Lucien laid back with a sigh, reclining on a small couch in the room adjoining the throne room, where Luna was currently holding court in Celestia's absence. Aiden and Celestia had taken off a few minutes beforehand, Lucien electing to stay behind. They worked out an agreement where he would meet them back in Ponyville.
He figured it would be a good idea to start preparing to head back, as he didn't have another potion to aid in his teleportation. He considered his options briefly, ruling out anything sacrificial or necromantic, and settled on what could be considered the most dangerous one.
"Yo, guard," he called out, not moving from his position.
"Yes, sir?" came the hesitant voice of the lone guard in the room.
"Which way is the tallest point in this section of the castle?"
"I, uh, it s-should be outside the throne room, three doors on the right, two on the left, and then all the way up the spiral staircase."
"Fantastic." Lucien clapped his hands together sharply and sat up quickly. "I'll see you later, then." He held up his hand and gave a two-finger salute to the guard as he walked past him.
"But, but wait! Why do you want to go to the top of the castle?"
Lucien turned around and flashed him a smile. "To jump off, of course." Before the guard had a chance to respond, he was already in the throne room.
"—and this is the last time I want to hear about it!" Luna stopped abruptly in her rant at the terrified noble as she saw Lucien enter the room.
"Ah, Lucien. Could you explain to this fine gentlecolt why it would be a bad idea to splice together the genes of rockadiles and cocatrices?" Her gritted teeth and narrowed eyes spoke more than a thousand words.
"Um..." he trailed off as 50 expectant eyes fixed on him. "Mitochondria."
And with that, Lucien turned around and walked as quickly as he could to the double doors at the end of the courtroom. Until a dark blue blur swooped down in front of him, blocking his path. "Where's the fire, young magician?"
He almost laughed when she called him young, but kept a straight face. "I have a meeting to attend. With your sister. In Ponyville." He peered around her form, judging the distance from there to the door.
"Do not worry, for I am sure you will be late. Now, come back and tell Mr. Coins why it would be a bad idea to commit a heinous act of science." Her tone left no room for argument. Reluctantly, he turned around and began walking back towards the throne.
"Man, she scares me sometime—OOF!" A force struck him in the back, and he was sent flying. He tumbled forward and rolled across the ground before coming to a stop, his back pressed up against the wall. He looked to the front of the room with hazy eyes. When the world came into focus, he could make out the shocked faces of many nobles and a wicked grin on Luna's face, off in the distance.
"That's for the hammer!" she called out to him.
Lucien held up his hands. "Alright, I deserved it!" he called back. "Sort of," he muttered under his breath.
She flapped her wings a few times and came to land before him, snickering.
"We are so sparring sometime," Lucien said. "Now, help me up, will you?"
"Of course." She held out a hoof and Lucien grabbed it. He winced as she grabbed it with much more force than was necessary, nearly crushing his hand. The grin on her face told him she did it entirely on purpose. "And I would love to spar with you sometime. I believe my guard has grown weary of being defeated by the one they are supposed to protect." She shot a glance to the red-faced batpony that stood next to her throne.
"Heh, heh..." he stretched his spine out and it popped once. "That actually hurt, you know."
Luna gave him another grin, which he supposed was a permanent part of her face now. "It was supposed to." She took her seat on her throne again and looked over the crowd of nobles, all of whom still had their jaws down in shock.
Lucien spoke up. "You should all get used to this. It won't be long before she's destroying the castle with my body." He looked back at her. "Or me, with hers." His head swiveled back around and his eyes locked on to Mr. Coins. "Don't splice DNA, it's how you destroy society. And then I'll have to come in and kill it, and then you, because you'll undoubtedly have gone insane by then. Have fun." He waved his hand once to the pony, then once to Luna, and began walking out of the room.
But when he was at the threshold of the exit, he put a hand on the stone wall, and quickly sent out a pulse of magic. Almost instantly, a stone brick popped out of the wall on the opposite side of the room with a quick grinding noise. It plummeted a few feet and struck Luna on the head. Lucien quickly bolted out the door just as her cry of anger reached his ears.
