Trixie couldn't be in a worse mood if she tried.
The buildings and ponies she passed were a blur as she angrily strode through town’s streets. She was putting extra force into each stomps, as if each hoof fall was somehow transferring her displeasure into her surroundings. At this point, all she wanted to do was head back to her travelling cart, leave Ponyville and find some way to salvage this disaster.
Her mood lightened slightly as she entered Ponyville’s town square, her cart still parked next to town hall. Ponies passed through, trotting to and fro as they chatted about their daily lives, and the big talking point of the day, the presence of Princess Cadance.
Trixie clenched her teeth, pushing down the stab of bitterness that rose in her throat.
Some help the vaunted Princess of Love was for me. She mentally grumbled, kicking open the door to her travelling home and slamming it behind her.
Letting her gaze absent mindedly wander across her belongings, her mind just drifted away. She could almost hear her grandpapa commenting on her current situation.
They tried their best, Trixie. It wasn’t their fault. Her brain argued in her grandpapa’s voice.
“Doesn't change the fact that I’m back to square one.”
And you’re smart enough to find a way out of this. Roseluck had mentioned something.
Trixie perked up, a grin spitting her muzzle. Of course! The changeling’s comments about the propensity for her renegade kin to hoard their own evidence related to past contracts had been temporarily forgotten after the loss of her documents; her anger had gotten the better of her.
“I just need to pick her brain some, find out exactly what I’m dealing with.” She planned, pacing the length of her covered wagon, “Maybe I can even convince her to come along...after I called everyone in this town stupid. Damn it.”
Swearing again, she kicked the wall. She’d have to dust off the plan that she had used to get her evidence in the first place. Infiltration. A frown crossed her muzzle as she mulled over the full implications of that plan, however.
Last time, she had the benefit of Bayou Runner’s ignorance. At the time, the crime boss had no clue that Trixie knew that he had been involved in the death of her mother. He had viewed her as just another pawn.
And then she had stolen the pages from his hidden ledger.
Trotting over to the small mirror that hung next to the bed, Trixie peered at her own reflection, possibilities running through her head. Channeling, she began to layer illusions on her coat and mane.
The former was darkened, moving from her usual azure color to a deep navy. For her mane, she strayed from it’s light blue entirely, making it a pale green color instead. Glancing at her flank, she wove another illusion, making her wand cutie-mark a flower instead. She looked back in the mirror, nodding to herself in approval. It was a serviceable disguise, simple enough that she’d be able to maintain most of it through mundane means (some fur dye and a wig), leaving her magic free to keep her cutie-mark hidden.
Letting her illusions fade, Trixie pulled her money box from under the bed, checking its contents. She did the math in her head, carefully counting out each coin, like doing so would somehow cause more to appear. By her estimation a batch a fur dye and a wig would leave her with three bits left. Three bits that she had promised three young fillies. Sighing, she emptied the contents into a coin pouch that she slung around her neck.
Never leave town with debts unsettled. That was a mantra that both her mom and grandpappa had sworn by.
“Pay the kids, get supplies, get out of town.” She nodded, trotting for the door again.
- - - -
Approaching the Ponyville schoolhouse, Trixie could already tell that something was wrong. It was far too quiet for a school approaching lunch time. The playground should have been full of young ponies playing and enjoying the near mid day break. Instead, the grounds were empty.
Then she spotted the gaping hole in the front of the building where the front door should have been.
She picked up the pace, moving into a full gallop. Drawing closer, she could hear the sounds of some foals crying, others arguing, a rather bossy female voice rising above the others.
“We should stay here!” She shouted, “Eventually our parents will come and find us.”
“But what if that monthter cometh back!” Another voice exclaimed, with a pronounced lisp.
Trixie strode into the classroom, the foals instinctively shrinking back before they realized that she was a pony and not some horrible creature come to claim them.
“What happened here?” She asked, keeping her voice even to try and keep them calm. Her eyes darted from pony to pony, searching for the self proclaimed Cutie-Mark Crusaders, but they were nowhere in sight.
