With the forest wild and impassable, Twilight was forced to abandon her mage’s robe in favour of pain pants and a buckskin jacket Moondancer had bought for her on her fifteenth birthday, just before she passed out of the advanced alchemy and wizardry classes to become the Sun Queen’s full-time apprentice.
It was still as soft as the day she opened it, mostly because Twilight had never worn the thing before, although she didn’t have the heart to tell that to Moondancer. The only difference now was that it had become a little too short, doing a poor job of preventing the Everfree’s twigs and branches from whipping up and snagging on her shirt.
She looked back to the others. “Will you all pick up the pace? What kind of adventuring guild can’t even hike through the woods?”
The four of them failed to respond, focusing instead on the shadows dancing in the trees, or the black clouds that circled above them. Rainbow Dash clung to Applejack’s shoulder, looking more like a parrot compared to the hulking mass of a woman. Fluttershy seemed more at ease with walking in the woods but jumped at the sight of every shadow.
Twilight looked above, to where the arachnaed had done an excessive job of weaving a thread through the branches, scuttling her eight legs across interlocking branches.
“Y’see sugarcube, we ain’t ever been on a real adventure before,” Applejack explained. “And the other guilds ain’t looking for our kind of skills.”
“Speak for yourself, darling,” Rarity said, “my silk has fashioned some of the most excellent couture in Dawnstead.”
“Rar, cocooning a banker to drink his blood ain’t the same as dressing him up.”
“Well, he didn’t seem to mind.”
“Because you drugged him!”
“Yes, but he didn’t die, I just took a little sip, that’s all. So I don’t really see the problem.”
“Both of you shut up!” Twilight snapped. “Rainbow Dash, why don’t you fly over the trees and see where we need to go. We’re too far for me to sense its magic, but the old castle should still be visible from the air.”
“How am I supposed to get up there? I’ll break my wings if I try to fly through all those branches. Can you at least summon some armour for me first?”
“What? First of all, you can just climb to the top and then fly. Secondly, that’s not what summoning means. The things I summon have to come from a pre-designated space. For me, it’s my personal library, I can bring any small item from there to me with a portal. I can’t make something I don’t own.”
“Why don’t you own armour?”
“Why would I own armour?”
Rainbow Dash pouted. “Because armour is cool. Ugh, fine! I’ll find those clues.”
She climbed up on Applejack’s head and started pushing her way up the branches, going higher than even Rarity, until only her scaly talons were visible from below.
“Um, girls?” Rainbow said. “The trees are way too dense. I think I’m stuck.”
“Oh for the Queen’s sake,” Twilight muttered, “Applejack?”
“Yeah, I got it.” The farm girl pulled herself over a thick, low-hanging branch, standing on it and easily wrapping her whole hand around Rainbow’s leg. She pulled and the trees bent down with her, but eventually, they started to pull back like an over-stretched spring.
“Gosh, tough little things, ain’t they?”
“Little?” Twilight raised a brow. “You mean the two or three trees that you’re fighting against? Look, try breaking some of the branches around her. You can use my staff, it can take it.”
Applejack took the white-painted staff from Twilight and puffed out her chest as she wound up a heavy swing.
“W-wait!” Rainbow panicked. “Isn’t she going to hit me too? Yeow!”
The harpy squealed and cawed as Applejack swung, snapping off dozens of tiny branches that had tangled around Rainbow’s wings and legs. Slowly, and quite painfully, Rainbow slid down from the trees.
“Alright, here’s the big one!” Applejack heaved, tearing Twilight’s staff through the remaining branches. Rainbow flew out, her light frame spiralling out of control in the air and crashing into Twilight.
They both took a tumble, and Twilight braced herself to hit her back against a tree or get a bush in her face. Instead, they rolled through the underbrush and off the side of a cliff.
“Wha—!” Twilight cried, instinctively grabbing at the first thing she saw. A tree root jutting from the cliff saved her, if only for a moment. “Rainbow? Rainbow Dash, I need you to lift me up a bit.” Twilight strained her head around to see where the harpy had gone, only to find her unconscious in a bush below them.
“Don’t worry darling,” Rarity called. “I’ll weave a rope for you. Can you hold on for an hour or two?”
“I don’t think I have two minutes!” Twilight struggled, feeling her arms burning already from the exertion.
“It’s alright,” Applejack said, popping her over the cliff and extending Twilight’s staff down to her. “Grab on and I’ll pull you up.”
But the moment Twilight took one hand off the root to grab at her staff, she felt herself slipping. “Nope! I can’t. If I let go, I’ll fall.”
“I won’t let that happen, I promise,” Applejack said, “and that’s the whole, honest truth. I’ll do everything I can to get you up.”
“Just because you’re honest doesn’t make you right, Applejack,” Twilight said, her voice straining as her fingers felt like they were breaking.
“Uh, girls?” Fluttershy whispered from somewhere behind Rarity. “I think I could grow some roots to catch her, maybe, if you just stepped out of the way and let me—”
“I know you’re scared, Twilight,” Applejack said, “but I’m asking you to just trust me.”
“No! I barely even know you!”
“Do it, and I promise you’ll be fine.”
Already at the end of the root, Twilight didn’t see any other choice. She tightened her grip and threw a hand out for her staff.
And then she fell.
Really, really far.
Using a first aid kit summoned from her library, Twilight changed the bandages on her leg. A bush had caught her fall, but not without leaving a parting gift, a snapped branch in her thigh. Applejack insisted she knew all along that Twilight would survive, explaining how Rainbow Dash crashed a lot from her flights and fell greater distances than just a cliff.
“Rainbow is a harpy,” Twilight tried to explain. “Her weight and wings mean her terminal velocity is lower than a human. I didn’t survive because you were being honest, I got lucky.”
But her complaints fell on occupied ears. While Twilight made sure her wound didn’t get infected, the Knights were focused on another threat. At the end of the gorge, where a steep slope led back up to the forest, stood a manticore.
“Oh boy, this is really happening! My first monster encounter!” Rainbow Dash shook Twilight’s shoulder. “Quick, summon a weapon for me, we gotta kill it.”