He sprinted through the halls, racing down the path that the guard had told him would take him to the top of the castle. "Right, right, right, left, left, up the stairs." He was just taking the first turn when he heard Luna bust open the doors he had just closed.
"LUCIEN!" she roared.
"Ahhh!" he screamed back, legs never halting in the frantic sprint.
He made another left, this time through a doorway, and slammed it shut with a burst of magic. Luckily, he's had more experience than most with running away from things trying to kill him, so his form was spectacular. He gracefully dove over a member of the castle staff and rolled back into a run.
"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" shouted Luna, this time from closer.
"AWAY FROM YOU!" he yelled back.
He hung the third left, this time not even stopping to throw the door open and just busting through it with a magically-charged shoulder rush. He ran a few steps and almost missed the immediate right turn. Skidding a few steps, he pulled a one-eighty and sprinted through.
"YOU CAN'T ESCAPE NOW, LUCIEN! YOU'RE GONNA GET WHAT'S COMING!"
"She must have figured out I was going to the roof. Pity she can't follow me where I'm going after that." The best part about running away from things constantly is that you can learn how to multitask while doing it. On the outside, Lucien was terrified. On the inside, he was calculating and preparing for future moves that he would enact further down the line. For example, he had already begun charging up the spell to do a long-range teleport, even though he had a staircase to run up.
He made the final right and began running up the staircase. The fit was tight, and he barely had enough room to get both his shoulders in. On the bright side, there was no way Luna would be able to cheat and fly up the stairs.
"I'LL GET YOU!" he heard her voice echo from below. This time it seemed she was farther away.
He didn't question what could be a lucky break and continued his pace upward. The staircase was long, but he eventually made it to the top. There was a small wooden door and an empty window on the landing. He quickly shoved the door open, ran inside, and closed it again. Taking a breath, he looked around at the darkened room he had just entered.
Extremely ancient computers lined the walls, switched off and covered in a few inches of dust. Windows lined the upper part of the walls across the breadth of the circular room. A round table sat in the center of the room, housing an outdated map of Equestria inset into the surface. If Lucien had to guess, he would say it was once a war room.
He spotted another door at the other side of the room. He ran to it and put a hand on the handle to open it up- but he paused first. Luna didn't follow him up the staircase, he would have heard her hooves. He swept a hand across a window next to the door, clearing the thick layer of dust off. His eyes looked out at Ponyville and the Foal Mountains off in the distance, scanning for a glimpse of something...
"There!" He noticed a quick flash of dark blue fly by just outside of the tower. "She's waiting for me." He glanced down at his hand and saw that it had a ball of bright energy swirling around it. His spell was ready to be used.
He threw open the door. Or, rather, he tried to. It stuck, and he jiggled the handle a few time. "Oh, come on!" He kicked the door once futilely, then turned and walked towards the center of the room. He reached the table, turned around, raised his foot to channel magic into the bottom, and-
BANG!
A blast of energy sent the wooden door slamming outward, hanging off only one hinge. Not wishing to waste another moment, he sprinted out the opening and leapt over the safety rail on the balcony. He spun around in midair to look behind him as he plummeted towards the ground.
"LUCIEN!" Luna yelled to him. Her figure rushed at him quickly.
"I'LL SEE YOU LATER!" he shouted to her as she flapped her wings frantically to catch up with him.
His form started to glow and lines of magic rushed around him, leaving a trail like a comet behind his body. His vision began to turn to white as the ground rushed up to meet him. Then, just before he smashed into the surface, he teleported.
He came flying out of his teleport quickly, only this time he was actually parallel to the ground. His shoes touched to the grass and he skidded across the somewhat-smooth surface, kicking up heaps of the plant as he did so. Finally he came to a halt and he dropped to a knee to catch his breath.
He around to see he was in Ponyville proper. Only, something was wrong. Several buildings were up in smoke, and panicking citizens were running around all over the place. He stood up and took off towards Town Hall, hoping to some deity that Aiden and Celestia were arriving at the same time he was.
Lucien glanced up and saw a shape moving down some clouds ahead of him. He squinted his eyes and was able to identify the shape as Aiden. He spun around once, eyes searching the skies for the chariot he came in. "There." He caught a glimpse of gold between some clouds higher up in the sky.
