//------------------------------// // Chapter Four: The Elemental's Kiss // Story: Sins of the Ancients // by Tundara //------------------------------// Sins of the Ancients Chapter 4: The Elemental’s Kiss "In the dreams of the White Lady will come the Moon, And the first battle shall commence." -From the Prophecy of the Purple Wizard Rarity sat in her Inspiration Room staring at the bare ponyquin, the stand mocking her with its nakedness. All day Rarity had found it impossible to concentrate on her work. First Opal had run away leading to a frantic search high and low, low and high, for the cat. She had finally been located sleeping in the loft of a barn on Sweet Apple Acres. Even after being located the fierce animal had refused to return to the boutique. When Rarity had brought her dear Opal home the cat had let out a hiss at the shop, leapt onto Rarity’s back and run off. Fluttershy had offered to take care of Opal for Rarity, and not seeing what else to do, Rarity had begrudgingly accepted. She hoped Opal was alright at Fluttershy’s cottage. The cat was well behaved for the yellow Pegasus and seemed to be happy when Rarity left, but was steadfast in her refusal to come home. But Fluttershy had become so frantic over how all the birds had stopped singing. They hid in their nests not uttering a peep or chirp no matter how much Fluttershy begged or asked or even stared. All the little critters in town were acting strange. On her way home from Fluttershy’s cottage Rarity had observed the rabbits all edging away from the town. Birds were nowhere to be seen. The air had a silence that seemed almost oppressive, broken only by the clop of hooves. Twilight hadn’t even come to help look for Opal either. No one had seen the lavender unicorn since she had returned to her library. When Rarity had gone to the library to ask for Twilight’s help looking for Opal she had found the unicorn behind a wall of textbooks. She had refused to help search, citing that researching a memory spell was more important and had stayed in the library nose pressed into her books. Spike was beside himself with worry, telling them how he had gotten up to find her already half way through a tome about basic magic principles and had asked all her friends to come over to try to help after they found Opal. According to Spike she hadn’t stopped to even eat the daisy sandwich he made her. She had just wrinkled her nose at the plate and pushed it away. Everyone knew how Twilight could be with her research and agreed that trying to get her to take breaks would be good. Rarity knew she should go check on her friend. But an important client in Manehatten wanted a new ensemble and Rarity just couldn’t come up with any ideas. Grinding her teeth, Rarity walked down to her kitchen. She’d never experienced such a draught of ideas and inspiration. Everything was gone. The energy, the flow, the sparkle, the glow, and rush of inspiration were nothing but a dank wet memory. Boiling a kettle of tea and putting some toast on a plate she wondered what to do to fix the problem. Nothing new came to mind. She just felt so drained and tired, like an old rag, threadbare and unable to hold any water. Slamming her head against her fridge Rarity ground her teeth harder. “Come on, you are an Artiste! You can do this. Just close your eyes and see how all the colours and fabric flow. You’ve done this a thousand times, Rarity!” Rarity closed her eyes and saw what she had seen every time, red hateful eyes staring straight through her. Everything else was gone. She could hardly make a dress about evil angry red eyes, could she? No, she most certainly could not. “Ragh!” Rarity yelled wanting to kick something. But a lady didn’t show such vulgar displays, instead resorting to grinding her teeth some more. She was getting nowhere Rarity realised putting the tea kettle on the table along with the toast. A knock on the door interrupted her before she could pour the tea. Rarity was tempted to ignore the knock. It came again, and again, the fourth time finally forcing Rarity into the show room of her shop. “If you can’t see the sign, it says were closed,” Rarity called in a strained voice. Opening the door Rarity readied a stinging tirade of words. She was in no mood for visitors or interruptions to her unproductive tormented work. Perhaps that would drive who ever had come a-knocking away and she could mope and rage at herself in peace. The words died half formed as she found herself facing Twilight. “Twilight, darling, what are you doing here? I thought you were deep in study-mode and it would take Celestia herself to pry you from your library.” “Yeah, I’ve run into a small problem...” “Well, come in and tell me all about it, darling. The Pegasi are already getting ready for the scheduled rain this evening.” Arching an eyebrow, Twilight looked up at the sky and muttered, “Huh, so they are...” Above them Rainbow Dash could be seen with her weather team moving a series of dark grey clouds around Ponyville. In an hour or less there would be a great downpour of water. All the vendors had already packed up their