiers trying to defy my will. Soon… I will conquer Fantasia, and then Mythos," the stallion growled, scars bulging across his face as he narrowed his eyes. On a screen next to him, a horned hippogryph mare with only a beak on her face appeared, also scowling.

"Soon… we will subjugate every living thing on both worlds, and beyond the stars," the hippogryph mare growled, as much hatred in her eyes as that of the unicorn stallion's expression. "Once we level the Aerie's factory with our magic made manifest… we will have crippled its magitek. And then we can get rid of all who dare stand in our way." Before the Crusaders could ask more questions, the screens went dark, and fear gripped their hearts as they exchanged looks.

Scootaloo glowered. She turned to the entity, understanding dawning. "We can't let this thing leave this room!" she howled, jumping on the trojan horse and tugging on its reins, activating a mechanism that opened a door on its chest and pulled out a sharpened log. Angrily grinding her teeth, she used her tail to lift the cornucopia to her mouth and blew a mighty drone into it with as much air as her little lungs could produce. She beat her wings, the spell cast earlier making them go so fast as to move the trojan horse itself with lightning speed.

She rammed head-on into the monster's side just as NoLegs and Matt pulled away, her wingpower more than enough to make the fake horse run the entity over and leave skid marks in the floor. The log got lodged in the monster's side, pulled taut by a chain anchoring it to the horse, and dragged it to the other side of the room before it came to a dead stop against the wall. The monster collided with the wall a second after, impaled through to the other side with the log, Katie still hammering away at its head with ears perked and attentive.

A second after that, Scootaloo was sent flying by a wild swing of a front shapeshifting limb, wings buzzing as she went careening to Matt, who caught her in his magic as the enchantments of her safety vest activated. He set her down on the floor, checking her over as she heaved. "You good?" he asked worriedly.

Scootaloo shakily nodded, the adrenaline numbing her pain somewhat. Somehow, that strike hurt her far more than she gave it credit for. "I'll live," she confirmed, turning to the still-standing Lieutenant-General. "I… I saw ponies on the screens a second ago," she said.

Matt's face hardened. "What did they look like?" he asked.

"One had a beak, the other had red eyes and scars, and both had horns. They said they were going to take over Fantasia and Mythos," she answered. She pointed at the monster. "And they said something about their magic made manifest or something…"

Matt paled. "Damn… seems Redpine's moving faster than we thought…" he grumbled. He saw movement from the corner of his eye, and turned to find Lance rising to stand on shaky legs, Sweetie next to him playing another composition from Anna's grimoire and a green aura washing over him as he picked up his gunblade and a satchel of bullets.

"Matt… what the hell did I say about the kids?" Lance growled, an eye twitching.

"They wanted to help, sir! I tried to dissuade them, honest!" Rhinoc piped up. "They wouldn't budge!"

Sweetie quickly relayed to Lance what Apple Bloom had relayed to Matt. Lance's brow furrowed at the troubling news. "Fantastic. Just what I needed to hear," he hissed, feathers ruffling as he loaded bullets in his gunblade and leveled it at the thrashing monster, who was smashing Katie into computer monitors to no avail. 

He tracked its movement, noticing it wasn't the least bit hampered with a log skewered through its stomach and a trojan horse only marginally attached to said log. "At least I now know where the damn thing's coming from…" he grumbled. He fired off six precise shots in the span of a few seconds, each bullet slamming clean into the monster's head just inches from Katie's jaws.

Yet still, it just would not keel over and die already. Its thrashing increased in tempo, with rearing on front legs shifting to a wild series of bucks that, gradually, made the log slide out of its most grievous wound. Katie tore another cunk off of its face and went in for a third bite, latching on with zombie-like fortitude that would be horrifying if she had attacked a living being in this way. Bits of crimson magic, interspersed with those odd runes forming in the mass, began to leak out like blood, but only in tiny rivulets that didn't come from its wounds.

