//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: The Wizard and the Lonely Princess: Hallowe'en Special 
// by Harry Leferts 
//------------------------------//

Disclaimer: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is owned by Hasbro and Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling.

"Hello"-Normal Speaking
"Interesting..."- Nightmare Moon speaking.
'Huh'- Normal Thoughts.
'All mine...' Nightmare Moon's thoughts
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It took fifteen minutes, but the group eventually managed to find a way in through the door the servants used. As the group gathered in what had been at one time the kitchen area for the servant quarters, Hades glared as he looked around. "Now then, the brat must be somewhere in the building. I don't care if you rough him up some, just don't kill him. Otherwise all this would have been for nothing at all and we'll have missed our chance."

One of the men smirked cruelly. "So, if he was to happen to trip and fall down some stairs..."

Hades own smirk was answer enough before he spoke. "As long as he is alive they don't care."

As he looked around nervously, one of them frowned. "Are you sure that there's nothing that claimed this joint as a territory? Seems the perfect spot like for a vampire coven. Or for ghouls to hang out in."

Hades just sneered as he rolled his eyes. "We're all wizard raised here and there's absolutely nothing that we can't deal with at all." He then gestured at the door. "Now enough flapping your gums. Fan out and search the place."

As they separated, Cygnia took one of the second floor corridors. As she walked with the flashlight in one hand, her other was playing with her knife, the dim light glinted off the blade. Each open door she peaked through while those that were closed were either opened, or if locked, kicked in. She looked in one and raised an eyebrow as she grinned. "Come out little boy... Come out and play with me..." Suddenly, she whirled around and flashed the beam of light down the hallway, her eyes narrowed as she peered through the gloom caused by the stirring of the dust. She then frowned. "I could have sworn..." A creak of a door being opened suddenly echoed down the hall in the direction that she was going which caused her to grin again as she turned. 'There you are brat...'

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Harry slowly opened the door with a frown on his face. Behind him, Luna looked down the hallway, not for the first time cursing not only the fact that with the seal of the Elements of Harmony keeping back most of her power, and thus causing her senses limited to below what they should be, but that whatever was in the mansion was somehow blurring them even farther. Harry meanwhile looked around in the room before he entered. He noted that it was some sort of study. As he spotted a desk, Harry realized that on it was a open book of some sort and an old, faded black and white photo of whom he assumed was the owner before he disappeared. He then looked at his two companions as he made his way to it. "What do you guys figure this is?"

Nightmare turned away from where she had been regarding several artifacts on a shelf before she looked at the book as Harry reached the desk. "Looks like it's a journal of some kind. Might be interesting."

As he grasped it, Harry squinted as he tried to read the faded writing in the low amount of illumination cast by the light spell. "It's hard to read..."

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As she turned a corner, Cygnia could only grin maliciously as she spotted an open door down the hallway from which spilled dim light. As she stalked towards it, she flicked off her flashlight, the light in the doorway provided all the light she needed as her eyes became used to the darkness. In her hand as she walked toward it, her knife silently moved. She glanced at it as if in love before she looked back at the door as she closed in. 'Heh. I don't think that they'd mind if you spilled some of that beautiful blood when you "Resist"...' Suddenly, she stopped as she glanced back and watched the hallway as she could have sworn she saw something move in the darkness, but not wanting to risk having given the boy a warning by switching her flashlight on.

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It crouched there silently at the end of the hall, it's form hidden and cloaked by the deep shadows and darkness around it. It had been trailing it's prey for a while now after it separated from the rest of the group, always careful not to get too close yet which could have alerted it before the being could strike. Several times it narrowly missed being caught in the flashlight beam as it stalked which would have ruined the element of surprise. Still crouched out of view, it took a moment to observe the woman, it's current prey, once more.

If it wasn't sure before, it was now. She, like it, was a predator hunting a prey of it's own. But that was not what made it focus on this one.

Oh no.

It was what laid within her soul that had caught it's attention. While the others were evil and had their souls stained with darkness, it was still contained. Her darkness and cruelty simply bubbled and frothed beneath the surface. She was positively radiating hate and bloodthirstiness. The soul within her was black as the night around them. That alone caused it to single her out. And so the hunter had become the hunted.

Soon she would head into the room ahead with the light, and so be trapped with only one way out.

It would enjoy the fear and terror in her eyes as it showed her what true might was...

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Within the study, Luna stiffened from where she had been overlooking Harry's shoulder to try her own hoof at reading the journal. "Something wicked is coming..." As the other two stilled, she looked around and spotted an old dumbwaiter. She gave the room another once over and shook her head as she calculated Harry's chances of hiding anywhere else and decided he would have no chance. "There!" Flying over, she opened it with her magic and with a quick breeze, nodded as she cleared out the dust. She then gestured inside. "Get in!"

