ACE made his way through the Everfree Forest. The sounds of creatures and rustling branches were disturbing but nothing he wasn’t used to. As he headed for Zecora’s hut, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It looked like the silhouette of a pony, like a unicorn, but at the same time he wasn’t sure. It seemed to be following him yet every time he turned his head to look straight at it the shadow simply vanished. Perhaps he was becoming paranoid. There was no real way to tell.
ACE arrived at Zecora’s hut and knocked on the door. A familiar voice inside the hut beckoned him to come in, so ACE opened the door and did just that. He found Zecora the Zebra hard at work grabbing plants, petals, salts, and various other multicolored ingredients. Some were going into a cauldron, others into a large mixing mortar, which Zecora stirred
using her hoof as a pestle.
“Welcome little pony, it’s good to see you, is there something you wish me to do?”
There she goes again, talking in rhymes. ACE had no idea why Zecora talked like that. He figured it must have been a zebra thing.
“Actually as it turns out, I’ve been sent by Twilight and her friends to collect the Burst Powder, is it ready?”
“Patience my friend,” replied the zebra, “Though I am skilled with many brews and flowers, one thing I know not of, is what you ponies call ‘Burst Powder’”
“You don’t know how to make it?” ACE asked, surprise in his voice.
Zecora smiled and shook her head. “Relax little pony, I have what I need. I simply have never been asked to do this deed.”
ACE tried his best to translate what the zebra had just said. From what he could tell she was saying she had the recipe and guide to make Burst Powder, she was just never asked to make it before. This didn’t surprise him. Until the original creation of fireworks, Burst Powder would have been considered a tool for war thus its creation would have been frowned upon.
A puff of smoke arose from the cauldron. Zecora scooped out a spoon full of the brew and poured it into the powdered mixture in the mortar. The concoction sizzled a bit before simmering down into a dark purple powder.
“It is done my friend, to Ponyville I leave the rest. Though this was just my first time, I must say it was my best.”
ACE stared at the powder for a bit. It looked good, but then again, he had never seen Burst Powder before.
“Oh, I almost forgot, Twilight wanted to know if there was a way to turn the powder orange.” ACE smiled innocently, wondering if Zecora would catch what he had done.
“I know of no way to turn the mixture orange, but I can…” Zecora paused and her eyes widened, then narrowed again as she gave ACE a condescending glare. ACE simply laughed to himself as he bundled up the powder into a pouch. He thanked Zecora for her help and headed out of her hut towards Ponyville.
The decorations were finally finished and the whole town seemed ready to receive the princess of the night. All that was left was the Burst Powder. It was still a bit before noon so they had a lot of spare time. Lilly decided the best thing to do would be to meet ACE half way and take the powder back together. She began to make her way to the Everfree forest. As she reached the outskirts of Ponyville she passed by a strange looking black pony with wavy light green hair. She had never seen this pony before. Maybe it was a traveler who caught wind of the concert. Whatever the case she ran by him without a second thought and headed for the forest.
The pony watched Lilly depart, whispering to himself as she left.
“So it begins.”
There was an almost buzzing noise to the stranger’s accent, as he made his way further into Ponyville.
Lilly made her way through the Everfree Forest. It was as dark and empty as she remembered the last time she went through it. As she made her way to Zecora’s hut, something began to feel off, like she was being watched. Suddenly the very air around her seemed to turn lifeless and cold. She heard the sound of footsteps approaching from the back, with each step the area around her seemed to die just a little bit more.
“ACE, are you there? Is that you?” Lilly turned to see a shadow approaching her. The creature walked into view revealing it to be a changeling, but this was unlike any changeling she had ever seen before. Unlike ACE who had a crooked horn, this changeling appeared to have one that was run-of-the-mill for their race, the rest of the creature however was a completely different story. The body of the changeling was darker than average and its ears were long strands that ran down his back. The strands were cut into segments and ended with shapes that resembled sickles that seemed to be held together with magic. The changeling wore a dark purple cloak over his wings and carapace, the cloak was covered with bones, with a skull on the right side of it. The skull had a chain that came out of its mouth, which wrapped around the changeling and ultimately connected to a glowing green lantern that hovered beside the creature. Surely Lilly was staring into the eyes of a wisp, or perhaps even the grim reaper.