Apple Bloom ran to Natalie and wrenched off a crystal growth halfway from her head, one that emerged before her horn like a twisted second. Some blood pooled with the action, but Apple Bloom cared not for that; she willed her magic from her hooves into the crystal, which went from black to a blisteringly bright red. She turned to the monster, threw the crystal into the air, and used the wrench to whack it in that direction like a baseball bat.

She and the others weren't sure what they expected the crystal to do, but explosions certainly weren't it. Eyes went wide as the crystal thudded into the monster's bullet-wounds, glowed with an aura shaped like an apple, and caused its head to burst with a loud bang that managed to dislodge Katie. Katie landed on her hooves and backed off, somewhat broken wings beating frantically to let her hover as they beheld the aftermath of what had just happened. 

The monster growled as a new head formed in seconds, turning to Apple Bloom with a scowl on its ever-changing face. Apple Bloom capitalized on its lack of movement, racing over with the wrench in her mouth as she took a page out of Matt's book and sliced at where the knee would be on an adult pony with as much ferocity as she could give such an attack. The monster growled, turned around, and kicked her in the chest, sending her crashing into Matt's shadows as they moved to envelop her before she could land against a wall.

She was set down on her hooves, wincing as her safety vest triggered its enchantments. Rhinoc zipped into the air, firing off more magic blasts that resolved into spinning blades of death that landed on the floor, skittered across it, and sliced new wounds into the limbs of the entity. It hissed, more magic starting to leak out of its body as it stretched to the ceiling. Everyone darted to the sides of the room except for the Major, who fired off more magic blasts at the monster even as it raced to meet him head on.

It knocked him out of the air and firmly to the ground, buzzsaw blades impaled in its second head as it withdrew to its default size. Apple Bloom turned to Matt and asked, "Y'got anymore crystals?"

"I do, but they'd be absorbed by that thing," he answered, face hardening. "That thing is a magic vacuum."

Apple Bloom nodded with a tired sigh, before noticing Sweetie doing something that should not have been possible with a harp: using her magic to hold Scootaloo aloft, hind hooves against the strings as she pulled them taut with her friend's body, front hooves outstretched and wings beating. Magic pulsed across the harp and Scootaloo seconds before she was launched, her innate magic working across her wings and speeding up her flight.

Her hooves connected with the back of the monster's head with the force of a lightning bolt, knocking it to the ground as she catapulted off of it and into Matt's shadows as they caught her. "Holey smokes, Scoots! That was amazing!" Apple Bloom cheered as Scootaloo was lowered to her hooves with a grin on her face.

Katie wasted no time with compliments; she launched herself towards the monster as it made itself stand. It quickly stretched to the ceiling to slam down on her, knocking her out of the air and to the floor with impunity before it turned to Sweetie Belle, who stood alone on the other side of the room as she cast another spell that pulsed across the room.

"Oh horseapples," Sweetie cursed, as the monster started to gallop at her. She would have started galloping herself, had she not been snatched in wooden claws and teleported to safety. She turned upwards to find Anna clutching her, using her magic to reclaim her harp and load its strings with three dozen arrows' worth of pain.

"You do realize you're going to have to return this, right?" Anna asked as the monster skid to a halt, whipped around, and snarled at her.

"Rarity practically lectured that into me," Sweetie answered bluntly. "Wouldn't let me hear the end of it otherwise."

Anna nodded, took aim, and fired all of her arrows at once. They impaled themselves into the monster, who began bleeding more magic as it screamed with a warbling voice that hurt their ears and made the air itself shudder. It charged again, intending to end them all in an instant, but NoLegs darted ahead, slashing a total of eleven times before the monster stretched and slammed into him to halt his assault.

Matt raced to the monster, impaling it with his sword clean through the chest to its rump. It reared up, kicked him in the face, stretched and slammed him down to conk him out. Afterwards, it pulled the blade out of itself with a front limb, chucking it towards Anna, who took the children and teleported to the furthest wall.