stalls and the cafe’s brought in their chairs and tables. Rarity supposed missing all the signs was just another part to Twilight’s damaged memory. A pang of guilt over not having time for the unicorn so far that day accompanied the thought. Well, she would make up for it now, Rarity decided. It wasn’t like she was doing anything else. As they entered the kitchen Twilight continued. “What I wanted to ask is, and this will sound a bit strange, but, what is it like when you use your magic?” Rarity paused giving Twilight a long look. She had never really thought about what it was like to use magic, much like she never thought about what it was like to walk or breath. It was just something every unicorn did once they got older. Picking the tea pot off the counter Rarity considered how it felt. A bit like velvet and felt with the twinkle of diamond dust in her horn she decided. Rarity stopped as she was about to poor the tea giving the pot a long look. She could have sworn she put it on the table already. She looked a few times between the counter and the table her mind grinding to a halt at the issue. “Rarity, if you don’t want to tell me that’s alright,” Twilight grumbled getting up to leave. “I just thought since we were friends you wouldn’t mind talking about your magic.” “Huh, what was that darling? Magic? Oh, yes, that. Well, I guess it’s like... it’s like, well, it’s hard to really describe, as I am sure you know,” Rarity blushed flustered at having lost the words she had just used to describe the feel to herself. “Um, well, it’s like, uh, felt? Yes, felt and velvet and diamond dust and... no, that’s not right. Ragh, why is this so hard? I had it a moment ago and then this blasted kettle wasn’t where I left it and I lost the weave of thoughts.” Twilight’s ears flicked forward at the mention of the kettle. “What was that?” “Oh, just that I had what I wanted to tell you about my magic and then, poof, gone. I’ve never really thought about my magic before.” “No, before that, the thing about the kettle.” “Oh! That! Well, I was certain I had left the kettle on the table when I answered the door but it was on the counter when we came into the kitchen. It just threw me. I must be more stressed about this order than I thought.” “The kettle was on the table, and then on the counter? Could anyone have moved it?” Rarity wondered why Twilight was suddenly so interested in the kettle. It wasn’t a great mystery. She must have been mistaken that she moved it to the table before answering the door is all. Kettles didn’t move themselves and there was no pony else in the store. Sweetie Belle was off crusading with her friends, thankfully. “Well, no. I must have just thought I moved it, darling.” “You are absolutely, completely, one-hundred percent, swear to the Ancients certain?” Twilight looked into Rarity’s eyes with an intensity that could rival Fluttershy’s famous Stare. “This is very important.” Rarity laughed shaking her head. “Don’t be preposterous Twilight. I just made an error. You really need to not make such a deal about it.” Tapping her hoof to her chin Twilight looked deep into Rarity’s eyes. Blinking Rarity looked away brushing back her mane. She started to wish that Twilight would leave, an uncomfortable and new thought for the fashionista. Rarity had never felt like she didn’t want one of her friends around before. But with Twilight’s inane questions combined with the frustrations of unproductive work ate away at Rarity’s goodwill. The desire for Twilight to leave came on so fast and strong it gave Rarity pause. She must be more stressed than she realised for such strong emotions to flare up, Rarity reasoned. “Rarity, are you the kind of person to make an observational mistake like that?” Twilight persisted feeding the tangled knot of annoyance in the fashionista’s chest. “Well, not normally. I have been terribly out of sorts today though, darling. Had a horrid evening, as I am sure you can imagine. The events in the cafe just kept replaying themselves in my dreams. But, you were asking about magic, yes Darling?” Rarity said, forcing down the irritation and trying to steer the conversation away from the infuriating tea kettle. “No, I believe I was interested in your magical teleporting kettle,” Twilight said, a wiry smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “But if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. Just if anything, uh, weird starts to happen, come and get me. Okay? Now, yes, back to what brought me here.” “Yes, how magic feels,” Rarity murmured as she poured the tea. Instead of trying to remember how she had thought of the magic before the conversation had derailed Rarity described what she felt as she poured the tea. “Well, there is this soft warmth about my horn that seems to flow from my heart. It’s so hard to find adequate words, darling. My horn feels like it is another leg, or hoof, one that can stretch and move without moving. Or at times like another eye, one that sees things no pony could normally see. But you know all that I am sure. You are far more practiced and powerful with magic than I.” “That’s