“I don’t have a weapon,” Twilight groaned. “And manticores aren’t territorial, they wander all over the place to hunt. They’re actually pretty timid around people, we could scare it away with loud sounds or—”
“Scare it away?” Applejack rolled up her sleeves. “When it’s got all that meat on its bones? We’re gon’ take that big bastard and cook him up, sous vide.”
“Of course you are. Look, manticores are incredibly poisonous, I don’t think you’re ready.” But again, Twilight’s warning fell on deaf ears as Applejack reached into her boot and produced a hunting knife. Fluttershy joined behind her, taking a tree branch off the ground as a conduit for her druidic magic.
The manticore roared, its tail swiping low at Applejack’s legs, but she was fast for her size, her calves exploding out in a frantic charge as she crashed into the manticore. Despite her size, she was only human, and the monster responded with a quick slash with its claws, swatting the farmer aside like a fly.
“You’re really going to let this happen?” Twilight asked Fluttershy. “What kind of druid are you?”
“Oh, well, I know this seems counterintuitive,” Fluttershy said, “but nature needs to be in balance. There can’t be life without death.” She pointed the branch to the manticore’s leg, which was already shaking and limping before Applejack could land a clean cut with her knife. “This one must’ve fallen down like you did. It won’t be able to climb out in this state, and it’ll probably starve. Isn’t it better to end its suffering now?”
“Or, you know, you could heal its leg,” Twilight suggested.
“Don’t y’all worry!” Applejack said. “We ain’t got time to waste tending to it, there’s a demon running amok, ain’t there? Better for everyone if I just kill it.”
“Mhm,” Twilight pressed her lips together, “that’s not happening anytime soon.” She spun her staff and summoned her clay construct, hound-like in shape and armed with sharpened quills.
Commanded by her mind, the construct charged the manticore, firing a volley of hardened spikes into the monster’s side. It roared, spun around, and injected its scorpion tail into the construct’s back. Venom leaked uselessly off the clay, however, and the surprised manticore was overtaken quickly as Applejack lept in to slash its neck open.
Any normal person would have found their blow deflected by the monster’s thick hide. But Twilight was left unsurprised. This girl was no normal person, mentally or physically. After a panicked retreat, the manticore fell flat on its side over a spreading tide of its own blood.
Applejack climbed over the monster and plunged her knife into its heart. “And that’s how you catch the ingredients for manticore sous vide. Anyone got sweet potatoes?”
The moon’s full, bright face began to fade as they moved further into the forest. Growing denser and denser, the branches above were nearly an impenetrable roof. Twilight and the guild moved at a sluggish pace, marred by tangled roots snagging at their feet. It hardly helped that Applejack insisted on carrying with her the manticore’s body.
“Druids are supposed to command trees,” Twilight grumbled when it had become evident that the path ahead would only be slower. “At this rate, that demon will recover its power and consume the village as a side dish.”
Fluttershy hid behind her curtain-like hair. “I think of it more like suggesting than commanding. And these old growths are very stubborn, you know.”
Perched on Rarity’s back, Rainbow Dash squawked at Twilight’s complaining. “Why don’t you use some magic to clear the trees?”
“If I made a fire that strong, it would spread and take us with it,” Twilight replied. “Maybe if we dropped the manticore and focused on the more pressing task, we’d be able to find the demon’s place of power.”
“That might be, but we don’t even know if we can stop that demon,” Applejack said, “and if this adventure don’t work out, we gotta have a backup plan for what we’re going to serve our customers.”
“Yes, something that doesn’t include my eggs,” Rainbow added.
“Stop talking as if I’m part of your guild,” Twilight growled. “I represent the Crown and the Sun Queen herself. I am Her Majesty’s appointed inspector sent to issue your guild its paperwork. There is no ‘we.’”
She stopped marching.”I don’t know why any of you think you could form a functioning guild. You’re barely functioning people.” Then, Twilight turned around.
“Darling, where are you going?” asked the arachnaed.
“Back to the village to find a real mercenary guild. Maybe they’ll pick up your corpses when I come back, I doubt any of you can get out of here on your own.”
She used her staff to batter aside invasive branches, but barely managed to take five steps before toppling over.
“Ha!” Rainbow Dash cackled. “Looks like we’re not the helpless ones here.”
Twilight pushed herself off the ground and looked down at her ankles. There was a reddish handprint around it. “I didn’t trip. There’s something in the trees watching us.” She immediately started drawing a circle to summon her construct.
“Nice try, we just saw you fall.”
Without warning, a flurry of pink rushed out from under the tree roots, tackling Twilight onto her back before she could finish her circle.
“No one talks to my friends that way!”
A flash of light brought Twilight’s attention to the creature’s hand. It had a kitchen knife raised and ready to plunge. Untrained in fighting, but certainly gripped with fear, Twilight swung her staff wildly, knocking back the ball of pink.
Only after did she recognize it as the house sprite from before, the brownie who was supposedly the organiser for the Summer Sun Festival.
“Pinkie Pie, easy girl, she’s with us!”
Miraculously, Applejack yanked up the pink-haired sprite, holding her in one arm while she carried the manticore in the other.
“What? But she just called you all useless.”
“She’s just frustrated is all. Seems like we’re a bit stuck in these here woods. You wouldn’t happen to know a way out, would you?”
The house sprite gave her a sly look. “Please, who do you think you’re talking to?” She grabbed her legs and curled into a ball, and like a snake swallowing its own tail, began to shrink endlessly into her own boots until she was gone.
A silent moment passed by and then she popped her head up from behind a tree branch a few steps away. “The path’s a bit twisty, but follow the sound of my voice!” She disappeared again and resurfaced even further. “Was that enough time? Or are you still stuck?”
“Just you hold on, we’re coming,” Applejack called. With her free hand, she helped Twilight to her feet.
“Reckon you still want to head back, don’t ya? Ain’t gotta worry about us, with Pinkie we’ll be able to find our way. Girl’s got her Pinkie Sense.”
“Pixie Sense,” Twilight corrected, brushing the leaves off her jerkin. “Faeries, pixies, and house sprites have naturally powerful connections to magic. It’s a good thing they prefer pranks and tricks over anything else. We should be fine to go ahead, as long as everyone can stay focused on our mission.”