"Let's find out what's going on."
His eyes followed Aiden's descent until the man jumped past some buildings that were blocking Lucien's path. Using a burst of magic, he propelled himself upward, soaring up into the air to come to land on the roof of one of the buildings. He looked down to see how Aiden was faring.
The man had his arm stuck inside a Watcher's chest, clearly gripping something inside, and frost was slowly spreading up his arm. Lucien could feel how cold it was from where he stood. Then, Aiden's hand shot back forwards and he emitted a triumphant cry, the Watcher fading into nothing. His victory was short-lived, however, because the shadow of a Sentinel crept forward and got a hold of his leg, beginning to drag him across the ground. A golem was readying its fists a short distance away.
Just before Lucien could jump in to intervene, Aiden cast some spell on his hand and used it to dissolve the shadowy Sentinel.
"Well, he can handle himself alright, I suppose. Not very flashy with his technique, but I guess that just comes from experience." He made the decision to attack the golem that Aiden had just dodged.
Lucien propelled himself up into the air and threw Harmony's twin chakrams across the street at the golem. "Aiden!" The blades stuck in the golem's neck, and he reached up two massive hands to try to claw them out. While the monster was distracted, Lucien launched himself forward with a burst of magic and he came crashing down into the golem with a full-body kick. "You'e got some 'splainin' to do!" They both tumbled to the ground. Harmony disappeared from the golem's neck and reappeared in his hands as Chaos.
"What the hell was that?! You could have gotten yourself killed!" Aiden yelled from behind him.
"Yeah," replied Lucien, driving the warhammer into the golem's metal head, "But I didn't."
Aiden let some breath out in a huff. "This is my mess. I should be the one who cleans it up."
“Rule one of life on Earth. Make sure you know what you’re up against.” His hammer disappeared and reformed as a sword. “Rule two of life on Earth. Don’t ever refuse help when offered.” His eyes flicked to Sentinel just behind Aiden. “Rule three, DUCK!”
Lucien cleanly cut through the shadow-like creature before it had a chance to take Aiden's head off. The man slowly raised his head to see Lucien sheathing his sword across his back. "We should probably talk later. You know, after we mercilessly slaughter every creature in Ponyville that isn't a pony." He paused in thought. "Or a human. Or griffin, or... you get the idea."
"You're right..." Aiden said. Then, without another word, he turned and powered up his hand again. Lucien watched as he charged a golem, dodged a clumsy strike, then punched the thing into two separate halves. Lucien noticed a slight sag in his shoulders after he completed the attack.
"Nice going with that power fist man, I saw that." Lucien unsheathed his sword and lazily decapitated a Watcher that had gotten too close for comfort.
Aiden stared at him for a moment in exasperation. “Can’t you take anything seriously? I mean, stop being so casual about everything! You’re slashing that thing’s head off for Christ’s sake!” Aiden shouted.
Lucien shrugged. “When you've been doing this for as long as I have, it stops becoming a big deal. Besides, I've seen worse than these.” He sheathed his sword again, letting it rest on his back. “Besides, I just fought like, twenty of these earlier.”
“Don’t remind me.” Aiden replied.
“Okay, I won’t.” He spun around and hurled Balance at another golem off in the distance. While it spun through the air, green mana coalesced on his hands and took the shape of hooked claws. "Oh ho ho! These look wicked!" He sprinted to chase his sword down.
The blade stuck in the golem's chest, miraculously right on target. Lucien caught up with it in seconds, readying his hands for an attack. He dodged the golem's first attack, then caught the second one on his claws. With a grunt of effort, he pushed the golem's arm back to leave it open to attack. Without hesitation, he swiped his left hand's claws diagonally across the golem's body, then mimicked the action with his right.
After a moment, the golem came crashing to the ground, now in several cleanly cut slices. The mana dissipated around his hands and he withdrew his sword from the rubble.
He looked around and saw himself surrounded by Watchers and Sentinels. He had been cornered by some burning buildings. He looked off in the distance to see that Aiden had made multiple copies of himself and was detonating them on some enemies. Frowning, Lucien held out a hand to the buildings behind him and began rotating it in slow circles. Magic sparked across his arm, and the fires began siphoning into his magic, causing it to take on a more maroon tint.
