//------------------------------// // Dragon Retrieval 101 (I) // Story: A Young Lady's Guide to the Demon Slaying Arts // by Protocol //------------------------------// Embrey Retrieval 101 Scarlet and Twilight were standing in the middle of a cluster of trees. While they had tried to chase Spike's kidnapper on foot, they'd quickly lost sight of the monster where their field of vision was covered by the thickening forest. "We should really call Princess Celestia for help," Twilight urged. "Spike's been taken away, and we don't know where to." Twilight was panicking, completely lost in the situation. "You may be right. I don't want to have to go up against something like that by the two ourselves either - huh?" Scarlet ducked just in time to dodge a rock that was hurled at her from nearby. It landed on the ground in front of her with a soft paff against the grass. "What could this be?" Scarlet murmured, picking up the peculiar beige rock. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't the rock that held the pale, light colour. Instead, a sheet of parchment paper had been wrapped around the rock, which Scarlet carefully unwrapped. The paper opened up to reveal a crude drawing of Celestia's sun emblem, with a large x drawn over it. A small boy in a purple hoodie and a knife to his neck was drawn next to it. The drawing may have left something to be desired, but the message was clear: If you value the boy's life, do not call Celestia. "What do we do now?" Twilight cried upon seeing the picture. "We can't even call the princess to help us!" "Well, one thing's for certain," said Scarlet, scowling. "This means that Spike is still alive. And if that thing, or whoever was with it, bothered to send this our way… Twilight, is there any place in that direction that stands out from the rest of the forest?" Scarlet asked. Twilight seemed to think briefly before giving an answer. "Umm… Oh wait, yes, there is! That direction leads to the abandoned castle where we fought off Nightmare Moon!" "Nightmare Moon? Who's that?" Scarlet asked, perplexed. "It happened before you came here, so you wouldn't remember. I'll tell you about it next time. But for now, there are more pressing matters to take care of," Twilight responded curtly. Scarlet gave the girl a firm nod. "Right. We need to get the kid back. If this was a message for us, and if there's an abandoned castle a little ways off where this thing's hiding, then there's only one explanation." "Which is?" "It's telling us to go there. Alone. In other words, a trap." Twilight gulped. "But, we're going anyways. Scarlet's overconfident words were not accompanied by her usual smirk this time. Things were personal this time, and the demon slayer's determined eyes showed no signs of playing around. "Okay then, first thing's first. What was that thing?" Twilight pressed, demanding answers. "All of the other gargoyles were so small, and gray, and… annoying! But this one was larger, and had a different colour to it. It was also able to carry Spike without any effort when it flew away. Taking into account the area of its wingspan and Spike's current weight, it shouldn't be possible without magic… but I never sensed any magic coming from any of the ones before. Scarlet, something was definitely wrong. That was no ordinary gargoyle we were up against, was it?" "…No." Scarlet's tone turned grim. "Then, what was it?" Twilight asked, urgency in her tone. Scarlet sighed. "What we witnessed back there is known as a deathgoyle. They're like gargoyles, but much more powerful. They're harder, better, faster, stronger than their counterparts. They have thickened skin compared to the others, and their entire body is imbued with a coating of demonic magic, which is why it looks that shade of tainted dark purple. How one managed to end up here is anybody's guess. It would've taken it weeks, maybe even months for it to get from where it started to here… why go through all that trouble? Something's not right here…" she muttered. Scarlet shook her head, dismissing the thought. "…Anyways, we should get to this castle as soon as we can." "Wait, we should really plan ahead before blindly rushing into things like this," Twilight insisted. "I've got a plan already," said Scarlet, back with her usual smirk. "Get in there, kill the deathgoyle, get Spike, and get out. Simple." Twilight couldn't believe her ears. "Are you joking around at a time like this? I can't believe you! In case you hadn't noticed, Spike's life is hanging on the line here. I don't know how you used to do things until now, but I'm not letting any of my friends get hurt!" she huffed. Scarlet's smirk turned into a scowl, and her eyes flashed an angry silver. She thrust her hand right next to Twilight's face, slamming her palm into the tree behind her. Her back pressed to the tree, Twilight still refused to back down to the annoyed vampiress. "That's right," Scarlet growled. "You don't know how I used to do things until now. If you did, you'd actually stop and think for a moment, and realize that every moment we sit around making a plan, that's another toss of the coin on whether the deathgoyle kills the kid. You seemed like a smart girl at first glance, Sparkle. I didn't know you were so intent on gambling with your friends' lives." Whipping around to toss her hood back up, Scarlet walked away from Twilight, who was at a loss for words. Twilight wanted to run after her and turn her back around, to say to her face that she was wrong. Yet, she found herself shying away to follow the girl at a distance. In her mind, she knew what Scarlet had said was right. The walk to the castle in the Everfree continued in crestfallen silence, the gap between Scarlet and Twilight showing itself both in distance and in mind. "…I'm sorry. That was uncalled for," Scarlet said out of the blue, more frustrated with herself than with anything else. "What are you talking about? You had every right to be angry. I should have known better…" Twilight replied meekly. Scarlet sighed. "Even so, I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. It's just been so long since I did this kind of thing." Twilight raised a curious brow. "Rescue missions?" "…Friends." "…Oh." Once again, Twilight was left speechless. Footsteps only intensified the silence before Twilight spoke again. "So