Twilight commanded her construct to claw at the branches ahead, widening the path for Applejack and the others as she followed Pinkie through the narrow gaps in the woods. She kept her right hand on her staff while her left fluttered fingers through the air, feeling for the demon’s magic.
They were nearing it.
“End of the line, folks!” Pinkie said, popping up behind a bush. “Looks like the river’s going crazy tonight, no way across without drowning.”
“I’ve studied the geography of the region, there are no rapids,” Twilight said. “How can a river suddenly grow fierce?”
“Flooding? Witches? The fury of the Almighty Cthon?”
As Twilight moved ahead and commanded her construct to shear the bushes away, she saw that it was none of those. Stuck in the middle of the river was a sea serpent caught in a net of chains.
“Goodness me,” Rarity voiced as she skittered behind, “I’ve never seen hair so fine.” She pointed to the mane of the serpent, which shook a heavy mist into the air as it fought against the chains. The hair had the colour of gold, though a reddish tint made it glisten in the water like a clear sunset after a storm.
“Lots of meat on that one too,” Applejack said, wiping her mouth.
“Don’t even try,” Twilight told them both, “provoking it won’t do anything but get us eaten. We need to calm it down, or find another way around.”
“Didn’t the demon say she was trying to regain her power?” Fluttershy asked. “I don’t think we have time to go around”
“Demon?” The serpent’s roar cut off the women’s voices, and water-soaked them all as he whipped around to see them. “You know her? Where is she? I’ll have my revenge for what she’s done!”
“Great serpent, we too seek to fight this night demon!” Twilight shouted. “Your chains are far too much for us to release you, but I promise, as the Sun Queen’s apprentice I will bring the demon’s magic to heel.”
“Chains? I don’t care about chains!” The serpent gestured to himself. “These help me sleep. I have a terrible sleep swimming problem, always ending up in places I shouldn’t be.”
“Oh? Er, well, in that case,” Twilight hesitated, “what exactly did the demon do?”
“Only the worst crime one can do to a serpent!” The river swelled as he sunk his whole body under the water, stretching out and bringing his head to the river banks for the girls to see. “My moustache!”
He pointed a claw to the shaved stump on one half of his face. “That crooked demon said sea serpent hair is a natural conduit for magic, then she stripped me of my hair to weave a robe! Of all the humiliations, this cannot stand!”
“You’re worried,” Twilight groaned, “about your moustache?”
“Don’t make light of the issue, girl,” he snarled. “We sea serpents are elegant and glorious creatures. We’re beyond the petty squabbles of daily life and conflict, and it is our birthright to have hair that reflects the importance of our station.”
Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. “Alright Applejack, you can kill him.”
The serpent gasped. “I beg your pardon?”
“Ain’t gotta tell me twice,” Applejack smiled rolling up her sleeves. She threw the corpse of the manticore at him, catching his eye with the scorpion stinger, before drawing her knife and growling like a monster herself. “Yippee-kay-yay, you sonavah bitch! Come to mama!”
She couldn’t believe Applejack and Rarity had stayed behind to butcher the creature, but she wasn’t going to start complaining either.
The silence was bliss for Twilight, and it helped her focus on the demon’s magic. They were so close now. Whatever her place of power was, it was a massive wellspring. Rainbow Dash flew ahead of them without much effort, while Fluttershy only complained about a slight headache as they went.
But for Twilight and Pinkie Pie, a mage and a house sprite both highly attuned to magic, pushing through the demon magic was like climbing up a waterfall. Twilight endured, pulling her focus inward, the magical equivalent of holding one’s breath by hiding her powers deep within herself so the demon’s corrupting influence couldn’t strip it away from her. Casting spells would be nearly impossible without first expanding her power back to the surface of her mind, but with training, the time to shift her focus lessened.
For a house sprite, however, the demon’s influence was incapacitating. Pinkie clung to Fluttershy’s back, weakly groaning whenever she regained consciousness. But at least her noises now were muffled in Fluttershy’s hair.
“Bridge ahead,” Rainbow Dash called from the sky. “Think we should cross it?”
A bridge? Twilight massaged her temples, trying to take in the harpy’s words. The night demon’s presence made her thoughts like a fog, but put a puzzle in front of her, and Twilight found that she could focus enough to think it through.
“It’s an illusion,” she said weakly. “We’re in the middle of the Everfree, how could there be a bridge out here?”
“Applejack said there’s an old castle in the forest,” Rainbow said, “why couldn’t there be a rope bridge?”
“Because that castle predates the Sun Queen’s reign,” Twilight snapped. “A rope bridge, any bridge for that matter, couldn’t last a thousand years.”
“Well, there’s a massive gorge and we’re at the narrowest part of it. We’re going to have to cross.”
Twilight nudged Fluttershy. “Can you command the roots and vines to form a bridge for us?”
“Why me?” Fluttershy turned.
“Because architectural magic isn’t my strong suit,” she answered, “and even if it was, it would take too much power to cast that kind of spell. My magic comes from an internal reserve of power. Normally, I can replenish it immediately by drawing from the ambient magic around me, but the forest is thick with the demon’s influence. If I draw on my magic to cast a spell, her place of power is going to sap my reserves by the time I finish the bridge.”
“I suppose I can try.”
Fluttershy cast her druidic magic, using a dead tree branch as a medium to attune herself to the forces of nature. Like Twilight, she drew from the ambient magic around her, but rather than acting like a battery and storing that power, Fluttershy was a conduit for the living energy that permeated all organic beings. As long as the forest was still filled with natural life, the demon would have to corrupt the spell directly in order to interrupt it.
With Twilight watching Fluttershy’s spell closely, Rainbow Dash’s attention was turned to the other side of the cavern. She tested the bridge, and surely enough, her talons swept clean through the ropes, dispelling the illusion. Black air, almost like smoke but so dark it was as if it absorbed the light around it, flew from the illusion and manifested among the trees in the form of the night demon herself.
“Is that—?” Rainbow mumbled before Twilight cut her off with a hiss.
“It’s a shade, an after-effect of the illusion.”
Rainbow squinted at the form’s wispy arms. “I think she’s waving to me. Why is it doing that?”