She loaded the foals into the drawstrings of her improvised bow, and gave them one instruction and one instruction alone: "Hit it as hard as you can!" With that, she launched them through the air one at a time, and they immediately heeded her command as they raced towards the monster. Scootaloo went for the chest, her strike connecting as she caused it to rear up on its hind legs. Sweetie magically grabbed a buzzsaw blade with her passing and thrust it in the monster's face, and Apple Bloom hit it across the neck with her bladed wrench with her own follow-up of pain, causing it to topple over.

Anna teleported to the foals before they could land, scooped them in her claws, and teleported to another wall with her harp. She wrenched a piece of crystal off of Natalie's scythe, loaded it in Apple Bloom's hoof, and pointed at her wrench. "Tell me what you see while I divert its attention!" she ordered, teleporting to the monster to summon another hail of arrows to lay on the hurt as it threw itself onto its legs to stand once more.

Apple Bloom studied the wrench. It had grooves for crystals to slot into, similar to the magitek she had seen so far. So that's what this was! She slotted the crystal in, used her hoof to pump magic into it, and her eyes widened as it took on the red hue of her mane. She turned to Anna as she teleported to safety. "Yer telling me I can use magitek?!" she called.

Anna nodded and teleported to the three. She scooped Apple Bloom up for another round of cannonball frenzy and loaded her into the drawstring. "Hit it with everything you've got!" she ordered before firing the filly at the monster. Apple Bloom obeyed, whacking the monster with her passing right upside the head with the improvised wrench. Magic seeped from the gemstone into the monster, making its head swell and glow as red as her mana.

Before Apple Bloom could land, the youngest Lieutenant-General teleported to her with her friends and weapons and caught her in her claws. They beheld the explosion that rent the entity's head asunder, the stump now bleeding magical charges profusely even as it resculpted its head and turned to regard them once again. Now, it was growing so unstable it could barely hold its shapeshifting form together, save for the scowl that now adorned its third head.

Sweetie charged magic bolts into her horn, forming star-like shapes that she loaded into the drawstrings of the bow-harp. She pulled them taut and fired, hitting the monster with another round of agony that oddly sounded musical upon impact with such precision that she would have made her sister proud even within these circumstances.

Anna noticed something about the three that they themselves didn't, but opted to turn to their shared enemy instead. "You three, stay here. It might not look like it, but it's on its last legs," she said, studying the monster carefully.

"How can you tell?" Sweetie asked, as the monster yanked the arrows out of its body to hurl them in their direction. Anna deflected the arrows with her magic, turning them back around to send them screaming through the air at the beast that besieged the room.

"It never pulls out weapons from its body otherwise. We've fought this thing enough to learn its habits," Anna replied, charging forward and leaving her grimoire and harp behind as she made her lunge. She clawed at the monster with all her might, but it stretched and slammed her into the floor with impunity. Once she was incapacitated, it turned to the children as it heard the sounds of the harp being played, and teleported over to them before they could react.

Sweetie and her friends were cornered, the monster looming over them as the harp had a frantic tune plucked upon its strings. The monster laughed and jeered in their faces, the final celebratory taunt before it would incapacitate them. Sweetie didn't know what the name of the spell she was casting had been, keeping her gaze upon the grimoire as she memorized the notes and the cross symbol etched next to its name.

But even that had been snatched from her; the monster lifted a hoof and swatted the grimoire clean out of her focus, and cupped her chin to force her to behold its terrible might alongside her friends. As the last few notes of the song played out, its aura pulsing across the room and across the fallen combatants, the monster batted aside the harp as well, its sneer widening to truly sickening degrees that even Pinkie Pie would shudder at. It also knocked the wrench out of Apple Bloom's hooves before she could get the chance to use it again.

For the first time, it spoke in a chillingly damning baritone, its 'voice' echoing in a way that sounded as though a mare and stallion were talking in tandem. "Out of time, impudent foals. Your best wasn't enough… and soon, you shall know your places among the fallen that came before you, the arcane shadows of the past drowning in oblivion… the price paid for your petulance."

