//------------------------------// // 90 // Story: Twilights Mane Passion // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// The vizier turned around to walk off only to get bashed across the face harshly with the end of a three sectioned staff courtesy of Velvet Q. Sparkle. Trixie and Rarity also appeared out of nowhere and Twilight was seen floating in mid-air above the palace with her horn glowing vibrantly. “You imbecile, I told you they were more powerful then they appeared!” This was only heard in the vizier’s mind as he created a barrier with his scepter to prevent a second blow from landing on him. It didn’t take him long to see what was going on; all the archers had been taken out with one strafing run from the flying purple unicorn. The elite guards that were still in the palace main entrance grounds were being wrapped up in tapestries by Rarity and an exhausted looking Trixie. Looking back down the steps the vizier was witness to the four forms fading from existence and the arrows and spear were being held in a field of purple magic that disappeared dropping the items harmlessly on the ground. The guards down there were being pelted with pots from the rooftops. “See the power of the great illusion mistress Trixie!” Trixie shouted as she aided Rarity in tying up loose ends by capturing the guards in some fabric. “It was not easy to fire magic missiles while keeping them and us invisible at the same time, not to mention redirecting them mid flight. Though I will admit without Twilight’s help the entire thing would have fallen apart.” “I swear you’re sense of theatrics could have made it fall apart alone! You just had to upstage us in your illusion didn’t you?” Rarity shook her head knowing that Trixie would always put herself in a better light when it came to performing, with the exception of Pinkie Pie. “It worked didn’t it? Trixie doesn’t see the issue as we managed to launch our surprise attack effectively.” Trixie tied the tapestries together with all the struggling guards and Rarity sent them rolling down the staircase leading up to the palace. Trixie gripped her head with her hooves and her ears fell flat as she swept her hat from her head and wiped away some sweat. “Trixie’s horn aches like you wouldn’t believe!” "I must admit that you did put a lot of effort into all of it. Here drink some water dear, you look like you could use it.” Rarity floated a canteen to Trixie who took a few huge gulps and then poured some water over her horn causing it to release steam. “Twilight certainly has a higher tolerance for casting if her horn isn’t overheating nearly as bad as yours is. Her ability to create magic fields really is interesting; it really helped sell the illusions.” Speaking of Twilight she swept across the wall picking up the downed archers in her magic and she plopped all of them on ground at the base of the steps well out of the way of the action. As she flew back up to the palace the vizier came to his senses and flared his cape while raising his scepter, he teleported into the throne room and was now standing in front of his opulent looking throne. Rarity and Trixie followed behind as Velvet and Twilight went to deal with the Vizier personally, they were to make sure none of the controlled guards could interfere in the fight or become willing hostages. It currently didn’t seem like much of a problem. When they arrived the vizier raised his scepter and showed an image that made them pause, he was showing the butte behind the palace. “Come no further or they shall all perish!” Other than his assumption that all his adversaries spoke his language, he made a second mistake in thinking he still had hostages there. Looking at his own projection he would have seen that what he was threatening was an empty butte with a smiling Fluttershy prancing up the gangplank to an airship. The airship pulled away into the sky with Pinkie waving at them with a cheery smile through the visual screen projected by the vizier, she even hoofing off a cupcake to a nearby recently relieved captive. Velvet lunged forward with her three sectioned staff, which he deflected with another barrier and then with a magical flash of his staff the entire butte crumbled only upsetting a bunch of large dessert dwelling predators. Looking at his handiwork the vizier was surprised that the there were no dead mares or camels being consumed by the beasts that were found out behind the palace. He turned the two angry mares who stepped forward. “Jinn, aid me!” The vizier called out and the jinn coalesced into existence. It started with a yellow cloud with silver eyes that started forming a humanoid upper torso with a lion like head, its lower half stayed gaseous in appearance. Its eyes narrowed on the four unicorns and with a snap of its clawed fingers two giant fire breathing scarabs were summoned; it took immediate control over them and moved them to vent blasts of fire from their mandibles. Twilight moved forward and created a funnel shaped barrier that forced the fire to split into two different directions around her and her mother. Before she clenched her teeth and sent the scarabs through the back walls with her magic much to the jinn’s surprise that she was strong enough to do so. “So she is the one who is quite powerful. Well how about this?” The jinn pulled back its arms and sent them forward blasting out arcs of volatile energy, Velvet and Twilight came together formed a barrier together and took on the onslaught. After a moment the jinn snapped its fingers again. A large scorpion appeared behind the two mares in the midst of already attacking with its tail. It separated the two from one another. “I can’t have you helping each other, it would be too annoying.” The jinn continued to fire blasts of energy at Twilight who fought by firing her own blasts with less lethal intent. Velvet busied herself with deflecting the scorpion’s tail and brought her staff down on its head harshly a few times before leaping back to dodge its equally deadly claws that snapped around while retreating. The vizier even got into the mix after a minute or two of watching boredom, raising his scepter to shoot a fireball at blazing speeds towards