“Shades can leave recorded messages, she’s just trying to get in our heads.”
“It looks like she wants to talk.”
All it took was a moment for Twilight to break her concentration and actually process what Rainbow was saying, but by that time the harpy had already flown across to greet the shade.
“No! Get back here!” Twilight shouted though she knew they were too far apart to be heard.
Rainbow Dash fluttered around the shade’s head, unnerved by how her head followed her every motion. She tentatively poked the smokey shape, but it simply turned into a mist and reformed one step away.
It flickered as the ground beneath crumbled, the roots of the trees breaking through on this side to join with Fluttershy’s bridge.
“Looks like you can’t stop us,” Rainbow taunted, kicking at the shade.
The illusion flickered again, but this time when it reformed it seemed to come alive, walking on the ground like a real person and even making the subtle motions of breathing and shifting its weight, despite being pure mist.
“Response recognized,” the shade said, and suddenly its face solidified into the night demon’s. She had narrow, seductive black eyes highlighted with rings of purple, a stand-in for irises, and weightlessly swayed her hips around Rainbow Dash as she pretended to walk.
“Poor little Dashie,” the shade spoke with an ear-tickling whisper. “You’re nothing more than a caged bird to your friends. If you can even call them that.”
“Nice try, but Twilight already told me your game plan. I’m not letting you get to me so easily.”
“Oh? And what does that bookworm know?” The shade pointed across the ravine. “Does she look like she even cares about you? She’s not even worried about you talking to the big, bad demon.”
Rainbow knitted her brows together. “I can handle myself, and she knows it.”
“Is that who you are? Someone who handles herself? Or a harpy whose bones are so fragile you hurt yourself just by flying too fast.”
“How do you—”
“I’m not just a night demon, my little birdie. I am the night demon, the mother of the evils and dreams, and I can see all your little fears. You call yourself loyal, but you’re afraid it’s being taken advantage of, that you have no one who’s truly worthy of your loyalty. Like that farmer, for instance.”
“Applejack’s my friend.”
The shade shook its shoulder up and down, miming a laugh. “I might have been imprisoned for a few centuries, but the concept of friendship hasn’t changed, has it? You are the sole reason your guild even exists. Harpy egg omelettes? A delicious idea, but she doesn’t even care how you feel about it, does she? And look at Twilight, the Sun Queen’s know-it-all magician. From the moment she entered the forest she’s treated you all like annoyances. Who does she think she is?”
“T—that’s just how people from Dawnstead are.”
“I’m from Dawnstead,” the shade said, stretching open her arms and showing off her impressively curved figure. “Do I seem like her?”
Rainbow dropped from the sky, standing tentatively as she eyed the shade. “No, you don’t. You’re a demon, you’re evil. And I’m going to become a real hero who stops demons like you!”
“Do you think you can?” The shade vanished and appeared behind her, scaring Rainbow so badly that she fell on her back. The impact was enough to send a shock of pain through her shoulders, and for a moment she panicked at the thought that she might’ve fractured her bones again.
“Or maybe you’re just a runt with no power of her own, who’s so used to being frightened and injured she’s willing to let anyone use her as long as she gets to live a dream.”
“Stop it! You’re wrong! We’re the Knights of the Feast Table, and I’m going to be a knight!” Rainbow cried and covered her ears, but it was pointless, the shade’s voice was soft but managed to penetrate her entire body.
“Perhaps, but not like this, not with them.” The shade stepped over Rainbow and stood between her and Twilight. “The druid’s too cowardly to learn the true powers of her craft, and the mage is defeated just by my presence. Leave them and fly at my side instead. I have already arrived at my place of power, and with every passing second I grow stronger. I will bless you with more magic than you can imagine, strengthening your body and turning you into a true knight.”
With a wave of her misty hand, the shade conjured an image of a harpy three times the average size. Where Rainbow was skinny and frail, the image was thick and rippling with muscles.
“You can give me that body?”
“I can give you the world,” the shade promised, “if only you swear to be my Shadowbolt, to be my knight above all others.”
“No strings attached? You won’t try to eat my eggs?”
The shade mimed another laugh. “Not unless you want me to.”
Rainbow Dash forced herself to her feet, not believing the thoughts that were running through her head. But everything that the demon said was true, and she knew it. Twilight was an emissary of the Sun Queen herself, and it was clear that the guild was a joke to her. How long until they actually made it big as heroes? Would that day ever come?
“What would I have to do to deserve your power?”
The shade folded her arms. “It’s quite simple, little birdie. Once I drain my place of power, the demon magic flowing from it will stop interfering with that mage and she will be free to bother me with her spells.”
“You want me to fight her for you?”
“No, you wouldn’t stand a chance. What you simply need to do is—”
“Howdy! Who’s that you’re talking to, Rainbow Dash?” Applejack’s booming voice was the only one that could cross the ravine. “That ain’t the demon, is it?”
“No, why now?” Rainbow panicked. She grabbed at the shade, trying to hold onto it. “Tell me, tell me now! How do I receive your power? What do I have to do?”
“What’s going on there?” Applejack shouted. “Is that magic thing-a-majig hurting you, Dashie? Nu-uh, nobody lays a hand on my friends!” The massive woman roared, bounding onto the roots that had already grown out to form the bridge. It was incomplete, but the gap between the two ends was narrow enough for Applejack to cross in a single leap.
Applejack reached for her knife, drawing it while she still flew through the air. Her resolve scattered the bats and owls, sounding more like a mad timberwolf than a human. And then she was a blur of blade and muscle, tearing through the mist, slashing and punching the air until the figure of the demon dispersed into the air.
Applejack spat on the floor. “That’ll teach ‘em. You okay, Dashie?”
“What?” Rainbow Dash mumbled, still dazed by everything that happened. It was less than a second, but she felt as if she had seen the rest of her life vanish before her eyes. “W—why? Why is this happening to me?” She clutched her head, and with nothing else to do, she simply started sobbing.
“Aw, it’s alright,” Applejack scooped Rainbow up in one arm as if she were an infant. “I know that was frightening, but just let mama bear take care of it. I’ll fix you up a nice omelette when we get back home.”