Harry stared at it for a moment and then stared at her. "But Luna... what if it fell?"

Luna just looked at him as fear shined in her eyes. "Then I will use my magic and slow the fall so you won't get hurt. Still a better chance then what we would have out here!" She then got behind him and shoved him toward it. "Now just get in!"

Harry let the spell end, causing the room to fall into the gloom as he clambered into the dumbwaiter with Nightmare. A moment later Luna joined them as they managed to shut the door encasing them in darkness. Shaking, Harry hugged them both close. "Luna... Nightmare... I'm scared..."

Even though she hated to, Luna lied to him. "Don't worry Harry, this is all nothing more then a precaution. Nothing can hurt you as long as I am here."

Nightmare just nodded. "And you forget that I am here as well child. Neither of us will allow you to be hurt."

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After she observed the light in the room turn off, Cygnia waited in the hallway near the doorway to see if the kid that they had chased to this place was going to come out. After a few minutes of nothing, she resumed her stride toward the room and looked inside only to see blackness as she listened for the sound of any movement within. Not having heard any, she clicked her flashlight on and walked in, the beam glinted off various objects within as she did so.

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It felt a pang of satisfaction as the woman walked into the room. It moved toward the doorway once she had gone through it. After having stalked her for this long, it sensed that this chased had nearly reached it's conclusion. The being's limbs flexed, their apparent frailness nothing more then an illusion as it moved as silently as the predators that had hunted along the riverbanks of it's original homeland so long ago and far away now. Slowly, the being's body prepared for what was to come. It soon reached the doorway and began to prepare to end the hunt as it saw it's unsuspecting prey had her back turned while she continued and performed her own hunt...

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As the three friends huddled together in the dark of the old dumbwaiter, Harry flinched each time he heard another footstep in the room. 'Please don't look in here... Please don't look in here... Please don't look in here...'

Unseen by Harry's eyes, the two Alicorns in there with him share a look, both steeling their resolve to do whatever was needed to protect him, 

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As she entered the room, Cygnia frowned as her flashlight lit various portions of the room before it settled on a dumbwaiter. She then slowly smirked as she made her way towards it. 'Well now... it seems like this chase is at an end...' She suddenly stiffened as the hairs on her neck rose as one before she twisted in time to see a shape bound from the darkness of the open doorway, a rustling of fabric accompanying it. Cygnia didn't have the chance to react before it reached her and in one motion lifted her clear off the floor as it threw her hard enough into the wall to crack the plaster covering it.

Falling to the ground, she scrambled for both the knife and flashlight, but only managed to grab her knife before the creature was on her once more and it grabbed her. It then slammed her bodily into a bookcase, scattering it's contents over the room. Her head spinning as she grunted, she drove the knife into her assailant again and again, the blade biting deep to no apparent effect as they struggled across the room. As the blood rushed through her ears, she heard whatever it was speaking (or was it chanting) in a harsh, guttural and dry tone in some strange language. Almost immediately she started feeling weaker the longer it held onto her. It then twisted and effortlessly crushed the wrist that gripped the knife after it had grabbed it.

Her whole world now pain and feeling colder and colder as she felt overcome with weakness, Cygnia felt something inside her give as she was lifted into the air and smashed into the floor. Struggling weakly from both the amount of pain she was in and whatever the thing attacking her was doing as it straddled her, the evil woman tried to stop it from grabbing her neck. At that moment, her flashlight which had been flung and bounced around by the fight, had came to a stop as it's beam illuminated the unnatural attacker. Cygnia stilled and her eyes widened as she saw finally what her assailant looked like...

And then she screamed. 
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Inside the dumbwaiter, Harry held back a jump alongside Nightmare and Luna as they heard a terrfied scream from the other end of the building which was suddenly cut off. A few moments passed before they heard the man in the room with them speak. "What the bloody fuck?!" 

They waited for several minutes after the footsteps faded away as the man ran toward the sound before they opened up the dumbwaiter and got out. Now the only human in the room, Harry gulped as he looked in the direction of the scream. "Wha... what was that...?"

Luna grimaced before she shook her head. "I... don't know Harry." She then looked at him directly, a small amount of fear on her face. "But whatever it was, I do not want to meet if unless there is no other way."

Nightmare nodded herself before speaking up. "Agreed." She then gestured at the now empty doorway with her head as she grunted. "Now I think the best course of action would be to leave before either whatever attacked that woman finds us or the man comes back."