“Who are you?” She asked the changeling, backing away slowly as she shyly spoke to the intimidating creature.
The creature mimicked the question back to her, his voice lifeless and blunt, almost exhausted even. “Who are you?”
“I’m Lilly.” She was hesitant to tell another changeling her name. Could this, creature, be why ACE was so on edge?
“Lilly.” The creature paused before suddenly taking on a more aggressive tone. “Then you are part of the problem, if I can’t find him, you will simply have to do.”
The lamp hovered closer to Lilly and the glow began to intensify, Lilly’s eyes widened with extreme terror. She could feel her very life being drawn into the lantern and she could hear it softly singing to her.
Bound by chain, bound by chain
Her hunger never ends.
Lilly began to slip into a trance as the word ‘warden’ was whispered into her ear over and over. Just before any permanent damage could be done, a bright flash of light separated the mare from the changeling and snapped Lilly back to reality. Both turned to see ACE step out from a nearby thicket with a series of cards spinning around his neck.
“ACE!” Lilly shouted overjoyed to see him in one piece.
“Lilly! Get back to Ponyville now!” ACE loaded a smokescreen spell onto one of his cards and flung it at the changeling’s feet, a massive puff of black smoke covered, him allowing Lilly to dash to ACE’s side.
“Who is that ACE?” Lilly asked her voice in a panic.
“That’s Warden, there’s no time to explain, here!” ACE tossed Lilly the burst powder. “Take this and run!”
“But-“ Lilly was cut off by ACE shouting at her.
“This is not up for debate Lilly! Run!”
As Lilly began to run, one of Warden’s hook ears burst from the cloud of smoke aimed straight for Lilly. ACE had just enough time to throw up a Shield card protecting her as she ran.
“Impressive.” Warden spattered bluntly. “However it will take more than your parlor pony tricks to best a Warden.”
“Oh, I’m aware.” ACE replied.
ACE violently flung the rest of his cards at warden, each was enchanted with weaker versions of the flash bang spell he had used before. Warden, having better reaction time this time around managed to cover his eyes to avoid the blasts. After the lights had worn off, Warden discovered that not only had ACE changed into his true form Lord Amethyst, there were now
five of Amethyst surrounding him.
“Flawless execution” stated Warden, again his tone was blunt and emotionless. “I’d expect nothing less from a prince.”
Warden’s words seemed to taunt Amethyst and all five of his clones lunged at the changeling. Warden’s horn began to glow the all too familiar shade of green, his lantern circled around him rapidly leaving a green circle where he stood. Just as the five Amethysts were about to land on him, a pillar of green flames erupted from beneath him, shattering the five illusions. The pillar subsided revealing remains of the fire all over Warden’s body. The bone cloak he was wearing had burned away to ash, but Warden seemed completely unharmed and undeterred. He scanned the area with emotionless eyes. If all five of the Amethysts that attacked him were illusions, then the real one would still be around.
The lantern suddenly flickered sending out a pulse of green light. A female voice cried out from the lantern saying a single word.
“Warden!”
Warden’s eyes widened and he bucked back with his hind legs. His hooves collided with Amethyst’s face with a loud smack that sent Amethyst into the air. Amethyst hung in the air as he shouted down to his assailant.
“Why are you after me? I’ve done nothing wrong! I am still loyal to the queen and the swarm!”
Warden didn’t seem to care what Amethyst had to say. His horn glowed green once more and his lantern spun out in front of him, launching a green fireball at Amethyst. The fireball connected, shattering yet another illusion. As the image faded, small bits of green flame burst from it setting a nearby tree on fire. Warden glared at the tree and the lantern pulsed again, making the fire spread almost instantly to other trees. This created a ring of green flame, cutting off the real Amethyst who had just come back into view and was trying to escape.
“I’m not your enemy Warden,” Amethyst assured. “I’m on your side!”
Warden vanished as Amethyst panicked, looking desperately for the changeling. Suddenly he could hear Warden’s cold lifeless words coming from just behind him.
“You are in love. Therefore, you are an enemy.”