actually... really helpful!” Twilight said, clapping her hooves together a wide smile crossing her face. “So, your magic comes from your horn?” “Yes, of course it does. Where else would it come from?” Rarity laughed giving her mane a toss. Joining in the laugh Twilight said, “Yeah, where else indeed.” After a few moments the laughter died down and Twilight stood up adding, “Thank you again, Rarity. I don’t think you know how much this has in fact helped.” “Nonsense, darling, I did nothing. No really, any unicorn could have told you. But are you going to leave without touching your tea?” Looking down at the hazy steamy liquid in her cup, Twilight crinkled her nose. “Uh, no, I don’t particularly care for tea it seems since the, uh, incident.” Seeing Rarity’s hurt expression Twilight added, “but thank you for having me over. I’ll see you soon.” Smiling Twilight trotted out of the boutique leaving Rarity to ponder the odd conversation. Shaking her head to clear the unnecessary thoughts Rarity finished her tea and returned to her draft room. She had work to do and for the first time since the previous morning she was feeling the flow of ideas. Even though inspiration and ideas seemed to be returning, it was very half-hearted and stuttering in flow. Rarity spent the day alternating between pacing, testing colour swatches, and drawing. In the back of her mind Rarity knew that once she was back in the swing of things she’d look on the day’s designs with a mixture of horror and revulsion, but she had to push through the block. Inspiration would not come without effort. So she forged ahead. The designs gradually grew bolder, the lines stronger, and just as the sun began to set the long sought flash of true beautiful inspiration came, and with it the rush of activity Rarity had hoped to achieve. Not stopping for dinner Rarity worked like a mad-mare. On a stand the basic form of the dress took shape. Here was the outline of something grand Rarity realised, the doubts of earlier evaporating. Fatigue built up, but Rarity continued a small nagging worry in the back of her mind prompting her to continue lest the ideas vanish again. At last Rarity fell asleep, the leaden weight dragging down her eyelids and her head drooping down onto her draft table. Before her breathing slowed into the rhythm of sleep dreams began to flood her weary mind. Rarity stood on a cloud over looking Canterlot. To the west sat Ponyville with the Whitetail and Everfree flanking either side of the village. Thin upper wisps of cloud shrouded the moon like a cloak. Little lights flickered behind the windows of the royal palace and in the mountain city streets. From her perch Rarity couldn’t see the bulk of the city hidden on the mountains far side. The pristine silence was broken by a thick guttural voice. “Pretty, but let us see what the next few days bring?” Turning at the unfamiliar sounds Rarity found standing beside her a white translucent pony. Her company on the cloud looked to be made from cloud-stuff herself as her form wavered in an ethereal breeze. Mane curled into bouncy puffs held in a simple bow. Rarity was reminded of Bon-bon, a ghostly translucent Bon-bon if the other mare had stolen Applebloom’s ribbon. The shifting form of the ghostly mare was on further inspection a bit smaller than most mares, with no definition of the muscles, like she had never exercised, and was instead had a youthful spritely build. Rarity felt a pang of jealousy at the ghostly mare’s figure for a moment. The fashionista kept to a rigorous diet in order to keep her own figure half as lithe. Rarity suspected her good friend Fleur would have been a touch envious. The ghostly mare ignored Rarity not sparing even a glance at the fashionista. Instead she continued to gaze down on the fields rolling beneath the cloud. She seemed fixated on what was below preventing Rarity from looking into the other mare’s eyes. Taking the continued stare as her queue Rarity looked over the cloud’s edge again. “By Celestia,” Rarity gasp, covering her mouth with a hoof. Under the cloud the land had completely transformed. The fields were dead and covered by a green-grey slurry of mud and standing water. A forest of blackened skeletons had replaced the Whitetail, the bare branches reaching for the sky like an army of burnt dragon claws. Thin trails of smoke curled from Canterlot as flames licked out of the Palace’s windows. Sitting flush above the tallest tower was the moon, the smoke turning it into a sickly orange colour. “Six days then... six days...” the ghostly mare whispered looking down on the devastation. Rarity was too shocked to respond. Tears came to her eyes as a wail of despair lodged itself in her throat. She dared not look towards Ponyville. “This is a dream, no a nightmare,” Rarity muttered, unable to pull her eyes from the scene. “Yes, it is,” said a soft but boyish voice from behind Rarity and the other mare. The voice was enough to drag Rarity away from the destruction below. Turning Rarity saw, as expected from the voice, Princess Luna floating just beyond the edge of the small cloud. The other