“No. No! Let me go!” Rainbow Dash wailed.
Applejack stared at her with a curious grin. “What’s this all about?”
“Don’t listen to her,” Twilight said, finally crossing over Fluttershy’s bridge. “She probably triggered another illusion trap. It’ll wear off once we kill the demon.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Night demon!” Rainbow Dash wailed, but her thrashing and stuffy-nosed sobbing could not break Applejack's iron grip. She might as well have been a puppy tugging at its collar. She certainly felt trapped like one.
“Mother of Evils, please take me! I want your power. I want you. Please, I’m begging!”
As the moon reached its zenith above them and shadowy bodies started to emerge from behind trees and the unlit undergrowth, Twilight looked on in amazement at Applejack. The young woman was a straightforward brute, but the lesser demons that emerged from the forest, each one strong enough to bring down a knight in full plate armour, shattered from the force of her punches.
The silhouette of the castle was in view now, and hope came alive for an instant. Twilight could feel the place of power fading, letting her draw a bit of magic to create a portal back to her library, summoning scrolls enchanted with spells of flame and force to create explosions against the demons that evaded Applejack’s assault.
The other members of the guild seemed to feel the same. Even Fluttershy shed her cowardice and created a barrier of branches and vines behind them, preventing any demons from sneaking up while they pressed forward.
Pinkie Pie did her part as well, using her house sprite magic to mark and illuminate the demons lurking in the dark. Those who hesitated to attack were caught in a thick net of spider webbing, courtesy of Rarity.
It seemed for a moment that they would make it to the castle quickly, catching the demon before she could reclaim all her power, but then a shriek caught them all off-guard. It came from the demon in Applejack’s grasp, the one she was about to crush into a pulp. Instead, it melted into an oily blob, reforming into the shape of a spike.
“Shit,” Twilight cursed before the first blow came.
A long, hooked tentacle whipped out and caught Applejack across the arm from elbow to shoulder. More tentacles erupted, slashing apart the web trappings the arachnaed had created around them and allowing more demons to rush in.
“What is that?” Fluttershy screamed, falling back into her usual fear. Roots grew up to ensnare the demon, but it broke its spiked form and reconfigured as a giant wolf to lunge at the druid.
But before its jaws could snap around her throat, Twilight drew a circle with her staff, emptying a random assortment of dresses over the demon’s eyes.
“Tantabus demon,” Twilight said.
“You keep your clothes in your library?” Rarity gasped with more shock than she had all night when she saw the discarded wardrobe. “And you haven’t changed your outfits in a few years I see.”
“Not the time, spider,” Twilight grunted, ripping a fire scroll and setting the bundle of clothes on fire.
But the tantabus demon was nothing like the lesser demons. Even set on fire, it still twisted impossibly as Applejack and Pinkie Pie tried to get behind it, and when that was not enough to stop the giant from punching apart its wolf tail it swirled into an oily, writhing ball, sprouting tentacles and eye stalks in every direction. Tendrils snaked around Twilight's arms and legs, immobilising her staff.
She opened her mouth to call out a spell, but the demon moved quicker than sound, slithering more of itself down her throat. Twilight tried gasping for air, but there was nothing but the demon’s formless body, suffocating her with each desperate attempt to breathe.
“Let her go!” Applejack yelled.
Again and again, the farm girl fought the demon blow for blow, splattering its attempts to tangle her up and returning punches of her own. But it was a battle of attrition. Her right arm had been sliced open, down to the bone, and she had as much blood on her as she did demon sludge.
In the corner of her blurred vision, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash on her knees, her feathered arms pressed together in a prayer position to the moon. “I’m sorry! I’ll be a good knight, I promise! Just spare me!”
It was too good to be true, she told herself as she faded in and out of consciousness. But they put up a good fight, at least. I guess I had them pegged wrong. If only they had the chance to prove themselves as knights.
She was fighting back before she knew it, her body shaking in violent spasms as every instinct told her she needed to breathe. She was dimly aware of Pinkie trying to blind the tantabus demon with flashes of light and of Fluttershy calling to birds to harry it with their talons. She tried ignoring them, ignoring everything except the peace of her own death. It was a short one, but it was one spent in complete service to the greatest being in the kingdom. No, the world.
It’s over. Can’t you realise it? She understood it was just her base instincts, the part of her mind that still acted like a wild animal. Chemicals flooded her system to dull the pain and strengthen her body, but she had spent years with her nose to the books. If a monster like Applejack couldn’t over power the tantabus, it was hopeless for her.
So Twilight was surprised when she realised her body was still fighting, and fighting harder than it should have. What is it? What are you fighting for? She wanted to at least go in peace, but the question burned in her head until she couldn’t stand it. With the last shred of will left in her body, Twilight forced her eyes open.
Black sludge covered her face, marring her vision as the demon still fought to choke her with its tendrils, but through the dripping splotches, she saw the Knights of the Feast Table beating back the demon. Rarity had managed to cocoon parts of the tantabus in a web so thick even its fluid body could not seep through, save for a single opening.
There, Applejack stood over the demon. Her right arm had gone limp, but with the other she managed to beat the tantabus into a splattered puddle, forcing it into the arachnaed’s webbing. But they weren’t enough. Even as it retreated, the demon was reforming.
Half-dead and lungs burning, Twilight’s senses as a mage could still see the magic the demon was drawing on. All around them, the magic flowing from the night demon’s font of power was feeding the tantabus, allowing it to reconstitute itself from any injury. They’re going to die if I don’t help, Twilight realised.
She shoved her hand through the demon’s body, feeling around for her staff. Her fingertip brushed it, but even that was enough to channel a burst from raw magic through it, exploding the tantabus for a second and bringing the staff back into her hand.
Twilight coughed, ejecting as much of the demon’s sludge from her throat. She still swallowed some of it as she gasped for breath, but the small relief that brought to her lung was enough to move her muscles. She drew a circle below the demon and the web sac, letting all of it fall through the circle as sealing it before it could escape.
Applejack pumped her good fist up, giving a ragged howl over their victory. But Twilight could not celebrate. She felt a stirring in her stomach, and she immediately clutched her mouth as she retched and threw up the last remnant of the tantabus demon.