“Some big spider monster!” The haughty voiced filly from before exclaimed, in a tone reminiscent of somepony whose cutesenera was rained out, “It came in and kidnapped the teacher! Then those blank flanks went off to try and rescue her!”
Trixie’s jaw dropped, her mind already racing ahead of itself, cooking up a veritable mental buffet of fates that a giant spider could inflict upon three young ponies. Fates that her cynical side said that she would most likely be blamed for, somehow.
She could picture it now. The three girls, strung up in a giant web, drained of their fluids, their rictus expressions looming over her…
Cutie-Mark Crusader Grave Fillers, yay!
“Ummm…Miss Trixie?” One of the colts interrupted, cutting through Trixie’s morbid fantasy like his cutie-mark, “What should we do?”
Trixie bit her lip. The sea of eyes looking up at her were wide and confused, the shock of having lost their teacher still quite evident on their faces.
“You’re going to get out of here.” She waved a hoof towards the door, “You,” She swung that same hoof around to point at the scissor marked colt, “And you.” She pointed at a taller colt next to him with a snail cutie-mark. “I’m putting both of you in charge of this group. Go straight to the town hall. They’ll be able to help you there.”
“What about Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo?” The lisping filly asked.
“Don’t worry! The Great and Powerful Trixie will save them! Now, line up and go, quickly. It’s not wise to hang around the site of a monster attack.”
Their nerves allayed, the foals lined up, the snail and scissor marked ones at the lead. “Alright everypony!” The scissor marked colt nodded, “Let’s go!” At his command, the line of ponies trotted out the door and down the road the Ponyville.
Satisfied that they would be able to find their way, Trixie stepped outside herself, already channeling her magic. The most likely explanation for a sudden monster was Skitch-Sketch’s out of control illusions. Weaving together the threads of a Detect Magic spell, a grin crept across her muzzle as an ethereal light blue trail of magic became evident.
It lazily twisted around the left side of the building before trailing its way north towards the hills outside of town. Trixie smirked. Illusions powerful enough to be physical couldn’t help but leave a trail.
“Not so clever, are we King Sombra?” Trixie grinned, galloping after the trail.
- - - -
“Harvest leader Xilthreka to Sun’s Bane.” The monster growled, into the device on one of it’s grabbing arms. It resembled a purple crystal set into a circlet of leather. Cheerilee was doing her best to keep her wits about her but she couldn’t tear her gaze away from her captor. It? He? The hissing, growling voice sounded masculine enough, so he seemed good enough for her.
They were standing atop one of the larger hills to the north of Ponyville, surrounded only by a few clumps of bushes. Supposedly, the clear sky would help him contact his fellows, a process that had produced no results so far. And he had been trying for about half an hour by Cheerilee’s estimation.
He was growing more and more angry with each failed attempt, his dark red eyes constantly darting back to her in an almost accusatory manner. His grip on the pony catcher was still quite firm in his free claw, so breaking loose didn’t seem probable at the moment.
“Harvest leader Xilthreka to Sun’s Bane! ANSWER!” He shouted at his communication bracelet. Cheerilee winced when no response came, the spider-eel...thing, twisting its head around to glare directly into her eyes.
“You will explain your planet’s space defenses.”
“Space...defenses?” Cheerilee blinked, nervously shuffling her hooves. “Well, Princess Luna raises the moon each night, if that’s what you mean.”
Xilthreka jerked his eel like head back in surprise, an angry hiss escaping his needle like teeth. He rapidly recovered, however, leaning back in his expression now curious. “Explain Princess Luna.”
“She’s one of the co-rulers of Equestria. Luna oversees the night, while her sister, Celestia, watches over the day and raises the sun each morning…”
“Gods.” He interrupted, his hiss a mixture of anger and fear, “Equine things ruled by gods?”
Cheerillee’s normal teacher instincts were to correct improper perceptions. But considering the nature of her current predicament…
“Oh yes!” She lied, rapidly nodding her head, “They’re very powerful! And full of vengeance towards those who are hurt their little ponies!”
“Gods aren’t here.” Xilthreka hissed, “Gods can’t help you.”
“Celestia is the sun!” Cheerilee fired back, “She can hear any prayer I send her way.”