it's just been a girl and her scythe against the world? This whole time?" "I guess so. For as long as I can remember. Even beyond all that, I've never felt that warm feeling you guys seem to always give out. Acceptance, kindness, friendship. It doesn't feel the same as something I've lost. More like something… something I've never had to begin with." "Doesn't it get… lonely?" Twilight asked, concerned. Nobody should have to live a life of solitude like that. Everyone deserved a friend. A shoulder to lean on, a pal to hang out with. Even when Twilight had secluded herself in Canterlot with her books, she still had her inner circle of friends, composed of Shining Armor and Moondancer. Scarlet turned her head to give Twilight a small but genuine smile. "Tell ya what, we can all pity my past together, after we've saved Spike." Twilight responded with a wide smile of her own and nodded firmly. Scarlet motioned for Twilight to get a move on, and she ran forward to Scarlet's side. The reconciled girls continued the rest of their way towards the castle, together. The castle was creepier than Twilight had remembered it to be. The last time she was there, she hadn't had the time to scour the entire area. Now, with no clue where Spike or the monster could be hidden, the ambiance of the stone walls and windows suddenly took a cold, eerie dive. Neither Twilight nor Scarlet could see any signs of movement, or anything out of the ordinary in the eastern towers. Twilight sighed. Although it was foolish to think that she would find Spike in parts of the castle towers that she had been to before, that small spark of hope was snuffed out as she turned to the entrance of the dark basement dungeons, the only place where they hadn't yet looked. The girls' descent was dark, not only in lighting, but in heart. They were walking straight into a trap, towards a monster that could potentially introduce them to grim and untimely demises, all to save a friend who may not have even been alive. The spiraling staircase took the two of them to a pair of rusted iron doors, one of them fallen on its back due to neglect and abandonment. They entered through the doorway to find themselves in a narrow corridor. It seemed to open up into a large dome shaped area. Prison cells lined the sides of the passage, half of the bars missing and cell doors fallen off their rusted hinges. Suddenly, a high-pitched cackle rang throughout the castle. "Kekekekeke… I was expecting to see you here, Scarlet, but who are your new friends? I'm afraid that they won't be able to save you, though, no matter how many you bring." Scarlet and Twilight froze in place. The voice was bouncing off the walls, and the echoes made it impossible to distinguish the original speaker's location. "Do you know what lies beyond in your search for your companion?" the voice carried on in its twisted sing-song tones. "EeeHeehee, you do, don't you? It's none other than a deathgoyle! That's right, a true beast of Tartarus, unable to speak, unable to think, unable to do anything but fight, kill, and be killed. That's what I love about them, see? They're such beautiful things. They're predictable, but controllable. Evil, but instinctively so. Its only true purpose in life is to bring forth death and destruction. And how they excel at it so!" Closing her eyes, Twilight gathered her focus and pointed her hands towards the inner rooms. From deeper into the castle walls, a glowing, purple eye appeared and opened. It was a sight spell, that the magician was trying to use to scout out the area. However, she could see even less through it than with her regular eyesight. Twilight broke the spell and opened her eyes. "It's no use," she whispered to her accomplice. "Something's blocking my magic here. I should be able to cast other spells with a little less power than usual, but I can't use vision, detection or teleportation spells at all. It must be from enchantments made way back when, during when the dungeons were still in use, and anti-magic cuffs hadn't been developed yet. This is a more primitive, bulky prototype, I'd guess." The anomaly's voice took no notice of Twilight's whispers to Scarlet. Either it hadn't noticed, or it didn't care. "Master's truly a genius when it comes to choosing his task force. That includes me, of course. Even so, he seems to hold a little girl like you in high regards, Scarlet." The voice hissed her name covetously, seemingly irked by his master's opinion of the tiny vampiress. His words fell to a low, coy growl. "So, I've provided... an extra challenge for you and your friends. Ehehehe, I wish you the best of luck, girl… You'll need it." The voice ceased speaking completely, and Scarlet moved on. She and Twilight both knew that it was a trap, and there was no other option except to keep pushing forward. As the two of them entered the huge dome, the only light provided was from the numerous torches lining the walls. As far as Twilight could tell, they'd been very recently lit. While the sconces and brackets wore rust and cobwebs like medals on weary veterans, the torches themselves had been newly placed, with the rags tied tight to the tips of the splints giving off no signs of age, and the fresh trace of a flammable sulfur and lime mix still lingering in the air. The dome's walls held a numerous collection of cells themselves. The torches served to illuminate the main center circle area of the chamber, but fell short of the darkness of the prison cells. From the furthermost cell from the corridor the girls had entered through, came a series of deep, booming thumps. "What was that?" Twilight said, squinting her eyes to try and see what was approaching from the shadows. There was no conceivable way that the girls could have predicted what stepped out of the dark. They'd come expecting a deathgoyle, and maybe even reinforcements, but this was just plain ridiculous. What stood before them loomed over both Scarlet and Twilight at nearly three times their height, and was one hell of a lot more intimidating than the gargoyles they'd fought before. There was only one thing that could be said in such a moment, and the words of wisdom came out of none other than Scarlet, who stood wide-eyed at the monster that had entered the arena. "Oh sssshhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-"