//------------------------------// // Poker Face // Story: Eris's Riddle // by hahatimeforponies //------------------------------// "You sure you're okay to walk on that leg, Pinkie?" "Yep!" The party pony giggled, bouncing around the group. They kept moving, retracing the same route they took, almost two years ago. "Doesn't it... y'know, hurt?" Applejack tilted her hat. "A little." Pinkie just skipped obliviously past her. Applejack shrugged, and kept walking. Maybe the ball of pink fluff was tougher than she looked, she reasoned. "Now, if my estimates are correct, and we don't have any interruptions, the castle should be only twenty to thirty minutes away! In this sunlight, we shouldn't have to worry about..." "Bear!" "What? There's no.,." A deafening roar in Twilight's ear made her jump and fall backwards. She looked up with growing disbelief, at a brown, hulking mass of muscle and fur standing just feet away from her, its dripping jaws hanging open hungrily, its foul breath wafting uncomfortably close. "... bear?" She felt something yank at her arms, pulling her away from the beast. She looked over her shoulder to see Fluttershy dragging her to safety, smiling nervously at the bear. "It's okay Mr. Bear, we were just passing through, we'll be on our way now..." The bear just let rip another fearsome cry. Fluttershy let Twilight drop after a few lengths of retreat, and calmly walked up to the bear, doing her best to keep an upright posture, and mask her fear under a soothing tone. Huge and terrifying he might be, but he was still an animal, and she was still going to try. "We didn't mean to bother you..." "Fluttershy, I don't think it's working!" Twilight called back, struggling to an upright posture. She knew the pegasus was capable of these insane feats of animal handling - manticores, dragons, cockatrices... but something was wrong here. The bear wasn't calming down, and Fluttershy just didn't seem to notice. Fortunately, she was the only one not noticing, and before long, Rainbow Dash dove in to scoop her out of the way. Swish. The beast's angry swipe met only thin air and a few loose feathers. Dash deposited her stunned friend behind the rest of the group. "What do we do? We ain't got no weapons!" Applejack grabbed Twilight by the scruff of her neck, bringing her out of the path of the bear's slam. Rarity reached into her jacket, whipping out her dagger and spinning it in her hand. "Forgetting something?" "Ya really gonna try and kill a bear with that thing?" "I told you we were underprepared!" Dash yelled. "No ya didn't..." "And why should I believe you?" "Girls!" Twilight yelled, getting up between them. "This is not the time!" The unicorn shoved them apart and walked a few paces back towards the bear, her horn glowing. As she approached it, the glow intensified, starting to generate an air current. "I did have time to work on one new spell..." she growled, starting to crouch a little, as if the intensity of her magic was a weight on her shoulders. "I call this one... unrelenting fo-" Thump. Before she had the chance to release the arcane energy building in her horn, the bear charged forward, headbutting her in the chest. The wind and light dissipated, and the shove knocked her flying. She landed just behind the group with an uncomfortably loud thud. "Twilight!" Pinkie yelped. Rarity knelt next to her. She seemed to be dazed and winded, but not seriously hurt. "Oh, you're gonna get it now..." Dash growled, launching herself into the air, a fist outstretched to the bear. Applejack leaped after her, grabbing her by the tail, bringing them both crashing down to earth. "Hold on there, sugarcube! No sense gettin' both of ya hurt!" "So what's your plan? Run away?" While the pair's arguing intensified, Fluttershy picked herself up and examined the situation again. The bear was taking its time, plodding up to the bumper meal before it. A rustling in the long grass in her peripheral vision caught her eye, just in time to see a snake pop its head out to watch the commotion. She squinted, quickly identifying it as a viper. It looked at the bear, and then back to her. In that instant, an idea struck her. For the briefest moment, she made eye contact with the snake. She gave it the subtlest of nods, and it gave one in return, before returning to the long grass. A few seconds later, It slithered into the open, coiled up and struck at the bear, both fangs extended for a lethal bite. The fangs sank into the bear's paw silently, and a roar of pain from the beast was the only indication it had happened at all. Distracted from its impending meal, it lifted its paw and bit down on the snake's body, ripping it away. The force was enough to separate its head from the rest of its body, leaving the fangs embedded in the bear's flesh. It started to stagger about as it shook the snake about in its jaws, making a half-hearted attempt to swallow the body, before eventually collapsing on its side. Fluttershy squeaked, and rushed over to it, its chest still heaving. "Oh no... oh no!" Starting to tear up, she picked up the rubbery strip that remained of the snake's body, and started pushing it against the back of the severed head, as if it would somehow reattach. When this was starting to fail, she kneeled at the bear's side and dropped her head into its fur. His breathing was strained already, and she could hear it getting more so by the