He was on the back hoof (or back spider leg in this case) now, twisting his head every which direction, like he was expecting Celestia to leap out from behind one of the nearby bushes to do him in.
“Oh Celestia on high,” She rhythmically intoned, trying to scare the monster away with the fear of being struck down by a celestial fire, “Please come and assist your humble little pony.”
“Silence!” He hissed, tugging on the pony catcher, “You will not summon the sun god!”
“Cast him down my goddess! Incinerate him with your holy flame!”
Xilthreka released the handle of the pony catcher, the weapon clattering to the ground, flexing his claws as he searched for the arrival of Celestia. A small crimson bead of light flickered to life, suspended neatly between its two grasping hands, the weapon forgotten.
Cheerilee took a large step backwards, freezing when Xilthreka turned his head to face her again. His smile was triumphant and he cackled with glee. “I see no gods, equine slave. You lie!”
“WHO DARES DOUBT MAH PRESENCE!” One of the bushes shouted, with a distinct drawl, its branches shaking at her captor like a rattlesnake. Cheerilee suppressed the urge to facehoof, recognizing the voice for what it actually was.
I really need to have a talk with Applejack about her sister, next round of teacher conferences. She thought, the monster turning to face the offending bush. How did they even find us without that thing seeing them?
“RELEASE MAH SUBJECT!” The bush demanded, wagging a branch like a stern mother, “AND BEGONE FROM THIS LAND, NEVER TO RETURN!”
At least she’s trying for the Royal Canterlot Voice. Cheerilee thought, crouching down and picking up the catcher in her mouth as Xilthreka scuttled over to the offending shrubbery. Three shocked squeeks burst from the green leaves, the Cutie-Mark Crusaders dragged fully from the bush a moment later, pinned to the ground by their necks.
Cheerilee charged, aiming the pony catcher like a lance.
The grabbing prongs of the weapon weren’t designed to be used in such a way, but the school teacher didn’t care. Something was threatening her students. The tips of the grabber caught the monster where the neck met the spider body, the impact making her jaw go numb. But Xilthreka reared all the same, knocked askew, his grip slipping from the girls.
Tossing the weapon aside, she charged forward, pushing the Crusaders along. “Run!”
Scrambling past the bush, the four ponies charged down the hill, wincing at the enraged howl that escaped from the monster’s maw. Rolling back to his spider legs, Xilthreka rushed after them, shrieking out a high pitched staccato chitter that sent chills down their spines.
The nature of the neogi body served them well in their home universe. Spelljammers, the enchanted ships that traveled between planets, were the targets of most neogi slave raids; and much like the sailing ships of both Earth and Equis, were constructed with cramped decks and tight living quarters.
Their spider like bodies allowed them to move across ceilings and walls, in addition to floors, giving them increased maneuverability in such conditions. But in a foot (or hoof) race, they were at a marked disadvantage, doubly so against a species of horses.
The distance between Xilthreka and the ponies he was trying to catch grew greater and greater, his frustration growing. With a snap of his claws, the small rose sphere of light returned. Throwing his hand forward, the ball of light lept from his talon, unfolding into a crackling ball of flame that streaked for Cheerilee and the Crusaders.
The teacher could feel the heat on her back as the fireball drew closer. Grabbing the fillies, she threw them to the ground, laying her body across them as an impromptu shield. The explosion hammered her ears, the plunging into silence as she buried her snout into the grass. It felt like an oven was hanging directly overhead, threatening to swallow her whole.
But, the next moment it was gone, and Cheerilee dared to raise her head and look around. They were laying in a small ditch in the side of the hill, which seemed to have provided cover from the explosion. Much to her confusion, the grass around them looked untouched.
The sound of galloping drifted to her hears, an azure colored unicorn rounding one of the other hills. Her eyes narrowed as she realized who it was from her recent performance in town.
“Trixie?”
- - - -
Relief flooded through Trixie at the sight of the teacher and her students alive, undrained and seemingly unhurt. Glancing up the hill, she could see the spider monster rushing down after them. It’s appearance elicited a raised eyebrow, as she recognized it from her and Skitch’s pre-show preparation.