He sheathed his sword with his off-hand and straightened his back, relaxing out of his fighting stance. He raised his glowing arm and released the pent-up energy just as the creatures tried to rush him.
A bubble of fiery magic pulsed out from his, scorching the Sentinels and Watchers and causing them to disintegrate to mere ashes. He looked around to see that he was no longer surrounded on all sides. He smiled, satisfied in his work.
"But wait." He sniffed once. Then again, smelling something. He looked down to see the leg of his jeans had caught fire. "Oh, that won't do," he said before swatting out the flames quickly. He examined the damage hastily, noting that he now had a bit of a smoldering near his shin.
He held up his arms in exasperation, eyes turned up to the sky. "Great." His arms fell back down and slapped his sides. "Now I have to get these repaired." He looked around to see Aiden was just finishing up with his side of the fight. Shrugging, he set off to go find Carousal Boutique, figuring Aiden could handle whatever he didn't mop up.
He unsheathed his sword and walked with it held by his waist. As he walked through the town, he put out whatever fires he saw and swiftly killed any creature brave enough to attack him while he was on a mission to repair his pants. By the time he had reached the Boutique, he had completely lost Aiden, put out probably most of the fires in Ponyville, and gotten an easy killstreak of forty-something.
He entered without knocking, choosing to let the bell herald his entrance. "Hey, Rarity, there was a problem and—" he was cut off as something thin and hard suddenly smashed into the top of his head.
"OW!" he stumbled forward, one hand raised with a mana shield surrounding it to block any more attacks and one hand withdrawing his sword.
"Oh! Lucien! Thank Celestia you're here! Some of the nastiest things I have ever seen are attacking Ponyville!" Rarity exclaimed, dropping what she had smacked him over the head with.
Lucien glared at her. "Your apology for hitting me is accepted, thanks," he said through gritted teeth while rubbing his now-sore head. He sheathed his sword.
Rarity stopped in her tracks. "Oh, that was quite rude of me. I do apologize, but I have seen you take much harder hits than that." She darted into her kitchen. "Here, let me get you an ice-pack!" she called from the adjacent room.
"It's alright Rarity, I can manage!" he yelled to her. While she was trotting back into the room, he looked down to see what she had hit him with. His eyes widened in surprised as he noticed that it was the poleaxe that he had given her over the winter.
He pointed at it. "You kept that?" he asked, totally sidetracked from his original mission.
Rarity followed his gesture and noticed what he was talking about. She giggled nervously and rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. "Well, I..." she bit her lip. "I found it quite fun to use, so I kept practicing with it." To demonstrate, she picked it up in her magic and spun it around her body faster than Lucien's eyes could follow. While the weapon was whipping around her, she continued to speak. "I was just preparing to go out and contribute to fighting back those undesirable creatures that have taken refuge in Ponyville. It would seem that the guard and the stallions could use some help." She paused a moment. "While Ponyville does get more than its fair share of disasters, it's surprising how many of us do not have the knowledge of how to fight and defend our town." She stopped the weapon's movements and let it hover gently by her side. "I believe now is the time to show them what can be done when we are attacked."
Before the two could say anything more, however they were interrupted by the sound of splintering wood and painful-sounding thumps. Lucien and Rarity looked up to see Aiden crashing through the ceiling of Carousel Boutique. Lucien took a single step back to avoid getting hit by wooden debris.
"Ugh!" he heard from somewhere in the pile.
"Oh, uh, Aiden! Um, how's it going out there?" Lucien said, knowing Aiden would be mad at him for retreating into the Boutique.
“Just got sent soaring across town by one of my own golems. Maybe even cracked a couple ribs. Doing just fine,” the man answered sarcastically as he laid in the pile of debris.
Lucien reached down a hand and hefted him up. “Back on your feet, then. We still have work to do. Or, rather, you still have work to do. I need to get this hole in my jeans repaired.”
Aiden regained his posture and held his frozen arm. “So that’s why you’re here?! Just because you had a hole burnt into your jeans?!” He facepalmed.
“Hey, man. Don’t hate on the jeans. I practically live in these things.” As Lucien spoke, he reached out a hand and thawed out Aiden’s frozen arm.