second. Pretty soon, his breathing disappeared, and there was only the sound of her weeping. "Was that... was that you, Fluttershy?" Dash blinked, jaw hanging a little slack. "That was aweso-" Applejack and Rarity both got the idea to smack her around the head, cutting her off. Twilight, still wheezing a little, slowly walked over to her and gently put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry..." The pegasus shoved her hand away, her face still buried in the bear's chest. Ugh. At this rate it'll be at least an hour... Eventually they convinced the broken-hearted Fluttershy to leave the two dead creatures behind, and continue their journey. The next half-mile of their route was a lot darker than Twilight had remembered; the hills around the hollow sheltered it from direct sunlight, and the dense tree canopy provided even more shade. It was just about hitting lunchtime, and they could barely see where they were going. She figured she wouldn't have noticed in the night conditions she last passed through here; still, she found it odd needing to light up her horn in the middle of the day. The atmosphere was even less pleasant than before - Twilight specifically instructed Pinkie Pie to stay between Rainbow Dash and Applejack at all times, and Rarity to keep an eye on Fluttershy, so she could do her best to lead the way without distraction. After a nearly solid ten minutes of silence, the lilac librarian picked something out as she passed, and tried to strike up a conversation. "Hey, Pinkie, isn't that one of those trees you got us to laugh at last time?" She pointed to one particularly gnarled trunk. "Hey... you're right!" The earth pony giggled, and danced up to the tree to inspect it. "We sure were silly to see faces in these things, hah!" She prodded it in the middle of one of its knots, blew a raspberry and giggled to herself. "Heheheh..." A throaty voice chirped. She blinked, and started looking around the tree for the source. It chuckled again, and Pinkie looked up to see a small, curious-looking creature sitting on top of the tree, a deep scarlet, almost brown. It had hoofed feet, clawed hands, an innocent smile, beady yellow eyes and a small pair of bat-wings behind it. "Well hey there little guy! What's your name?" Pinkie blinked innocently. The creature just jumped off the trunk, bounced on Pinkie's poofy mane like a trampoline, and leaped towards Twilight. "What did you find Pi-ah!" It swung its claws around her horn, using them to grapple on to her head. The personal space invasion shook her concentration, extinguishing her light briefly. She frowned, and grabbed it telekinetically by the leg, holding it out in front of her. "Hmm... it looks like some kind of imp..." Without warning, the ensared creature spat a small lick of flame from its mouth, breaking her focus again and causing her to drop it. Twilight yelped, and shied away from it, making Pinkie giggle again. "Ah! Cheeky little guy, isn't he..." she grumbled. The imp scurried over with an awkward knuckle-walk to Rainbow Dash. She took a wary step back, but he was having none of it. He pounced, grabbing her by the knee and climbing up her leg, making her panic. "Hey! Hey, get the hell off me!" She tried swiping at him, but he was too quick for her - every time she swung her arm at the little trickster, he jumped to the other leg, or swung around behind her. Pinkie broke into open laughter. "I'm glad you think this is fu-hey get out of there!" The imp started to scurry under her t-shirt, printed with her cutie mark. She started thumping at her stomach and chest to try and crush the little beast, but she only ended up winding herself. After another moment of frantic struggle, he popped out the top of her shirt and leaped away, taking shelter on Applejack's hat. By now, Pinkie was rolling on the ground, thumping the ground and whooping with laughter. "Okay, that's enough of this..." Twilight's horn glowed, and she lifted the imp from Applejack's head, before conjuring a hamster cage and dropping him in it. She gave it a light kick, and a bar slid over the hatch, locking it. "There! That should keep you under..." Fwoosh. With a click of the imp's fingers, the cage was incinerated. "... control...?" The trickster shot Rarity a little sly grin, prompting her to whip out her dagger and back away. "Ohh no you don't! You are not touching my hair! Falling off cliffs is one thing, scrappy little ahhh!" The imp just clicked again, teleporting above Rarity's head, where he could ruffle her mane at his leisure. She made a few wild swings above her head with the ornamental blade, prompting him to leap on her hand and prise it free. She started to topple in her panic, and the imp dove for the ground again. Pinkie was in fits. "I don't get it! Where's all this magic suddenly coming from?" Twilight mused. The imp busied itself with leaping between Applejack and Rainbow Dash, delivering the occasional slap, stealing a hat, or giving the gift of a good, hard wedgie. Every prank renewed the vigour in Pinkie's laughter, and made the creature a little harder to catch, employing successively more sophisticated magic to evade capture. After a moment of watching this, Twilight got a brainwave. She turned to Pinkie, and dragged the giggling pony off the ground roughly. "Pinkie, I need you to stop laughing!" "But-but..." She just pointed back to the scene the imp was making, in