“Well, it did come from her head.” She muttered, galloping over to their side. The teacher’s face was scrunched up in confusion over her presence, one eyebrow raised. The Cutie-Mark Crusaders, however seemed to remember her from the other day.
“Get around that next hill.” She ordered, raising a hoof to cut off any questions, “I’ll deal with the monster.”
The teacher didn’t seem to need much convincing, pushing her charges back to their hooves. “Come on girls!”
Trixie stepped forward, tilting her hat back slightly as she fixed the beast before her with an even glare. It scuttled to a stop, cocking its eel head to observe her. She suppressed the urge to shudder at it’s bloated spider body and twitching segmented legs.
“And who are you supposed to be, equine slave?”
Snorting, Trixie flared her cape, rearing on her hind legs. “I,” She boasted, “Am the Great and Powerful Trixie! Vicereine of Neigh Orleans, and the personal student of Princess Luna!”
He snorted, his wide almost mocking smile showing off his needle sharp teeth. “You bark loudly equine slave. But the neogi run from no creature.”
“Well then!" Trixie smirked, tugging the brim of her hat low, "Show Trixie what you got!”
The monster began to weave a spell. Illusionary, like himself, but pushed into the realm of semi-corporality by the nature of the amulet. Trixie galloped to the right, keeping her eyes on the creature and the way it wove and shaped its spell, an old memory playing in her mind.
“Now,” Quartermoon elaborated, pointing to the large stuffed model spider, “Giant spiders might look scary. But the important thing to remember is that their legs can’t reach their backs. So, if you ever find yourself fighting one…”
“Get on their back.” She smirked, throwing herself back to the left, a crackling blue lightning bolt hitting the ground where she was a moment before. Tapping into her own magic, Trixie wove together a Mirror Image spell and split into three ponies. She went right, one of her copies went left, and she sent the second image right down the middle.
Recoiling, the creature began to weave another spell, five shimmering marble sized spheres appearing on the tips of it’s claws. Sweeping it’s strange hand in a wide arc, the magic balls hissed and snaked across the field. The first sphere blinked out Trixie’s first image, the second blinked out her second, and the last three smashed into Trixie’s side.
She stumbled, gritting her teeth, eyes watering from the pain that lanced through her body. The punch of magic felt like a prizefighter had just worked her over. But her illusions had let her get close enough.
Kicking off, she landed on the monster’s abdomen. With a round of high pitched shrieks, the neogi began to thrash and buck, trying to throw the pony from his person. Trixie shifted her position, wrapping her front legs around the wriggling eel neck.
“UNHAND ME, VILE THING!”
“Takes one to know one!” Trixie fired back, placing her horn against the back of the creature’s neck, “And it’s time for you to go!”
Reaching out with her magic, she probed the form of what was essentially a living spell, searching for a weak point; not an easy task when said spell was also trying to throw you off its back.
The weave of the spell was tight too. She had to give Sombra some credit for being an exquisite spellcaster. She’d have to force a hole into the spell weave and introduce the dispel enchantment.
The negoi’s serpentine neck twisted downwards its teeth digging deep into the flesh of her right cannon. Grunting through the spikes of pain, Trixie pulled her grip a little tighter and pushed another surge of magic through her horn. Turning the probe into a scalpel, she sliced into the magical weave. Wincing at the tingle of magic that lashed back against her horn, Trixie quickly wove together her dispelling charm.
With another push of magic, she shoved the spell right into the form of the creature. The grip on her leg vanished, the neogi falling apart into mist, and Trixie thudding to the ground. Pushing herself back to her hooves, her wounded leg wobbled, threatening to give out from under her weight. Wincing from the pain, she noticed that her hat was gone, knocked loose during the scuffle.
“Trixie!”
Cheerilee and the fillies were rushing back towards her, the schoolteacher’s eyes locked firmly on Trixie’s wound. Drawing close, she leaned down to inspect the bite mark more closely, the young ones hopping in place around Trixie.
“That was so awesome!” Scootaloo cheered, rapidly flapping her wings, “You jumped right on that things back!”
“Yeah!” Apple Bloom echoed, “Where’d ya learn to fight like that Miss Trixie?”