Aiden lifted his now unfrozen arm up and flexed his hand. “Thank you,” he commented, “But that doesn’t excuse you abandoning the fight.”
“Are you sure? I thought it was a pretty solid excuse. Jeans are really important, you know. Besides, Rarity and I were just about to go back out and continue fighting.”
“Erm,” Rarity spoke up for the first time since Aiden’s entrance. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. Nor was I aware another one of your kind is in Equestria, Lucien.” She took a step forward and held out a dainty hoof. “I am—”
"Rarity," he interrupted.
“Well, yes.” She blinked. “But how do you know that? Perhaps you’ve heard of my designs on… Earth, was it?” she asked with a hopeful eye-flutter.
Aiden shook his head. “I have indeed heard of your designs, but not on Earth. Lets say I have been doing a bit of undercover research of your world for three years whilst undetected until now.”
Lucien rubbed the back of his neck. “Nice phrasing there, dude…”
Rarity, for her part, looked horrified. “You’ve been spying on us?!”
“Not spying. You remember a unicorn by the name of Prism?” Aiden replied hastily.
“Well, yes, I do, but how does that—”
“That was me.”
“You must be joking. That can’t be possible!” Her eyes betrayed her. The statement was a lie and she knew it. “You ordered clothes from me…” She suddenly straightened up. “But that still doesn’t excuse you! Why were you lying to us about this for so long?”
“I was paranoid, or scared, rather. I kept myself isolated in the Everfree Forest to stay hidden, until I knew for sure it was safe for me to come out of hiding,” he answered. “I won’t ask you to forgive me for lying, nor will I ask you all to forgive me for bringing these disloyal abominations to lay waste to your town.”
She looked at him, her face devoid of any smile. “You aren’t forgiven, not yet. But I hope you are helping us destroy what you have created.” She looked back to Lucien, who was standing on the sidelines with an unreadable face. “We should go.” She flipped her poleaxe around and let it rest by her side, levitating gently in her magical grip.
Aiden looked over to Rarity and took notice of the weapon she held. “I’ve never noticed you knew how to use a weapon. Where did you get it?”
“Last winter. A horde of creatures from Earth invaded Ponyville. Lucien gave the girls and I weapons and we fought back.” She looked at Lucien. “I kept practicing with mine, but I’m not sure if the rest of the girls did the same. I suppose we’ll find out in a few minutes.”
“The rest of you have weapons as well? You think you’ve learned everything, but some things tend to elude you in isolation I guess,” he commented.
“Yes, well, if you had bothered to come out like this and introduce yourself, then maybe you would learn something.” Her voice was hard, betraying her feelings towards Aiden’s actions.
“Then I guess it wasn’t something that I thought was important at the time. I more or less just indulge myself in what your world had to offer.”
“Hmm. Let’s go,” Lucien broke in. “We have some work to get done.”
Aiden nodded and headed out the door. “Oh, and I will fix up this mess after this is all said and done. I promise,” he said before exiting the Boutique.
“Don’t worry, I’ll fix up the place!” Lucien called after him, but he was hardly listening by that point.
"That kid is gonna get himself killed one day." Lucien took a breath and straightened himself up. "Well, no sense in dawdling. Can you go check on Fluttershy? I need somepony to check on here, I have to go get back to Aiden."
"Of course dear, shouldn't be a problem at all." Rarity let her poleaxe levitate by her side and then took off running for the edge of town. His eyes tracked her progress as she killed monsters along the way, until she turned a corner and disappeared.
Lucien took off at a jog and nonchalantly sliced Aiden's ex-servants to bits as they approached him. Soon enough, he was approaching Twilight's library.
“Then why haven’t you used it?” he heard Twilight ask.
“It’s too much for me to handle. I can’t do it alone," Aiden said.
“Can’t do what now?” asked Lucien as he ran up, slightly out of breath. His eyes shifted to Aiden’s company. “Princesses,” he said respectfully.
“Well, there’s a spell I found a while back in case something like this happened. Only problem is that I don’t possess the magical power alone to cast it,” Aiden answered.
“So I can help you with it, then? What is it?” he asked.
