An Embodiment Game
“Mirage? Why did you kidnap me and my friends, where are we, and who are you?” Twilight asked, looking at the cat lady as she walked back to her throne.
Mirage grabbed a bottle of wine from the side table and pours herself a cup to drink as she laid herself over the arms of her throne, petting one of the two large cats that sat at her side, “You are currently in my home, as for what I am and why I have your friends. Well, lets call me an embodiment of evil, much like Discord is the embodiment of...” She lets out a small shudder at the thought of what Discord represented, “ chaos. I make it my personal hobby to travel from universe to universe and cause horror, pain, fear, and the destruction of hope to each. I used to make my home in one particular universe but an...annoyance would always find a way to ruin my fun. One day I became fed up with my losses and made my way here. Interesting enough, I found another version of that annoyance here.”
“So why are you after my friends?” Twilight asked, her violet eyes looking at the two large cats at Mirage’s side, “Fearcats. They feed on fear and grow stronger from it, better be careful.” she thought.
“Why? Because when I got to your little dimension, I found it filled with happiness, love, and hope. It sickened me to death. So I decided to find the thing that represented the ideals and virtues of this world the most, break them, and then unleash a huge amount of destruction on the whole continent. Allowing myself to watch as the ponies suffer and writhe. Imagine my shock then, when I saw that the virtues of Laughter,” she then waves a hand to show an image of a pink pony blowing up a balloon.
“Loyalty,” Shows a blue pegasus flying off into the sky.
“Honesty,” Shows an image of an orange mare kicking a tree.
“Generosity,” Shows a white unicorn sparkling.
“Kindness, my most hated and disgusting of them all.” Shows an image of a yellow pegasus feeding a bunny.
“And magic, all embodied in six ponies. So, I decided to take you six away from your homes, break your spirits,”
“You can't, Discord already tried and failed,” Twilight stated, face not changing in order to not show anything to give away what she is thinking.
“Ahh, but I am not trying to bring forth the faults with each element and show you the opposite of what you are. What I am going to do, is to force you to see all of your worst fears, nightmares, and horrors brought to life and then break you that way. No amount of letters will bring you back from that, my little unicorn. Then I will bring you back to your world so you can watch as I lay waste to it all. Imagine how broken the ponies will be when they see that their heroes are worthless and in the end, only despair will protect them.”
“Are you nuts? Me and my friends aren't that respected in Ponyville, we’re just normal ponies to them,” Twilight argued, trying to dissuade Mirage from continuing he mad scheme.
“Oh my little playmate, do you think I don't hear?” Mirage walks close to Twilight and lightly tucks the unicorn’s chin. “I am a cat after all, and we cats are of the shadows themselves, any and all secrets that you may THINK you keep hidden from the world we hear. Every time you stop to do something in the dark, we see it. And I, can gain information from all of those cats.”
Twilight pulls away from Mirage’s touch, “ What do you mean?”
“Allow me to show you,” Mirage turns to walk away from Twilight, moving her hips sultry like. She opens up a large view image in front of Twilight to show multiple ponies from around Ponyville and Equestria.
“Momma, I am scared of the dark,” A pink filly said.
“Don't worry sweetie, if you are taken away I will get Twilight to save you,” A purple pegasus said.
“Hey Bon-Bon, lets see if we can’t get Pinkie to arrange the party for us?”
Spitfire sat alone in her office, looking at the reports of the latest recruits and then to a certain file, smiling. She knew that one day, she would retire and then give up the role of captain;however, she also knew that the Wonderbolts would be safe and in good hooves. After all, Rainbow Dash is one of the best she ever met.
A white unicorn with a fancy mustache looks over a list of names, and smiles at one particular one. As he circles it, a long legged white unicorn with a pink mane and fleur cutie mark drapes her hooves over his shoulders and smiles at the list ‘Possible godmothers: selected-Rarity Belle’
A light blue unicorn goes to her mother, excited about having gained her cutie mark. She begins to talk about how she is going to be as good as an animal caretaker as the same pegasus who took care of her favorite kitten and taught her how to care for it properly. A pegasus named, Fluttershy
“You know what hun? Without Applejack, that would have been a boring reunion.”