mare continued watching the scene a small smile growing on her lips. Rarity blanched. There was nothing to cause a smile in the horrors she had just witnessed. Luna glared down on the other mare as well. Brilliant white power coursed behind the Princess’s teal eyes. “What are you, interloper, to hold captive one of our subjects in her own dreams?” Rarity shuddered at the barely veiled threat and power in the Moon Goddess’s words. She wondered for a moment how Luna had entered the dreamscape, but decided that she really didn’t care. Rarity was too thankful for the reprieve from what she had seen. “We were curious, and she was convenient.” The ghostly mare shrugged neither fazed nor concerned at the appearance of Luna. Turning to face the goddess the ghostly mare shot a withering look at both Luna and Rarity. Gasping Rarity felt her heart stop as her stomach twisted into a knot of pure terror. The ghostly mare’s eyes were the same as those that had hovered above Twilight the day before. Such evil eyes were wholly out of place in the otherwise sweet innocent face. Luna reared back flaring her wings as she finally saw what Rarity had seen the day before. “What monstrosity is this we see before us?” Luna asked, her voice wavering ever so slightly. “We have no name, and a thousand. For the sake of convenience you may call us the Fifth,” said the ghostly mare idly kicking away a portion of the cloud. “You were a fool to come here, false goddess. In the astral plane we have no need to fear your powers. If you leave now we shall not harm you.” “Princess Luna, this is just a terrible dream, right?” Rarity squeaked backing towards the princess. Rarity stopped as she reached the clouds edge adding, “All just a terrible, terrible dream.” Luna didn’t respond instead locked into a force of wills as she stared into the eyes of the ghostly mare calling herself the Fifth. Looking up Rarity could see to her dread that Luna seemed to be drifting away from the cloud. “Perhaps, if this was your own dreamscape, you’d be a match for us, Princess,” Fifth slurred the honorific into a little profanity. Rarity saw Luna wince as Fifth continued, “You are so much weaker now, aren’t you? Since having your powers stripped away by your sister’s puppets the dreamscape has been much harder to manipulate, hasn’t it?” “Nay, we have the power yet to banish thee,” Luna countered, but Rarity could hear the doubt and fear in the princess’s voice clear as a bell. Laughing the Fifth approached Rarity while still not pulling her gaze from Luna, saying, “If you had the power you’d have banished us already. You can’t stop us, and we shall prove it.” Fifth dropped her gaze to Rarity causing the fashionista to flinch away, but trapped on the edge of the cloud she had no escape. The ghostly mare raised a hoof to brush back Rarity’s elaborately styled mane. A sharp tingle spread from where the hoof touched like Rarity was being stabbed by an ethereal shard of ice. Biting her lip Rarity considered leaping off the cloud. The memory of the fall from Cloudsdale the previous year kept her hooves firmly in place. Dream or not Rarity couldn’t bear the idea of plummeting towards the ground. A moment later Rarity regretted her decision as the ghostly mare leaned forward. Eyes wide with shock Rarity stood still as a statue as Fifth kissed her gently on her lips. For a single infinitesimal moment Rarity felt like she wanted to lean into the kiss and return it with all the passion and longing a lifetime of reading trashy romance novels had built inside her. But then fire and ice exploded from the kiss across her face racing down her neck to the tip of her tail. Images of her life flashed before Rarity’s eyes before being drowned in a scream that ripped from deep within her throat. She could feel the memories being ripped to the surface of her mind and then lost into the swirling terror that threatened to drive her to madness. Rarity couldn’t move as the memories came faster and faster as ice began to cling to her muzzle. The ice had almost reached her eyes when the kiss was broken. In a daze Rarity slumped onto the cloud. Around her she heard three voices shouting, but she couldn’t make out any words. A flash of brilliant blue light stung the befuddled fashionista’s eyes followed closely by a scream of pain. There was a second flash and Rarity tried to shake the cloying fuzzy after sensation of the kiss. Blinking she looked up to see Luna standing on the cloud beside her surrounded in a blue shield spell. Light was blazing from her horn as she struck the wispy form of Fifth. Luna’s attack’s seemed to have no effect other than to cause the ghostly mare’s form to swirl as the energy passed through her body. The ghostly mare was entirely fixated on something else; a voice piercing the dream like a lance. “Domine, exaudi orantionem meam!” The words were wholly alien in Rarity’s ears, but the voice wasn’t. She recognised Twilight's voice, though the unicorn was speaking in a deep rolling boom that seemed to rumble across the dream. Whatever the unicorn was saying, however it had entered Rarity’s dream, it