Somepony stirred, but the Crusaders weren't sure who was moving. Metal, or something sounding close to it, scraped across the floor. The creature paid no heed to the noise, nor to the sound of galloping hooves increasing in volume, its wounded body starting to slowly stretch up to the ceiling as it prepared the coup de grâce to end them.

Its last, and greatest mistake was to taunt them one more time. "Any last words, worthless children?" The Crusaders didn't have time to answer as somepony slashed at the monster's neck before it could make it even a quarter of the way to the ceiling, the attack whizzing over the foals' heads and causing the monster to let out a gargled choke as its head separated from its neck and fell to the floor. A second later, its body fell opposite of its head, and a magic circle formed underneath it to make a cross symbol with runes in its body.

The foul magic making the entity vanished without another trace. The Crusaders looked up to find Natalie standing just behind where the entity had fallen, scythe in a clawed hoof similar to Anna's and her horn aglow. The weapon clattered to the floor, the crystals broke away from her body, and she raced to scoop the children in her forelegs with a tight hug.

She didn't admonish them, scold them, or criticise them. She didn't yell, curse, or scream. She didn't read them the riot act, nor break out into drill sergeant mode to tear a strip off their hides. She simply muttered, "You've fought well…" and hugged them tighter. They returned the hug, and broke apart a moment later as they heard more ponies rising to stand.

Anna trotted over, nursing her head in her foreclaw. "Okay, where the hell are my harp and spellbook?" she grumbled. Sweetie pointed to where they lay with both hooves, and Anna lit her horn to reclaim them before sending them to the ether. She glared at Natalie. "And whose idea was it to let them handle my belongings?"

"I don't think we should hold it against them," Natalie said patiently, with the air of somepony who might have had to explain this once or twice to a stubborn mule before. She stood up and smiled. "Besides… without them, we might have been goners this time."

Anna snorted, shaking her head. A rueful smile crossed her face. "And how are we gonna explain this to their guardians?" she retorted.

Natalie turned to the brave children, and her eyes lit up as she noticed fading light fleeing from their flanks. "I think I know how…" she said, and without another word pointed at Scootaloo's flank. Scootaloo followed her hoof, and her eyes went wide at what she saw: a winged lightning bolt angled upright, with three stars crowding around its strikepoint.

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, seeing this, turned to their own flanks to behold a harp surrounded by three stars and three musical notes arranged in a hexagon, and an apple made of a red gemstone embedded on a bladed wrench with three stars shining off both surfaces. They looked at each other, and at Scootaloo, all dead silent, expressions dawning with understanding. The adults and cat crowded around them, each beaming as they beheld the new marks adorning the fillies' flanks.

It wasn't long before Lance came over to pat them on the head, smiling with a twinkle in his eye. "Well now… didn't expect that…" he said wryly. "Looks like I gotta arrange an awards ceremony for you three, for your help today." He gestured to their cutie marks. "And for that, as well."

Katie made the wise decision to gesture towards her ears, making eye contact with Rhinoc the entire way. He nodded, conjured the earmuffs, and slipped them on her head in time to block out the ear-splitting eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! that echoed through the room a moment later. The Crusaders hugged one another, squealing in delight, tears in their eyes as the adults watched them prance in a tight circle upon the floor.

"We got our cutie marks! We got our cutie marks!" they chanted, euphoria running through their systems and making them bounce up and down in place. They were stopped by a stray hoof, and turned to the owner of that hoof as she smiled at them.

"You've also earned extra ice cream tonight," Natalie said, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "And probably cupcakes from Pinkie, now that I think about it." Her smile widened. "How's about your cute-ceañera as part of the awards ceremony?"

Another squeal from the three was all the answer the adults needed. They nodded, and began talking amongst themselves to make sudden preparations for a well-earned party. The Crusaders let them talk it out, too excited over their own victory to really bother chipping in.

Best. Day. Ever.