It swirled around on the ground, barely larger than a slug, but already growing as it drew from the night demon’s place of power.
“Not a chance,” Twilight said, scooping it back up in her hand.
“How do you stop that?” Fluttershy said. “I can’t do a cleansing ritual fast enough.”
“I only know of one way,” Twilight answered hesitantly. “But it’s really going to suck.” She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. “Demonicum presido,” she whispered, and then she swallowed the demon again.
“What in the world?” Applejack gawked. “Does… does it taste good?”
Twilight covered her mouth with both hands, tears streaming down her face as she felt the demon wriggling in her throat, trying to fight its way out. At the same time, her body tensed and spasmed, sending her every possible signal to reject the thing she was eating. But doing so would mean they’d have to fight the demon again after a few minutes, so she swallowed anyway.
“Demon trapping spell,” she said with a ragged gasp when it finally stopped struggling. “Normally we enchant cages, but that takes time. Enchanting magically attuned organisms is almost instantaneous.”
She shot the house sprite a jealous look. “Just be glad I didn’t feed it to you.”
“So, not a good cooking ingredient, I reckon,” Applejack said.
“I’ll leave my feedback with the Reviewer’s Guild,” Twilight said. “Right now, we have bigger demons to catch.”
As the night demon was growing stronger, her place of power diminished. But standing at the gates of the ancient castle, Twilight could still feel its influence.
“Can’t continue,” Pinkie said weakly, leaning on Applejack’s leg. “My head, it hurts.”
“Then don’t get in my way,” Twilight said. “Goes double for you, farm girl. We barely survived our way here. That arm won’t do any good in a fight.”
Applejack looked to her arm, all bandaged in Rarity’s webbing to staunch the bleeding. Then she frowned and flexed her good arm. “In case you forgot, I beat that tanta-whatever to a pulp.”
Twilight nodded. “And now you’re tired, admit it. Even you have your limits.”
“Ain’t at them yet,” Applejack insisted.
“Hey, maybe we should wait?” Rainbow Dash suggested. “If this place of power is affecting your magic, won’t it be easier to fight when it’s drained?”
“It’s more dangerous to let that night demon take it all,” Twilight said. “If she reaches her full potential, she could kill thousands before the Sun Queen gets to her.”
“So good of you to think so highly of me.” The cackling voice of the night demon cut the girls short as they all looked up to the castle’s crumbling tower. There, outlined against the light of the full moon, stood the night demon. “But unfortunately for you, this time my sister will be outmatched.”
“You’re really here?” Rainbow gasped and fell to her knees. “I haven’t helped them, I swear! I’m yours, I’ll be your knight! I want to live a happy, omelette free life!”
“What in tarnation?” Applejack’s eyes widened at Rainbow’s words. Then, she shot a sharpened glare at the demon. “What kind of mind trickery did you do to her? She loves making omelettes. Give her back!”
“I don’t agree with that motivation but at least your heart’s in the right place,” Twilight said as she raised her staff. “We’re taking you down tonight. In the name of the Sun Queen!”
“Come and try,” the night demon sneered as she spread her wings, the full moon behind her seeming to wane with her action until its light was completely gone and they were all drenched in darkness.
A new moon, Twilight thought to herself, immediately looking around for other demons. Points for poetic presentation, I suppose.
And just like that, all her magic flooded to her fingertips, pumping into the stones of the tower. “Petra animus,” she uttered.
The old stones of the tower started reforming an instant later, immediately ripping themselves from the structure to come together as a magically animated arm or leg.
“I need time to build this!” Twilight yelled, but she didn’t need to bother. Applejack reacted quickly, launching Rarity with a throw from her good arm. The arachnaed spun a net as she flew, casting her silk over the night demon.
“Fluttershy, give us light!”
The druid nodded and touched her hands to the ground, whispering the language of the plants to bring up a grove of brilliantly luminescent mushrooms, just in time to see Rarity falling from the sky with two of her eight legs severed.
“Got you!” Pinkie shouted, casting her own faerie magic and catching Rarity in a cloud of sugar floss. But it wasn’t without consequence. The house sprite stumbled and fell to the ground, clutching her head.
That, however, was all the time Twilight needed. Her stone construct rose to its full height, almost fifteen feet tall by her estimate, and swung its massive arms at the night demon.
“Slow!” the demon cackled, flapping her wings and sending a shockwave so strong it ripped stones from the construct’s skin.
She landed on the glowing mushrooms, right next to Applejack, and lashed her tail around the woman’s neck. Twilight didn’t think it was possible, but the demon threw the brute around like she was a ragdoll, opening up her shoulder wound as she threw her into a tree.
Twilight drew a circle instinctively, forgetting for a moment that she had locked a demon in her library, but thankfully it did not escape through the portal as she retrieved a handful of scrolls. She ripped them one at a time, covering the night demon in layers of frost before blasting her with force enchantments.
“Fluttershy, hold her down with roots!” Twilight ordered, but the druid was caught in her own panic at the sight of the demon.
She groaned and then pointed her staff at Fluttershy. “Valex ignitium,” she cast, filling Fluttershy with a rush of magic to stir her blood. With renewed focus, the druid managed to plant her tree branch into the ground and sprout roots around the demon’s legs.
But the demon only smiled. “Cute. My sister taught you that one?” She waved her finger and cut the roots to ribbons, then shifted her eyes to the druid. With just a look, Fluttershy’s legs buckled and she collapsed onto a bed of mushrooms.
The night demon then focused on Twilight. “Well, here’s another lesson!” Her fingers elongated into daggers and she shot her arm out like spring, aiming for her throat. But the stone construct moved in time to catch the blades while the mage stumbled back, regaining her posture and focus.
“What are you talking about? Who’s your sister?” she asked, hoping that a conversation would distract the demon long enough to find a different course of attack.
“You mean she never mentioned me?” the demon asked incredulously. “The Sun Queen, who else?”
Twilight laughed. “Ha! The Sun Queen is an immortal goddess, she doesn’t have a sister. If she did, I’d know.”