was driving the red eyed terror back. Raising herself on shaking hooves Rarity watched in fascination and elation as Fifth backed to the cloud’s edge, the ghostly mare laying her ears flat against her skull. “Et clamor meus ad te veniat!” “No, we will not go back! Not now, not ever,” Fifth screamed up into the sky. And then the ghostly mare was gone, her form dissipating into nothingness. Rarity blinked looking between where the ghostly mare had been and Luna still floating in her shield. Luna looked equally surprised. Stepping towards the spot Rarity noticed that Luna’s left wing hung limply at the alicorn’s side twisted at an odd angle. Eyes growing wider Rarity noticed more wounds on the princess. Something had cut a slender line down her face rolling under her proud jaw and continuing along her neck stopping just before the shoulder. Luna’s left eye was bruised with the beginnings of swelling already showing beneath her lustrous coat. “Oh, by Celestia, you’ve been hurt Princess Luna,” Rarity said, her voice a hushed whisper as she lifted a hoof towards Luna’s battered face. Luna brushed the hoof aside. “Tis nothing, we will mend before the dawn from such trifling wounds as these. We are more con...” Twilight’s voice piercing the dreams veil cut off the rest of Luna’s words. “Rarity? Wake up, Rarity. You need to wake up. Right. Now!” Pinching her face in a frown Rarity looked up at the starlit sky of the dream. She wanted nothing more than to wake up. For the last several minutes she had kept hoping that she’d open her eyes to find herself back in her draft room in the boutique. Rarity was about to shout out to the disembodied voice of Twilight when she felt a tugging at her hooves. Shifting her gaze beneath her Rarity realised that the cloud had started to dissipate. Before she could even gasp Rarity was falling, falling faster than she had ever fallen before. Yet even as the air pulled at her mane and tail, the ground rushing towards her, Rarity felt a sense of calm peace. This was nothing more than a dream after-all and despite the fear of heights gained in Cloudsdale Rarity just wasn’t afraid. She couldn’t have explained it and chalked it up to ‘dreams being dreams’. The ground was so close. Rarity closed her eyes and waited. Then with a small thump she impacted and her head snapped up from the draft board. “Twi-Twilight?” Rarity muttered, dazed by the sudden shift back to reality. Her red glasses were stuck to the side of her face along with a piece of paper that Rarity had been drooling on. Plucking the glasses and paper from her face Rarity asked, “What happened? Oh, I was having the most awful dream, darling. I can’t begin to describe...” “No time for that, we have to get out of here. You live alone, correct?” Frazzled by the dream’s events Rarity didn’t respond, instead she got to her shaking hooves and started to head towards her large dresser. She had at least two dressers in every room in the boutique, each stuffed with emergency provisions of clothes. The familiar steps towards the wooden edifice felt comforting, the vestiges of the dream clinging to her consciousness. Heart beating an unsteady rhythm Rarity wanted nothing more than some comfort and solace, and nothing comforted her more than a nice ensemble and a pot of tea. Or a day at the spa, but even in her disoriented state Rarity knew the spa was out of the question. “Ugh, we don’t have time for this!” Twilight growled before biting Rarity’s tail and starting to drag the fashionista away from the dresser. “We hmph tugh git oush oph phere,” she continued, her wards garbled around the tail in her mouth. “What? Get out? But, why do we need to get out, darling? There is nothing here... is there?” Rarity’s eyes darted to every dark nook and cranny of her room. It was then she became aware of how cold her home had become, like it was the middle of winter and the heater had been left off. The boutique had never felt as cold and inhospitable as it did at that moment. Ears flush against her head Rarity flicked her tail out of Twilight’s mouth and began to back up towards the door that led to the central spiral stairwell. “Yes, yes, I think you are right, Twilight,” the fashionista muttered as she reached the open door. Without a second glance or thought she ran out of the boutique, Twilight right behind her. The two mares ran all the way to the library without stopping. Neither spoke a word the entire time, the panting of their breaths and the call of a solitary owl the only sounds in the otherwise still night. At last they reached the library, Rarity opening the door and then slamming it shut as Twilight skidded across the threshold. “Spike? Spike!” Twilight shouted into the brightly lit library after catching her breath. Breaths coming sharp and shallow Rarity tried to still her own heart by taking in the library. The first thing that struck her was that the room looked like all the book shelves had exploded depositing their contents in hap-hazard piles on every surface. One side of Twilight’s desk had a small tower of little purple books. Each had two dates written on the