time for Rainbow to swing a punch at the imp, only for the little beast to guide her fist to Applejack's face. "Baahahahah!" "Pinkie! The imp is feeding off your laughter! The more you laugh, the stronger it-uah!" The creature jumped on her head, interrupting her. She tried firing off spell after spell to throw him off, but he just pulled up a little red, translucent shield and started dancing on it, and they bounced away harmlessly. "It's... it's dancing on your head! Oh, I can't breathe!" Pinkie just resumed being debilitated with her wild cackling, and the imp kicked Twilight nose-first into the dirt. Through all the fray, one pony had escaped the gremlin's attention; but he had no intention of it staying that way. Fluttershy had quietly backed up to a tree at the other end of the clearing, still shaken from earlier, and the sight of two of her friends beating each other into a pulp certainly wasn't helping. With a little click, the imp cast itself through space to the air above her head. He swung from a branch for a moment or two, savouring her uncertain terror, before quietly dropping on to the back of her neck. She shrieked in fright, squirming and falling to the ground, trying to reach behind her for whatever that... thing was. The scream seemed to go ignored at first - just another voice in the cacophony of mischief. The imp just carried on fluttering around, teasing his victims with the occasional shove or light shock. But when the terrified squeal died off, another sound died with it - the sound of laughing. Pinkie pushed herself off the ground, slowly and purposefuly, all traces of glee gone from her expression. The imp went to zap Fluttershy again, only for a miniscule puff of smoke to appear at his fingertips instead. He blinked, and turned in time to watch the earth pony march up and snatch him out of the air. "No one treats Fluttershy like that. No one!" she growled. The gremlin gulped. Pinkie hurled it to the ground, making a little crack on impact, and after a moment's windup, swung her hoof as hard as she could at it, kicking it through the tree canopy and out of sight. "Ughh... what happened? Is it gone?" Twilight sat up and rubbed her head. The look on Pinkie's face when she turned around answered her question. She said nothing - the unicorn could read her furrowed brow and mean pout perfectly. Playtime's over. "... okay then! Let's get..." "And another thing!" Smack. Rainbow Dash's knee connected with Applejack's stomach. "Uh, guys, the imp is gone, we can go..." "Ugh! ... y'all just don't know when to quit!" Whack. The earth pony retaliated with a headbutt, knocking her opponent back a few lengths, only for the pegasus to stabilise with her wings. "Stop it, both of you!" Twilight yelled, plucking them both from the ground with her magic and holding them apart in the air. They took another couple of ineffectual swings, before giving up and just staring at each other. "Don't you see? This is exactly what he wants!" "Who." Dash replied after a brief pause, her gaze still fixed on Applejack. "Discord!" "The hay has he got to do with this." The earth pony asked, her tone disinterested. Instead, she just met Dash's stare with equal contempt, and spat a mouthful of blood. "I'd have thought the clue was in the name!" "Uhm, darling..." Rarity tapped Twilight on the shoulder, and whispered in her ear. "I'm not sure everypony here has quite the vocabulary you or I might." "Ugh. 'Discord' means strife, disagreement, conflict, disharmony. And that's exactly what's started happening between us since we set hoof in this forest today! And how? Illusions, contrived circumstances, things appearing where they shouldn't! The same tricks Discord uses." "So what yer sayin' is..." "... we've been tricked..." "Exactly." Twilight folded her arms like an aggravated mother. The boiling fury in the expressions of her two captives started to drain, and she let them back down gently. If she had to guess by their faces, they were as much hurt and embarrassed at the mockery that had been made of them, as they were apologetic. "Ah... ah'm sorry, Rainbow..." "No, I should be the one apologising. I'm sorry for not trusting you." Dash plucked the hat off the ground, dusted it off and held it out as a peace offering. Applejack smiled, snatched it from her and pulled her into a firm bear hug. Twilight smiled, her work done. She turned to Fluttershy, being helped up by a still-grumpy Pinkie Pie. "Fluttershy, are you okay?" "I've... been better..." she squeaked. Twilight put her hands on her shoulders and lowered her head, to try and meet the eye of the cowering pegasus. "Fluttershy, listen. I know this kind of thing is hard for you, but I need you to keep it together! I know you have courage in there somewhere. Just dig deep, and know that we're all here for you." "I'll try..." She nodded, giving a weak smile. Twilight pulled her into a soft, comforting hug to try and consolidate her encouragements. She tried not to let it show, but she was still mulling over doubts. Hmm... if I'm right about this... if it is Discord... then he's probably still watching us. In which case, I've probably just blown our hand... If he's keeping up this pattern, he's probably going to throw some curveballs. Behind her, Rarity reclaimed her dagger and took a moment to fix her mane again. She paused, and quirked a brow at Pinkie. "And I suppose you want a hug too?"