“My grandfather.” She smiled softly, before glancing at Cheerilee, “What’s the verdict ‘Doc’. Will the Great and Powerful Trixie be able to shuffle cards again?”
“Well, it doesn’t look that bad…” Cheerilee shrugged, “But we should probably get you to the hospital anyway. Just in case, whatever that thing was is poisonous.”
“I like that idea.” Trixie nodded, taking a shaky step forward.
“Stop that.” Cheerilee chided, stepping alongside her, “You’re wounded, let me help you.”
Trixie blinked, but shrugged, throwing her wounded leg across Cheerilee’s withers. “Thank you.” She glanced around again, “Anypony seen my hat?”
“I got it!” Sweetie Belle declared, the headgear tilting precariously on her head.
“Thanks Sweetie Belle.” Trixie sighed, “I just hope that’s all there was.”
- - - -
“Fresh tea’s almost ready.” Fluttershy called from her cosy little kitchen.
“Thanks Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash smiled, “You always make the best tea.”
Cherry Berry smiled a thin, almost painful smile, from her corner of the living room. There was something about the blue and rainbow maned pegasus that made her stomach churn. Perhaps it was the way none of her smiles reached her eyes, or the way that she hadn’t even batted an eyelash at her own appearance.
“So, Cherry, how long have you been a changeling?”
The question sounded casual, but Cherry knew a probing question when she heard one.
“Oh,” She responded with a cheerful tone and wave of a hoof, “Not that long. Thought it would be a nice change of pace. How about you? Weren’t you off to the north in griffin lands?”
“Oh, you know. Finished things up there. Came back.”
“Rather quickly...didn’t you leave yesterday?”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t go that far in. Nice crack on your head.” She nodded towards the bandages, “I imagine that’s slowing you down some.”
“Oh, less than you’d think.”
“Tea’s ready!” Fluttershy chirped, trotting back into the room with a tray balanced on her head. A perfect picture of domesticity. The room exploded into motion, Dash throwing herself at Fluttershy like a blue bolt of lightning. Before Berry Punch could react, the pegasus had wrapped a foreleg around Fluttershy’s neck, her tea set rattling as she was pulled into a lock.
For her part, Fluttershy stood stock still, her eyes wide as her mind tried to process what was happening.
“R-Rainbow?”
“Thought you could escape, living down here?” Rainbow Dash hissed, her eyes wide and expression crazed. Her gaze kept flicking from Fluttershy to Cherry Berry and back again, even as she tightened her grip.
Cherry Berry crouched down, her dragonfly like wings thrumming with angry energy, every muscle in her body poised to spring forward.
“Let her go.”
“Stay out of this bug. This is Cloudsdale business. She failed her flight test, she pays the price.”
“Rainbow, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Fluttershy stammered, “What flight test? What consequences?”
“The Rainbow Factory, Fluttershy. We’ll use you to help make rainbows!”
“Fluttershy…” Cherry asked, her eyes flicking away for a moment, before they locked back on Rainbow Dash, “Do you trust me?”
Fluttershy squeezed her eyes closed, but nodded.
“Get ready to run.”
“Don’t try anything.” Rainbow Dash growled. “I’ll-”
Whatever she was going to do, they’d never know. With a blur of white and a screech of lepus indignation, Angel Bunny threw himself at Rainbow Dash’s face. The pegasus, unprepared for such an assault, let go of Fluttershy as the rabbit latched on.
The tea set crashed to the floor as Fluttershy took a few steps back, her eyes bugging out in shock. Roaring in anger, Dash reared up on her hind legs and pried at the bunny who was doing his level best to not be removed.
“Run!” Cherry shouted.
“No!”
Fluttershy charged, headbutting Rainbow full on in the barrel. The pegasus was sent tumbling backwards with a startled yelp, Angel dropping into his owner’s mane. Fluttershy blinked, but then turned on her tail and bolted for the door. Dash recovered quickly from her fall, rolling back to her hooves and springing up in one smooth motion.
The tea tray, snatched up by Cherry Berry, impacted into her face, turning her charge into another stumble while her prey slipped outside.