Neither Harry nor Luna had anything but agreement to that as they headed out. As they walked down the hall, Luna looked from one side to another. "I do believe that now they're likely all in the building..." She then glanced at her companions. "We should take this chance and leave... before anything happens..." And with that, they started walking faster as Harry recasted his light spell, heading for the first floor to find a door out...

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As he came into view of a room with several of the men grouped near the door, Hades scowled. "What the bloody fuck happened?! Where's Cygnia?!"

Several of the men looked at each other before one stepped forward. "Boss... Cygnia... she... well..."

Seeing the man stutter and continuously look back into the room, Hades shoved him to the side as he strode in. "Shut your gob. Now what the fuck is so bad..."

He trailed off as he stumbled back, his jaw and eyes having widened at the sight before him. The man from before just trembled as he pointed at a shape on the floor. "Cygnia... well I'm pretty sure that she's dead."

Hades shook it off and glared before he scowled. "Yes, I can see why you might think that." Slowly, he made his way into the room, a part of his mind noted the damaged parts before he reached the center and the stilled form that laid there. Kneeling, he reached with fingers that shook and brushed the hair that covered her face away before he scrambled back in fright as the others shouted. "SWEET MERCIFUL MERLIN!"

There, Cygnia laid on her back, her entire body having been seemingly mummified. Her wide, shrunken eyes stared at the ceiling with her face frozen in pure horror and terror for eternity. One of the men gestured at her. "What the bloody fuck could do that to someone!?"

Another shook his head as he looked around. "We should never have taken this job. Matthew was right..." He then grimaced. "We should leave. That boy is not worth our lives dammit!"

Hades glared at him before he got up and made his way over. He then grabbed him by the shirt. "Now stow that bullshit. We came to get the boy and we will. Whatever this was, it can't stop us as we know something is here."

The man just pushed him off. "Fuck you Hades! I for one am not going to die just so that you could have you fucking Merlin-forsaken family name back! I say that we should leave and let the brat die at the hands of whatever of this thing is!" He then gestured at Cygnia. "Do you want to end up like her!?" He then shoved his finger into Hades' chest. "Your little attack dog is dead Hades. I have nothing to worry about from you."

The touch of something told him otherwise though as he looked down to see the tip of a handgun shoved into his chest. He then looked Hades in the face and said man snarled. "I am not going to let you ruin this chance for me John."

John just gulped and shook his head as he started to back up. "Not for you... to hell with you Hades." He then took off running and was out the door before Hades shot at him, the bullet missing as he whipped around the door. By the time Hades reached the door, the man had already turned the corner. "FUCK!" Hades then turned and looked at the others as he pointed his gun at them. "You fuckers want to try something too?"

As several of the men fingered their own guns, John ran down the hall. He took several of the stairs at a time as he didn't slow down. As the beam from his flashlight bounced around the walls, illuminating various things, he saw the doorway to the kitchen a few minutes later. He then grinned viciously as his chest burned from exertion. "You can die yourself for all I care Hades... you and that blasted boy your so hard up about." He had just entered the room when he was grabbed and thrown the length of the kitchen. "ARGH!" Stumbling to his feet, he grabbed the nearest thing to him, a butcher knife and turned as he held his chest only to see an enormous thing start moving toward him with the shadows cloaking it's form. "Oh Sweet Merlin..."

The knife dropped from suddenly nerveless fingers as he realized it was between him and the door. "Oh fuck..." Having decided that discretion is the better part of valor, he ran at it surprising it before John ducked under it's arms, the thing's hands scratched the top of his head and cut through the skin. Ignoring the pain, the squib focused on the only thing important.

The door to the outside.

He reached it and yanked at the knob only for nothing to happen. He kept jerking at his as he shook his head. "Oh no... oh fuck no..." He then noticed a slight shimmer on the door, but didn't have the time to say anything as he's slammed into it, the force great enough to break his nose. He's then twisted around as he screamed, only to for it to be cut off as the creature grabbed him by the throat and lifted. The only thing that he could vocalize was a gargle as the grip tightened to the point where it was nearly crushing his throat. His eyes nearly bulging, he could only look on in other as the other arm lifted up to it's full length above his head as something glinted.

And then it came down which caused something to splatter across the walls. The red speckles that had sprayed onto his flashlight as it illuminated his legs as they went completely limp showed what it was. Soon the only sound was heavy breathing and the drops hitting the floor before the body was dropped. A moment later it was grabbed again as the noise of it being dragged echoed through the room as the creature left, stopping only to crush the flashlight under it's heel...