“She’s a liar and a hypocrite,” the demon said back. She drew on the castle’s power and Fluttershy’s mushrooms seemed to dim, swallowed up by the night demon’s magic.
“Says the demon!” Twilight shouted, raising her staff to command her construct. The stone figure slammed its arm down over the night demon, but before it made impact, the stones crumbled into sand and scattered to the air.
Twilight drew on her magic again, raising a barrier of raw energy around herself, but the demon battered her defence aside effortlessly, ripping apart her magic and teaching her how naive she had been to think she was a match.
Pain shot through her legs and set every nerve on fire as though her calves had been flayed in an instant. But Twilight couldn’t see any visible damage. It was only an illusion, she realised.
Only.
But realising and overcoming were not at all alike. Twilight attempted to move her staff to channel a dispelling charm, but that too was in vain. The demon, like the tantabus before, shot a formless tendril from her chest that pulled her staff from her hand.
“The Evercorn Conduit,” the night demon said in an amused tone, bringing the staff closer for inspection. “We built this weapon together on our hundred and eightieth birthday. She hunted two dozen unicorns so that I could fuse their horns into the core of the wood.”
Twilight fought against the pain, forcing herself to take one excruciating step before the night demon channelled another illusion into her, giving her a splitting headache.
“More lies,” she said as she fell. “The Sun Queen made that staff for me, she fused the horns herself.”
“Another one of my sister’s lies. And you’re the fool she found who would believe every single one.”
“You might have tricked Rainbow Dash with your words, but I won’t be so easy,” Twilight said through clenched teeth.
There was less amusement now as the demon sharpened her claws and toppled Twilight’s construct by turning its legs into dust. She hissed as Applejack rose to her feet, hobbling weakly but still defiant, and when the brute rushed forward, the demon swung her claws and severed her left arm.
Twilight closed her eyes, and her heart, to the shock of what she saw and fought to stand back up, but failed to move at all. Still, it was enough to pull the night demon’s attention back.
“If only my sister hadn’t gotten you, I could have used your blind loyalty and forged you into the greatest weapon in the world. You have what it takes, unlike that birdie of yours.”
The night demon turned and gave a disgusted look to Rainbow Dash, who had curled up behind the nearest tree.
Twilight focused all her magic in that brief moment of distraction, not trying to break free, but to move her finger and draw a portal. Without her staff to amplify her power, the spell drained her, but all that mattered was that she completed it. The illusion that held her kept her in enough agony to keep her from standing up, but it was her desperation that pushed her to complete a simple circle.
It was a final act of desperation. Her portals could not open to anywhere other than her anchor point, the place she had enchanted and bound to herself. And there in her library there was a tantabus demon. If she had opened it immediately after sealing the creature, she was sure it would have simply escaped, but some time had passed since then, and Dawnstead was the capital of the kingdom. She doubted the Sun Queen would let a threat like a tantabus go unchecked.
Her portal was barely wider than her fist, but that alone was enough for someone on the other side to latch onto the spell, pumping in their own magic to expand it. The night demon saw this as well and stepped back in stunned horror as the portal grew to twice the height of a full-grown man. And even then, it was only barely enough clearance for the Sun Queen to step through.
She stood at the portal, pale-skinned and wrapped in layers of gold silk, and surveyed the battle around her. As her eyes scanned, the night itself seemed to brighten with her gaze, and the ground around her was illuminated with the auroral shimmering from her golden, waist-length hair.
“Sister,” the Sun Queen said with a nod.
Now it was the demon’s turn to feel fear. “No, not yet,” she whispered, “you can’t be here yet!” With a roar, the demon spread her wings and enveloped the castle in darkness, swallowing everything save for the Sun Queen and a halo of light around her.
“Come now, don’t be like that,” the Queen sighed, raising a hand and dispelling the demon’s magic. Light returned to the forest, as did the full moon, and in a burst of raw energy the night demon was launched through the crumbling body of Twilight’s stone construct.
“Sun Queen?” Twilight muttered, gasping with relief as the demon’s pain illusions lifted. “She was telling the truth? You two are sisters?”
The Queen looked down to her and simply nodded. “Don’t fret, my little mage. You’ll get your answers.”
The Sun Queen placed her hand on the farmer’s shoulder, the side missing an arm. The left had been taken off with a clean cut, while the right had a wound from elbow to shoulder that had opened up all the way through to the bone. And somehow, she was still vaguely conscious.
“Didn’t think I’m worth a royal rescue, yer Shiny Majestical Brilliancy.” She was, however, beyond the limits of human ability.
“Is she going to be alright?” Twilight asked.
“I believe so.” The Sun Queen exhaled slowly, opening her own reserve of magic and filling Applejack with a blinding light. Her wounds closed, not with flesh, but with a golden glassy substance that filled in the injury the same way a molten iron filled a cast. As for her arm, a perfect replica of the original already took its place on the shoulder stump, strands of solid light stitching themselves into the woman’s flesh until it was inseparable.
“Well I’ll be darned,” Applejack whistled, “that’s some fancy magic.”
“You’ve been blessed by a living goddess,” Twilight gasped, “you could stand to show a little more respect.”
“Sorry sugarcube, but I don’t think I can stand at all right now.”
“Fascinating,” the Sun Queen said, and then turned to Twilight. “The lineage is distant, but she’s part giant, on her mother’s side.”
“T-that would explain some things,” Twilight said. “How do you know?”
“Restoring her flesh allows me to read her vital essences, the components of matter and life which make her physical body what it is. Her blood is too diluted to tell the original strain of giant, but it was at least a hill giant. Anything less and she wouldn’t have survived the magic necessary for repair.”
The Sun Queen looked over to Rarity, who had long since fell unconscious from her brush with the night demon. Her missing limbs still dripped with spider ichor. “That one will have to find the Healer’s Guild, unless she wants her insides melted.”
“I don’t think arachnaeds would enjoy that, Your Majesty.”
“Now, to my sister.” The Sun Queen went and stood over the night demon who was still unconscious from the blast.
“The demon.” Twilight muttered. “Does this mean that you…?”
The Sun Queen laughed. “Heavens, no. I am a solar seraph. Whenever a demon or a seraph is born, we are born with an equal and opposite counterpart as a sibling. It is how the cosmic forces of magic remain balanced. We lived as sisters for a century or so, until Luna began to grow apart from me.”