“Fly straight for Ponyville!” Cherry ordered, once again taking up a defensive stance, planting herself on the cottages’ winding path, “I’ll hold fake Dash off!”
“You’re still injured!” Fluttershy almost shrieked.
“And I can’t let her catch you!”
The door slammed open, the imposter rushing at both of them like a runaway train. Wings humming, Cherry twisted to avoid the strike, Dash’s hoof impacting off the side of her barrel with a sickening scrape sound. She countered by lashing out with her forelegs, grabbing Dash’s outstretched limb and twisting it.
Dash yelped in pain, as she was flung away, but with a flare of her wings she slammed the breaks the cartwheel and came shooting right back at Cherry. The ex-spy twisted again, wings buzzing at top speed in a desperate attempt to avoid the charge.
This time, however, Dash held out a foreleg, catching the changeling around her middle and slamming her to the ground. Cherry lashed back, burying her fangs into Dash’s shoulder. Pulling back a hoof, Rainbow Dash prepared to deliver a punch to her bandaged head.
Fluttershy pounced on her from behind, locking Dash’s front legs to her side.
“Dash! Stop it!”
“Cloudsdale...must be purged...of weakness!”
With a surge of motion, Dash flung Fluttershy from her body and shook Cherry Berry off of her. A buck sent the changeling sprawling, and Dash turned her attention back towards her would be friend.
“You’ll make a great yellow!”
“LOOK OUT BELOW!”
A flying contraption hammered together from wood and metal, and flown by a familiar pink pony, dropped from the sky like an out of control rocket. The machine impacted into Rainbow Dash, sending her and it tumbling over and over in a shriek of metal and wood. Pinkie landed next to Fluttershy, forehooves raised as if she were some manner of martial arts master, her whole body swaying.
But the bags were evident under her eyes, and it was quite obvious to Cherry and Fluttershy that she was swaying from exhaustion.
“I don’t know who I am!” She declared, “But no one hurts my pancakes! Especially not...not…”
Her face scrunched up, her mind searching for the proper word.
“Meanie-Replacement-Dash!”
From the pile of wreckage, an explosion of small spheres of light flared up, floating high into the air before fading away. Blinking a few times, Cherry slinked her way forward, preparing to strike again if need be. But the wreckage was devoid of Rainbow Dash or Rainbow Dash body.
“She’s gone.”
“I knew she wasn’t real!” Pinkie declared with certainty, flopping back to her hooves and almost toppling over in the process, “If Dashie had gone evil, that would have been a headache, tail-swish, both knee pinchy….”
“Pinkie?” Fluttershy interrupted, suddenly at her side to help support the wobbly mare, “I thought you were visiting family?”
“Pinkie sense!” She shouted, rearing into her hind legs again, “I knew you were in trouble, so I pulled my old flying machine together from the barn and I flew aaaaaallllllll through the night to get here!”
She giggled, toppling backwards with a thud, asleep before she hit the ground. Fluttershy and Cherry exchanged a glance, a tired smile playing across the muzzle of the latter.
“She’s completely crazy.”
“Maybe.” Fluttershy smiled, “But would you want her to be different?”
“Not on your life.”
- - - -
Skitch-Sketch was starting to get why most ponies were freaked out by the Everfree.
Some of it made sense from the beginning, admittedly. The things like the timberwolves and that bastard cockatrice who had turned her to stone a little while back. But the general sense of dread that most ponies felt in regards to its weather moving on its own and other random strangeness, didn’t really affect her.
Save for when an alicorn was trying to remove a dangerous magic item from her person.
“Are you sure the weird magic around here won’t mess with what you’re doing?”
“Yes Skitch, I’m sure.”
“You've just been working on it for a bit now….”
A pink glow engulfed the necklace as Cadance worked, face screwed up in concentration, tongue sticking out in an expression far too adorable considering the seriousness of the situation.
Barricade paced back and forth nearby, her tail swishing, sharp eyes scanning the horizon; though she did keep glancing back at her every now and then. Like her brothers, her dark brown coat was contrasted by a light gray mane and tail, that she kept pulled back in a short pony tail. It reminded Skitch of a mixture wood and stone fortifications, moulded into a pony form.