spine and Rarity presumed the cover. Rarity wasn’t surprised by the organised chaos, she had figured Twilight would enter full research mode, but what did surprise her were that almost all the books were history texts and basic guides to magic. Reflecting on Twilight’s visit earlier that day Rarity realised she shouldn’t have been surprised about the magic guides, yet they still struck her as odd. Rarity was brought out of her observations by the appearance of the purple and green dragon at the top of the stairs that lead to Twilight’s private rooms. Rubbing his eyes the dragon grumbled as he came down the stairs. “Yeah, yeah, what is it Twilight? I was having a nice dream about... Rarity?” the dragon chirped, his eyes growing wide when he saw the white unicorn. “Not now Spike,” Twilight said as she idly kicked some books aside. “We need salt. Lots of it.” “Salt?” Rarity and Spike asked together both watching Twilight as the lavender unicorn entered the kitchen. “Yes, salt. An uninterrupted line of it at all the windows and doors. I do not want to have that thing follow us home.” Sharing a concerned look with Spike, Rarity said, “My dear, I am most thankful for you waking me from that awful dream, but how will salting the windows help? I am very confused as to what happened. Perhaps if you took a moment to just explain things then-” Rarity was interrupted by Twilight dropping a large bag of salt onto the floor in front of the fashionista. There was a manic look of panic dancing just behind Twilight’s eyes that Rarity hadn’t seen since the Miss Smarty-pants incident. Flinching at the memory Rarity looked down on the bag of salt. She still felt guilty about ignoring Twilight’s plight that spring day many months before. “We don’t have time for me to explain. It got away before I could complete the banishment ritual. And even then it could still come back. But right now I think I just made it mad... er. Madder.” “But, darling, what is it? I never expected anything to be able to stand against Princess Luna besides the Elements of Harmony or Princess Celestia.” “Or Discord,” grumbled Spike as he picked up the bag of salt. “Yes, or Discord,” Rarity added, slightly flustered at the interruption. “Regardless, Luna, in the dream, was badly hurt. Oh my, I hope she is alright. She said she’d be alright, but every pony knows how proud and independent she tries to be, poor dear. Do you think we should send a letter to the palace?” Depositing two more bags of salt Twilight just rolled her eyes. “I think we should salt the window sills and doors before the elemental comes after us. They don’t take kindly to being poked. Here, let me show you what to do.” Bringing one of the bags to the window, to the door's left Twilight motioned for Spike and Rarity to follow her. Ripping the bag open she poured a generous line across the bottom of the round window, or as much of it as she could. Rarity’s eye twitched at the sight of the lumpy white line against the pink window sill. It just clashed with the rustic earthy decor of the library. “See, just like that. Nice thick unbroken lines of salt. Now, do what I showed you to all the windows and doors. Make sure you don’t miss a single one. I’ll take this floor if you’ll take the basement Spike and Rarity the second floor.” Twilight carried her bag to the door while Spike and Rarity each retrieved a bag of their own and headed towards their designated floors. Safe in Twilight’s library, in spite of her odd insistence on salting all the window sills and doors, Rarity felt the built up tension of the dream and run from the boutique rush off her back leaving a drained sensation. The bag of salt wavered in her magic half way through the second window sill as the weariness mounted. Twilight’s bed looked extremely inviting in the slanting moonlight. Tossing her head to keep herself awake Rarity reminded herself that while Twilight’s request was certainly strange so had been the last couple days. Besides, Twilight was the most knowledgeable unicorn about magic alive, probably. Rarity would trust only the Princesses on the subject of magic more than Twilight. Finishing the final window Rarity looked up, her mind still turning over thoughts of Twilight, magic, and the dream, and looked straight into a pair of blood red eyes. Screaming Rarity dropped the bag of salt skidding away from the face. It was nothing like the young, innocent almost, mare from the dream. Instead she looked out on the grotesque features of a horned goat. Fangs glinted in the moonlight as the monstrosity glared at Rarity. A pair of massive wolf-like paws pressed against the window the creature leaning forward a forked tongue licking the glass, as a smile, wicked and twisted, curled up its lips. Noticing the salt the evil smile turning to an enraged snarl, the red hate filled eyes burning into Rarity. “Soon, Rarity Belle, soon.” The monster laughed. “We have tasted your lips and memories. We will taste them again, soon.” And with that the face disappeared into the night. Rarity just shivered on the floor not responding as Twilight and Spike raced to her side.