“It’s a spell that will open a portal that will suck all the rogue servants back to their realms. Unfortunately, it can suck the caster in along with them if he or she isn’t able sustain it with their power alone.”
Lucien stared at him. “And… you’ve tested this before, right? Because I’ve messed with portal spells before, and that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.”
Aiden shook his head. “I haven’t used it myself, per se, but it technically should work.”
Lucien just continued to stare. “Alright, but if half of Ponyville gets sucked into a different dimension, it’s coming out of your paycheck. And if I get stuck there with them, then you can be sure I’ll be back to kick your ass.”
“If this isn’t assurance for you then I don’t know what is. I came to Equestria on my own by opening an interdimensional portal using a spell I created. Took about a year, maybe longer, but that’s how I am here today. This particular spell just happens to be much more powerful than what I am used to.”
Lucien ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath. “Ah geez, alright. Just don’t screw up.” He looked out over the town. “Where are we gonna set it up?”
“The best spot would be the very center of town on top of Town Hall.”
Lucien held a hand on his forehead to block the sun’s rays as he looked towards the building. He then shrugged and looked back at Aiden. “I’m game. Let’s go.”
“Alright lets get there as quickly as possible.” Aiden turned around and started off towards Town Hall.
Before they could depart, however, Twilight rushed in front of them. “Hold on, you two are gonna go running off taking a chance on something that could potentially destroy the town!? What makes you think this is going to work!” she yelled.
Lucien rushed forward and pressed a finger to her lips harshly. “My wizard senses are telling me this will work. Now go make sure Fluttershy isn’t hurt while we nearly destroy the town.” Before she could retort, he whipped around, grabbed Aiden by the arm and sprinted off.
“Lucien! Get back here!” Twilight shouted, chasing after them.
“Nope!” he turned his head to yell. Then, to Aiden, “Can you run a little faster? She’s surprisingly quick.” He unsheathed his sword and quickly lopped the head off a nearby Watcher.
“Of course I can.” Aiden started to take bigger strides as he channelled his magic through his body. “How’s this?” He asked as he started to speed up.
"Better," Lucien said, though he didn't miss the strange look Aiden gave him.
After about ten minutes of running the duo finally made it to Town Hall. Lucien quickly scanned the area. A few streets off in the distance he spotted two ponies engaged in combat, one on the ground, one in the air. He immediately recognized them as Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
AJ was whipping around two chains wrapped around her forehooves, striking any monsters nearby and creating a near impenetrable barrier of metal. Dash was dive-bombing the taller creatures and slashing them quickly with a katana.
“Did you give them those?” Aiden asked Lucien.
“Yeah. Though Applejack only had one chain, last I saw.” He shrugged it off and looked up at the building before them. “Well, up we go.” Lucien unsheathed his sword, took aim, and hurled it up towards the top of the building. It spun through the air, then, when it stuck into the wood, Lucien teleported directly to be hanging off the handle.
Lucien dropped onto the roof and sheathed his sword. He looked down to see that Aiden had used multiple copies of himself to launch his real self onto the roof.
Aiden produced a marker in his hand and began drawing runes on the surface of the roof. “Can we get Rainbow Dash and Applejack to fight them off while I draw these runes? It’ll take some time to connect them all.”
“Yeah, and you’re gonna have to teach me those. I’ll paint them on the other side,” he said while removing a can of spray paint from his backpack. “HEY APPLEJACK! RAINBOW DASH! LITTLE HELP OVER HERE!”
Aiden facepalmed. “I could have just done that myself…”
Lucien turned around and shrugged. “Hey man, you asked.”
They both looked down at the sounds of skirmish and saw the two ponies had reached the building. Rainbow Dash flew up to talk to the two of them while Applejack stayed on the ground and fought back any enemies.
“Hey Lucien, whaddya need?” She peered by him to look at Aiden. “And who’s the guy?” she half-whispered to him.
“Hey, I’m right here you know,” Aiden stated flatly. “Name’s Aiden by the way.” He answered as he continued to draw the runes.