Skitch glanced back down at Cadance. “I mean, it’s just that you said that you’ve destroyed a lot of these things and it feels like this is taking forever….”
“Skitch?” Cadance calmly responded, “Please stop back seat casting. It’s not easy to take apart an enchantment like this.”
“Okay.” She sighed, “Okay.”
“I’m tellin’ ya,” Barricade drawled as she continued her guard, “Ya really should have seen this coming.”
“How did you work that one out?”
“Well, for one, you live in Ponyville. And as much as I love this town, we attract strangeness like a plate of honey attracts flies. I mean, of all the mountains in Equestria a dragon could have picked to move into, he picked the one not far from here?”
“Good point.”
“Plus, you’re friends with the Element Bearers. Strange comes with their job description. Also, you’re an alien.”
“I prefer the term ‘Interdimensional Visitor.’” She responded, sticking her tongue out for emphasis.
“The point is, you are bright torch of weird against a night sky of normal. You really should expect this.”
“Alright Skitch.” Cadance nodded, “I think I just about got it…”
With a sound not unlike metal gears grinding together, a sphere of black energy shot from the necklace like a bullet. Crashing against Cadance’s chest, the alicorn was pushed back, her hooves digging into the ground. The dark magic twisted about, pulling tight around her neck. Cadance struck back, her own aura coiling into the attacking one. Skitch fell to the ground, convulsing and screaming as the necklace cleaved into mind and life alike.
Caaaaadaaaaannnceee! A dark, male voice hissed.
Rearing up, Cadance clenched her jaw, extending another tendril of magic, grappling with both the offensive spell and the necklace itself. Their surroundings began to flicker, trees and dirt replaced by strong granite pillars and a polished stone floor, before beginning to cycle between the two states.
To the princess, it felt like she had just grabbed a lightning bolt. The current of dark power lashed back, thrashing and digging at her skin. She could feel the malice behind it. The hatred of a half awake mind.
“Sombra.” She growled, before looking to Barricade, “Hold her!”
The guardspony lept to the command, pressing her hooves against Skitch’s back and pinning the unicorn to the ground. Throwing caution to the wind, Cadance coiled up another tendril of magic sharply jabbing at the gem and the necklace clasp simultaneously.
Sparks flew from the stone, the dark magic instinctively coiling in upon itself to protect the enchantment. The secondary strike, however, sliced against the latch, cutting through the metal. The necklace popped loose, dark tendrils arcing from the metal, to Skitch’s body, the unicorn doubling over with a horrible screech of agony.
Cadance pitched the necklace away, putting as much magic as she could into the telekinetic throw. Satisfied as it tumbled away into the under brush, she turned her attention back to the trembling form of Skitch.
“Son of a bitch.” She moaned, her whole body shaking, “I...I thought…”
“I know.” Cadance soothed, “That you were going to die. But considering what I felt.” She shook her head, “It was best to get it away from you as quickly as possible.”
Opening her mouth to respond, Skitch paused as the forest turned to stone carved mountain halls once more.
“It’s still active!” Barricade snarled, “I thought it needed a host to work?” She drew her blade, gripping the hilt firmly in her mouth.
The great stone pillars didn’t last for long, falling back into trees. But unlike the previous times, a reddish light was casting its rays through the branches and trunks, a low, deep growl echoing from the point as it moved through the forest.
“Skitch-Sketch.”
Cadance’s voice was calm, but her expression was hard, body coiled like a whip ready to strike. Barricade was as her side, looking just as determined to oppose whatever was coming their way.
“What monstrous thing did it summon from your mind now?”
Skitch stared at the light that was moving towards them a feeling of dread, washing over her. The design of the stone pillars had kindled a memory from a dark movie theater many years ago.
“A balrog.” She gulped, “A demon of the ancient world.”
Her heartbeat quickened with each snap of a branch, with each impact of a foot on the ground, she remembered the music sting that had harkened its appearance in the film.
“We need to get out of here. This foe is beyond any of us.”
Cadance opened her mouth to object, the remains of her magic still shimmering around her horn. But with a final crack and splinter of wood, the trees parted and the fire and shadow was upon them.