//------------------------------//
// Chapter 17 Ulixes 
// Story: Lavender Ponyville 
// by Quadraginta 
//------------------------------//

	Pinkie Pie saw the figure, but she was half-shrouded in darkess. She could tell it was a mare, due to it's body shape. 
"And who, pray tell, are you?" asked Twilight. 
"I am Twilight Sparkle," said the figure. She stepped into the light, revealing her features. Pinkie gasped at that moment, partially in shock, partially in pain, but mostly the latter. It was, in fact, Twilight Sparkle! After all, it was the same purple mane, the same eyes, the same coat, the same everything. Only her eyes had a rage and fury which Pinkie had never seen before.
It was Twilight Sparkle, the Deus Ex Machina to Pinkie Pie being tortured by....Twilight Sparkle. 
"What.....going on?" Pinkie managed to say in between pained gasps. 
"I'll tell you what's going on," said the torturous Twilight. "The switching technique is bullshit!" 
"Switching? What" asked Deus Ex Machina Twilight. 
"I used a spell which made me switch spots with you, without any noticable changes." said torturous Twilight smugly. 
"Other than the fact that you made me gasp for air and become out of breath," said Deus Ex Machina Twilight.
"Oh well," said torturous Twilight. "No matter. Pinkie Pie is injured beyond any hope of healing. She's gonna die, and there's nothing you can do to heal her wounds-
Deus Ex Machina Twilight's horn suddenly flashed, and then all of Pinkie's wounds were healed. She jumped off of the altar and stood before the Denizens with her cannon in front of her. 
"-....except for your magic which suddenly became much more powerful." muttered torturous Twilight. 
"Well, then. I guess there's no more point in trying to hide it. I have no name. But you may call me Ulixes. I am the ruler of Lavender Ponyville." said Ulixes. She smiled, and then her mane grew wild. Her eyes were normal one moment, but became tainted with the same insanity that the Denizens had.
Ulixes smiled. "Ok, time to die." She stepped back, and then the Denizens sprang to life. and began converging upon Twilight.
Twilight's rage and fury-filled eyes widened, not in fear, but in anger. The Denizens all tried to rush her at the same time, but Twilight merely leapt into the air and fired a magical laser out of her horn. It burned a hole in the ground and sent the Denizen plummeting downwards. Twilight seemed as if she were also about to fall down the hole, but her horn flashed once, and the floor had reformed. 
"Ok," said Ulixes. "I'm impressed. But still. That doesn't change the fact that I-" 
She was silenced when Twilight suddenly winked out of existence and then reappeared with her hoof in her face. 
"Argh!" Ulixes grunted from the pain. "Ok, I am really impressed. But you're starting to piss me off!" 
Ulixes' horn glowed for a moment, before it fired a bolt of magic, which Twilight just barely managed to dodge. Ulixes jumped back, and was about to charge Twilight, unless a cannon blast could be heard, and then Ulixes was found herself between a cannon ball and the wall. 
"Annoying runt!" Ulixes grunted. She jumped up and ran towards Pinkie, her horn glowing....before Twilight fired a bolt of magic at her, and she, once again, was thrust against the pain. She yelped in pain at being thrown against the wall a second time. 
"You're really starting to piss me off!" Ulixes said. "Seriously! You don't want to piss me off!" 
"Piss this, asshole," said Twilight. She fired a massive laser which completely enveloped Ulixes and burned a hole in the wall of the room. When the laser died down, there was a huge hole in the wall, which opened into a larger room.
"What is that?" asked Pinkie, who saw the room through the hole in the wall. 
"I don't know," said Twilight as she stepped closer to the hole in the wall. "But it looks like...." 
It was a maze. A large maze, the walls constructed out of large walls of hedges. In one lane, Twilight could see Ulixes running away. 
"Come on!" said Twilight. "We have to destroy her, somehow! And I think I know how." She jumped through the hole in the wall and began chasing after Ulixes, with Pinkie following close behind.