The night demon coughed, seeming to awaken at the mention of her name. “You mean until I began to be free of you.” She started to rise, but the Sun Queen only had to lift her pinky finger for chains of solid light to coil around her.
“Lock me up again, banish me if you want,” Luna said as she struggled, kicking and squirming, “but I will only grow stronger. Go ahead and tell your student why I left you. Tell her what you tried to do to me!”
“Your Majesty?” Twilight looked at the Sun Queen curiously.
“It’s not as if I’ve ever tried to hide it, but no one ever asks.” She shrugged and returned Twilight’s gaze. “I knew she would drift away, so before I let it happen, I tried to make her obey me using control magic. But I was only two hundred years old, I didn’t have the knowledge necessary to execute it on a demon as strong as my sister.”
Luna laughed. “Oh, but you’ve done such a good job of using it on this little kingdom of yours. This one called you her goddess. Ha! What kind of goddess has to stoop to rule over mortals?”
“One who has had centuries of practice with control spells,” the Sun Queen said. “And one who has had time to prepare another spell especially for you.”
She stretched her arm over Luna, drawing up every source of magic around them. Twilight gasped in awe at first, but quickly it turned to terror. She felt the place of power vanish completely, letting her own magic flow freely, but only for a moment. The trees around them died as living magic bled into the Sun Queen.
Twilight’s own reserves, she realised, failed to replenish. Raw magic existed everywhere, it was as permeable as the air and just as abundant in normal conditions. If she wasn’t recharging, then that must’ve meant the Queen was draining it all for herself. To see it was like watching someone try to drink the ocean dry, and noticing them making progress. Even the stars above dimmed as their celestial magic flowed directly into the Sun Queen’s hands.
“What kind of spell…?” Twilight asked, unable to even finish the question.
“No!” Luna suddenly jerked, pulling so hard at her chains that her shoulder pulled itself from its socket. “You can’t do this to me. You’re taking away everything I have!” Desperately, she turned to Twilight. “You have to stop her, it’s too much power for her to wield!”
“I don’t even know what she’s doing!” Twilight denied her, shielding her eyes from the blinding light. But even with both hands over her face, the light penetrated through to her eyes. Looking away brought some relief, but it was like having the sun itself at her fingertips.
“A hundred years it took for me to create this spell,” the Sun Queen said. “Six hundred years to prepare it to take this much magic. After a thousand years of waiting, we will be together.”
Twilight couldn’t see what was happening, but she could hear it and feel it. The night demon shrieked as the spell worked its power on her, quickly spending the magic the Queen had gathered. In seconds the blinding light faded, and as long as she squinted, Twilight could see the spell at work.
Although once she did, she wished she hadn’t. The night demon had shrunk, her golden chains falling around her. Her wings and hair receded. The unmistakable age on Luna’s face had vanished, replaced now with a much more youthful, almost childish appearance.
Time magic.
Such a thing was a myth. Of thousands of magicians and wizards in Dawnstead, Twilight could count only three who had any knowledge of time magic theory, and their works were considered fringe at best.
Despite that, before her was a night demon who had lost centuries, and not just in physical age, but in time. Twilight was sure of it.
“You reset her,” she muttered to herself, though the Sun Queen had heard her.
When the last light of the spell faded, and the young demon fell flat on her face from exhaustion, the Sun Queen lowered her arm and let out a heavy sigh. “A necessary evil. There are limits to control magic against a demon of her calibre. If I am to reign her in as my sister, I must start when she is young and break her resistance gradually.”
Twilight considered the Sun Queen’s words, looking around to the guild members, all of them unconscious from the raw energy of the spell itself.
“The kingdom, your rule, is it true? This was just one big experiment to practice control magic?”
The Sun Queen gave her a sly smile. “Does that bother you, my faithful student?”
“Your Majesty?” Twilight eyes rose up to meet the Queen’s.
“My faithful student,” repeated the Queen. “I asked if that bothers you, knowing the truth about control magic.”
She blinked, trying to clear her mind, but Twilight was dazzled by the Sun Queen still. Her face and body were so perfectly formed and symmetrical that it was like looking at a statue.
“I—I think it might, Your Majesty,” Twilight answered. “Such things are bothersome when people believe they have freedom.”
“I see. Well, my faithful student, you have been loyal to me your whole life.”
“Yes.”
“And you will continue to do so, will you not?”
Twilight nodded. “I believe I will.”
“Good.” The Sun Queen bent down and carried her sister in her arms, swaddling her in chains like an infant. She opened a portal with the flick of a finger, but before stepping through, she took one more look at the Knights of the Feast Table.
“In all my years, I never would have guessed this band of misfits could come so close to my sister. What do you think of them, my faithful student? Be honest.”
“They’re insipid and distracting,” Twilight said bluntly. “They lack professionalism despite being a registered guild. Without proper guidance they will fall apart on their own.”
The Sun Queen nodded. “In that case, wouldn’t you like to join their guild? Show them the ropes, as they say.”
“What?” Twilight suddenly blinked, a sharp fear arresting all her thoughts and senses. “No! Your Majesty, I can’t be left alone with these buffoons!” She scrambled to find the right words. “They’re obsessed about eating monsters and can barely focus on a single task to save their lives. I’m fine to return to your service at the palace. I beg you, don’t leave me in Adventure Ville with them!”
“My faithful student,” the Sun Queen said again. “You’ve been living with your nose in your books for too long, don’t you think? It’s time you made more friends.”
“I have friends,” Twilight protested slowly. “Moondancer, and, uh, well I know there are others.”
“But there is potential with these misfits, don’t you think so, my faithful student? Wouldn’t you like to join the Knights of the Feast Table?”
“I’m not sure,” Twilight said.
“My faithful student. I think you’re excited for a new opportunity. You want to join the Knights of the Feast Table.”
“Yes, that sounds right,” Twilight nodded. “We’ve done so much. I should give them a chance.”
The Sun Queen smiled. “Good.” And just like that, she stepped through the portal, leaving the new guild of six knights in the ashes of the Everfree.