“And then Rainbow dash flew in to save her at the last second.”
“Well, I saw Rarity lifting up huge rocks like they were nothing.”
“WE HAVE THE BEST SISTERS EVER!!!!”
A white alicorn sat at on the balcony, watching the small village where her student lived. She smiled to herself as she began to think of how far the little unicorn had gotten, with her studies and her friends. It may have been a 1000 years since she last had to wage a battle, but she knew that there was no need, “My dearest Twilight will handle it. She is well protected after all.”
Mirage turned off the images on the screen and turned to Twilight, a sneer on her face, “Do you understand now, little unicorn? Everypony you six touched, the souls you helped, the things you represent to them has become, a very precious thing to them. Losing that...would break them and hurt them like nothing else.”
“So, why not kill me and stop me from stopping you?” Twilight asked, her eyes not leaving Mirage, while trying to determine where her friends are.
“Why? Well,” Mirage leaned forward slowly, resting her hands on top of her paws, licking her lips slowly, “evil though I am, I still like to play with my pretty victims once in awhile and seeing that you are out and in my realm now. This gives me a good chance to begin, playing with you my dear little unicorn.” With that Mirage opens the roof and back wall of her throne room to show Twilight where she was.
“What?” Twilight asked as she looked around the world she was now in. For miles she could see nothing but scattered rocks of varying sizes, cast adrift within a blackness, “Where is this place? What happened to the...”
“Oh, my throne room is just something I hold together to entertain guests and my new little...toys. Now, here is my little game miss Sparkle.” Mirage said as she walked behind Twilight and ran her hand along Twilight purple fur slowly, “You go and find your friends somewhere within my little void and save them from my mind trap. Bring them back here and I...”
“Will let us go?” Twilight asked.
“Maybe, or I might find something new to do with you, my little pet.” Mirage said as she ran her fingers through Twilight's mane, purring against her ear. This caused Twilight to flinch away from the embodiment touch as she looked to the void.
Twilight concentrated hard; her mind going into her mana reserves. It was a new spell that she had been perfecting for the past few days to present at the school and in front of her teacher. It was something she was very proud of, she just wanted a better chance to demonstrate it rather than in the here and now. She began to tap the world around her and feel out for the souls of five living beings. It was troubling at first, all she could feel was nothing but the chaotic void and the chaos magic within. Then she felt it, honest and stubborn somepony who was dependable. Smiling she continued her focus, feeling out for the warmth of a soul and a deep connection with them, soon coming across a pony full of hope, a pony who could never turn down a friend, a pony with a lovely heart, and a very kind pony. Twilight smiled to herself, glad the spell worked like she hoped it would. Opening her eyes, she looked forward to see five strings of light coming from her horn; An orange one, a pink bright one, a light blue one, a white one, and a pale yellow one. Turning to Mirage, Twilight stated, “I will bring my friends back here.” and with that, she manipulated the rocks before her to create a pathway to the orange string.
“Get her, make her hurt,” Mirage said to her fearcats as she watch Twilight run off into the distance.
_____________________
Twilight leapt from rock to rock, making sure that each jump was set up perfectly. She had no idea of how far away her friend was, but she knew that she will make it. It was just so hard to gage distance in this place; her only guide, the rope, would only appear for 10 minutes at a time and it had long faded by now. Leaping to the next rock, Twilight began to wonder how she could possibly save her friends from their torture.
It might be the same
But be patient
“Singing?” Twilight asked herself as she turned to where the voice was the loudest. Manipulating the rocks slowly she made her way to the voice
You can call it fake but
This
Is
Real
MAGIC
Making her way to the location, she saw a dark Blue unicorn conjuring up some mild illusion spells for herself, “TRIXIE?”
“What? YOU!!!!! What are you doing here Sparkle!” asked Trixie as she turned to Twilight, anger in her face.
“Well I was... “ Twilight stopped herself as she heard some low growling, “ Talk later, maybe we should focus on them!” She then turned around to see the fearcats surrounding them.