Dash just stared at him. “Uh, yeah. Anyways, what do you want? Can’t you see we’re busy fighting to take the town back, not like you two. What are you doing, even?” She looked at Aiden drawing on the roof. “Dude. Graffiti isn’t cool. I’m all up for pranks and stuff, but—”
“It’s not graffiti, we’re making runes. For a spell. To save the town,” Lucien interrupted. “So,” he clapped his hands together. “While we’re doing that, can you two,” he pointed to Rainbow and AJ down below, “Not let us get interrupted. It would suck a lot to mess this up.” Before Rainbow could respond, he pressed a finger to her mouth and leaned close to her face. “Like, a lot. So go kill things,” he whispered before nudging her off the roof.
“Hey!” She glared at him for a minute, but then looked down at AJ, holding her own against a group of monsters. “Fine, but you owe me!” With that bit out of the way, she sped down to go hold the ground.
“Yeah, yeah.” He turned back to Aiden and popped the lid off his can of spray paint. “So, what am I vandalizing?”
The man pointed to an area that spanned half of the circular roof. "I need you to cover the other end of the roof with the runes. You got any paper by any chance so I can give you the other half of the runes?"
Lucien stared at him. “The world is paper. Just draw them all out and I’ll copy them.”
Aiden pointed to a finished set of runes. “This what they’ll look like. Repeat the pattern on the other side and the runes should connect to each other.”
He studied them for a moment. “Alright, I’ve got it.” He shook the can and began painting. After a couple of strokes, he spoke up again. “You know, these look an awful lot like the runes I used when I was trying to summon that demon that one time. Fine choice.”
“Yes they do, and they are technically. Many of them are drawn in reverse order and inverted so that when the spell is cast, it sucks in any summoned creatures within its radius instead of pulling anything out,” Aiden took a deep breath. “Now you know why this spell is so damn powerful.”
“So it was really a bad thing when my cat screwed it up? Got me here, so it couldn’t have been that bad…” he trailed off.
Aiden ignored Lucien’s comment as he finished finished off the rest of the runes on his end. “Okay my end’s done. How about you?”
“Still working. These things are complicated as hell, and I never use runes anyway. I’m a little rusty, but they’ll work.” He kept spraying paint onto the surface of the roof.
Aiden turned his head to check on Rainbow Dash and Applejack. “Well, you’d best hurry that up. Those two won’t last much longer. Ugh, I’m so stupid for even summoning such things.”
He painted on a few more lines hastily. “How are they doing? And damn right you are.”
“Looks like they’re tiring out really fast,” He looked back to Lucien. “You done connecting the runes?”
“Just…about…” he paused and peered over the edge of the building. “Done!” He sprayed one final dot onto a rune he was making, then hurled the can off the building, down towards the masses of enemies Rainbow Dash and Applejack were trying to hold off. With a flourish, he withdrew his sword and pointed it at the can as it hit the ground. “Get out of the way!” he shouted to the ponies.
The two fighters looked up at him and quickly dodged into the building. Lucien’s sword glowed for a split-second, and a small shot of energy sparked out the top.
Lucien grinned. The can exploded, instantly destroying several monsters within its small radius and splattering the rest with black paint. Before those who had been stained could react, the paint covering them melted into them and reduced them to puddles of goop on the ground.
Aiden looked the runes over to make sure they were inscribed appropriately. After a thorough inspection he decided it was time to activate them. He channeled magic into his hand and pressed it against the runes. “Back to the abyss!” he shouted, almost hurting Lucien's ears. "Be a little more dramatic with that, why don't you?"
“You were right about this being powerful! This is straining even my power reserves!” Lucien shouted to Aiden from the opposite side of the roof.
“Just...keep it up! There isn’t that much to go!” Aiden shouted. Lucien felt the spell begin slowing down, losing power. He added as much mana as he could spare to keep it going.
“Hey! Don’t go passing out on me! We haven’t cleared out the town yet!” Lucien tried to sound reassuring as he could, but he was beginning to feel the strain of holding it up.
"Almost done." Lucien watched as the last few creatures flew into the portal and disappeared. The whole thing shut off and closed in on itself moments after the final monster fell in.