Dozens of green circles filled the ground as Warden took to the sky, his lantern dancing in circles around him as he arose. Amethyst jumped around as many pillars of flame as he could, but ultimately he took to the skies to avoid the assault. It didn’t stop there however. Amethyst was soon met with a volley of green fire. One of the flames exploded against his chest, only to reveal an illusion. Amethyst appeared beside Warden and gave him a violent four-hoof shove staggering the changeling back. Amethyst charged blindly towards Warden, a defensive wall of flames revealed yet another illusion. Two Amethysts appeared on either end of Warden and dove for him. Warden simply dropped from the sky, causing the two copies to slam into each other, shattering them both.
“Enough games.”
The lantern began to sing again.
Bound by chain, bound by chain
With me this fight will end.
The lantern spun furiously around Wardens body until it completely unwrapped itself. Warden cringed at the feel of the chains violently rubbing his body as they unwound. Finally undone, the lantern flung itself into the air. After a massive pulse emitted from it, a massive fiery green explosion covered the entire nearby area in an explosion so massive it could
probably be seen from the four corners of Equestria.
Warden returned to the ground of the forest. The surrounding trees and plant life were charred to cinders from the explosion. Anything that wasn’t black was on fire. He walked up to Amethyst who was lying on the ground unconscious, his body was covered in small harmless green flames and his hooked horn was sparking with green electric-looking energy.
“You fool.” Warden murmured to himself as the lantern retied itself around him. Once finished the lantern began to drift towards the unconscious changeling, but it seemed fate was determined to interrupt yet again.
“Hey!” Warden turned and looked to the skies to see two Pegasi flying down. Both seemed very angry with Warden, but he couldn’t care less about that. It was the light blue colt Pegasus that was yelling at him that was starting to annoy him a little.
“I don’t know who you two are or what you’re doing, but I DO want to know why exactly you’re burning down our forest!” Ravewind glared angrily at the changeling, waiting for a response that didn’t come. The changeling simply turned around and looked back at his unconscious ‘buddy.’
“Hey! Don’t ignore me!” Ravewind shouted again, as he flailed a hoof around.
“Ravewind forget it.” Chroma Sketch quipped. “He’s clearly not interested in talking, let’s just get him out of here.”
Ravewind smirked. “I see your buddy there’s looking pretty beat up. Bet ACE did that too him huh? Well that’s nothing compared to what we’re going to do to you if you don’t scram!”
Warden suddenly shifted his focus back to the Pegasus. “They don’t know? How interesting. I’ll take note of that and bring this one back alive.”
“What are you murmuring over there?!” At this point both Pegasi had landed on the ground, Chroma on all fours while Ravewind landed on his hind legs. Keeping himself upright with his wings, he pounded his front hooves together repeatedly, showing his eagerness to fight this ‘psycho lantern changeling.’
“Fighting will have a disastrous consequence, for both of you.” Chroma, who had been completely calm despite Ravewind’s shouting up until this point was starting to get a bit annoyed with the changeling’s high and mighty attitude. Once more, she didn’t like being underestimated.
“Put your hooves where your mouth is then!” Chroma spat, Ravewind looked at the mare utterly surprised, but at the same time, intrigued.
“Very well” Warden answered bluntly.
Amethyst regained consciousness, and awoke to a gruesome sight. The area around him was covered in flames, and his friends Ravewind and Chroma Sketch were lying on the ground battered, bruised, and unconscious. Warden stood emotionless and cold, towering above the defeated ponies. His lantern hovering menacingly over them as he began to speak.
“You have two options, I can take them, or I can take you.”
Amethyst glared at the changeling. “Why not just kill all three of us? You came here to kill anyway didn’t you?” Despite the aggression in his voice, Amethyst knew the obvious choice, he also knew this wasn’t really up for debate.
“You truly know nothing about what the lantern I am holding can do,” replied Warden. “Make your choice, I will not ask you again.”
Amethyst sighed, he began to approach Warden. After the two were standing side by side they begin to walk off into the forest. Amethyst felt his leg get caught on something. He looked back to see that Ravewind had awoken, but was too weak to stand.
“Where…is ACE?” Ravewind weakly asked the changeling.
Amethyst paused for a moment then looked down at his friend, feigning anger.
“He’s gone.” The changeling finally replied. Amethyst walked off with Warden leaving Ravewind and Chroma behind in the charred remains of the battlefield.