Lucien lowered his arms and let out a shaky sigh. He looked up and saw Aiden stumble on the edge of the roof and fall off, head over heels. He sprinted forward to the edge and looked down to see Rainbow Dash and Applejack below, taking a rest after their fights. "GRAB HIM!" he shouted down desperately.
Applejack was the first to react. Her head snapped up to notice Aiden's unresponsive body plummeting to the ground. She leapt back, then stood up on her hind legs to attempt to break the man's fall. She was well positioned, as Aiden crashed right into her, knocking them both down. Lucien breathed a sigh of relief.
“Nice catch, AJ,” said Lucien as he floated down gently from the rooftop. “Also everything’s dead, technically, so job well-done. You’ve gotten pretty good with those chains.”
Thank you kindly. Now, would ya mind telling me who this fella’ is?” she said, gesturing to Aiden as she gently rolled him onto the grass.
Aiden breathed heavily with his right hand over his heart. “Name’s Aiden,’ he strained an answer. “Ah’ was the one who summoned those damned things. They weren’t supposed to leave the Everfree, but Ah’ miscalculated.” He raised his hand to his head. “To be even more honest Ah’ was also that pony named Prism that would come strollin’ into town every once in a while,” he took in a deep breath. “Ah’ve been in Equestria for three years, and remained in secret inside the Everfree doing research on your world,” He struggled to sit up to continue. “If anything, Ah’m sorry for everything really. Ah’ll do what it takes to fix up your town. Then Ah’ll be sure to exile myself after.”
“I…uh…that’s a lot to take in, partner.” She stood over him and offered a hoof. “How ‘bout we get this mess cleaned up and you can explain yourself afterwards?”
Aiden took it and rose to his feet.
“Yeah, we left a bit of a mess,” said Lucien. But before he could continue, Celestia and Twilight walked up to join their group.
“It worked! We were fighting those things in front of the library and then they got sucked into your portal! I can’t believe you made that work!” Twilight said excitedly.
“It was a most admirable feat,” said Celestia humbly, her eyes focused on Aiden. “Although I expect these damages to be cleaned up post-haste. By you, Aiden.”
Aiden bowed his head. “Of course. I would do anything to atone for my mistakes.” He tried to take a step forward, but his leg couldn’t take the weight. He stumbled, but Applejack rushed up and braced against his side.
“You ain’t in any condition to work. You need to get some rest.” She looked up at Celestia. “D’you mind if he takes a quick nap by the farm, princess? He looks pretty spent.”
Celestia unfurled a wing, pointing it towards AJ’s farm. “Then go. He does look exhausted.”
As the two began walking, Lucien piped up. “What, don’t I look tired too? I was right there with him! Don’t I deserve a nap?” he asked.
“WHAT THE BUCK JUST HAPPENED!” said a loud, angry voice, accompanied by the sound of splintering wood. Lucien gasped, his eyes locking directly on to the Town Hall building.
A furious Mayor Mare burst out of the Town Hall building. Her eyes quickly locked onto Lucien, as he was standing just by the door. “YOU! I KNEW YOU WERE NOTHING BUT TROUBLE WHEN YOU WALKED IN!”
“Hey, don’t blame me!” he shouted, holding his hands up in a show of innocence. His eyes locked on to Aiden’s and he gave the smallest of grins. “Blame him! It was his idea!” he yelled and pointed at Aiden.
“Oh shit,” Lucien heard him mumble. Aiden quickly spun back around and started to pick up the pace.
Mayor Mare let off another shout of rage. "THERE’S ANOTHER ONE—"
“Mayor Mare,” Celestia’s calm voice cut through the mayor’s like a hot knife through butter. “If I may have a word?”
“Eh heh. Heh heh heh…” Mayor Mare whimper out. “I apologize, Princess, but Ponyville is destroyed!”
“Yes it is, but it shall be cleaned up and rebuilt. That man walking away is responsible for this carnage, and as such, shall be the one to fix up the town. He’s just suffering from mana exhaustion,” Celestia calmed the mayor down like a true professional.
"Well, now, it wasn't entirely his fault..." Lucien began, but trailed off as four pairs of eyes stared him down. "Okay, I take it back, it was entirely his fault, but stuff like this happens. Don't be too hard on the guy." Lucien looked down at the ground. "He's been through a lot..."