Velvet, where Twilight formed a barrier to protect her mother’s back. The jinn quickly teleported behind Twilight and launched concussive blast of wind, it sent her tumbling along the floor until she slammed into the wall with a grunt of pain “My word, they are positively outmatched in there. Is your horn feeling any better Trixie?” Rarity watched as Trixie’s horn sparked a bit. “Trixie is still tired.” That was all Trixie had to say about her lack of magic right now. “What about you, what’s your excuse?” “I’m afraid I’d just get in the way if I went in there.” Rarity admitted to herself long ago as not being anywhere near as magically gifted as her friends, even Trixie. Twilight and Velvet seemed to be holding their three opponents off well enough. “Well think of something to be helpful, like magic some sharp jewels or something.” Trixie actually cared that she had friends and that they were still alive. They watched as Velvet was sent flying by some exploding flames. “That one look like it stung quite a bit.” “When I see an opportunity to help I’ll at least try to step in. Ugh those fire breathing scarabs are back.” Rarity backed away from the flare of fire that was aimed at the main entrance she and Trixie were standing at. Looking to Trixie, Rarity noticed the magician had a marshmallow on a stick and was roasting it in the temporary flames. “Where ever in the world did you get that stick and marshmallow on such short notice?” “No clue, Trixie thinks Pinkie might be rubbing off on Trixie. Also Trixie needed a snack to build up some energy if Trixie is going to continue helping them.” Trixie even pulled out two sugar crackers and some chocolate without Rarity figuring out where she had even pulled them from. Twilight knew getting the guards out of the way was the easy part; dealing with the jinn was definitely the hard part as it was just currently toying with them. It took its attempts at killing them seriously enough, even if it wasn’t overly active in pursuing their deaths. She could only hope the others got to the lamp soon. The powerful purple pony continued to draw the oversized fire breathing scarabs to herself and she stood still between them, they charged her opening their mandibles ready to release more fire. She kicked off the floor and shot straight up leaving the two beetles to slam into each other. She changed her gravity to arc herself straight into the scorpion while powering the toughest barrier she could manage to ram it from above. Velvet leapt back and batted away two fireballs and magically twirled her staff above her head before catching the tail as the scorpion launched its stinger for her. She was always decent with magic and was having fun helping her daughter in one of her little quests. Who knew it would take them to Neighgraba of all places, fighting exotic monsters was always a blast and she should have brought her pet roc along. A few seconds later her daughter came slamming down on top of the scorpion and it stopped moving entirely having been put out of commission from the force of the impact knocking it to the floor. “Hmm…” The jinn with a snap of its claws the three beasts disappeared and it lit its own four fingered hands aflame. He raised his hands to start launching a torrent of fireballs only to get a blast of green energy to the face. The jinn grunted and otherwise remained uninjured. “Did somebody call for backup?” Chrysalis flittered into the room from a window. Seeing what it termed as ‘the mimic’ and getting hit by it seemed to really set off the jinn as it growled slightly. It was just toying with them before, now it grew to twice its size and grew two extra arms which sent two streams of energy at Chrysalis who deftly flitted out of the way as they tried to corral her into corner. Twilight sent a magic missile at the jinn to aid Chrysalis, only for it to audibly impact with the jinn’s chest doing nothing to it. She gulped when it grew two more arms holding swords one of which swung at her with a flash, she blinked and found herself on the floor with her mother on top of her. “Can you not lose your head here sweetie? I like it attached where it is at the moment and having a daughter that’s alive.” Velvet deflected the second sword and her staff cracked where it was struck. What soon followed her deflection was a concussive blast of wind from one of the jinn’s six arms that sent the two of them flying. All while the three other arms fired constant streams of energy at Chrysalis. “Just how powerful is that thing?” Twilight was speaking more to herself then her mother as Trixie and Rarity came to their side. Looking as the vizier sat at his throne he looked bored with the situation; he was all but assured victory if this kept up. “Trixie would help, but Trixie is a little low on energy.” Two streams of energy raked across the barrier Twilight hastily threw up. The jinn wasn’t going to leave them alone to just pursue Chrysalis all the time and it wasn’t stupid enough to let them plan unhindered. “Well if you have any suggestions for what we should be doing right now, I would love to hear them Twilight.” Rarity scrambled out of the way of chunks of ceiling as the jinn fire a blast to drop chunks of it on them to stop them from coming up with a plan of action. They all went behind some of the pillars in the throne room to avoid any more attacks directed at them. “Other than hold the jinn off and hope for the best?” Twilight was not about to ask what was taking them so long; they had to go a long way around to reach the room with the Slumbergath directly beneath the palace. If the catacombs were the usual stuff Daring faced, then it was a safe bet that they'd still be a while yet. “We need to give Tress, Daring and Ballad time to destroy the lamp.” “How much time we talking here? I think I might not survive being mauled this time.” Chrysalis flittered backwards barely avoiding getting cut apart by a scimitar as the jinn’s arm elongated and swung the blade at her. The second blade flashed forward only to stop an inch from taking a chunk out of Chrysalis’s side and the jinn sat there for a moment. It disappeared with an intensely angry look on its face. “That was too close for comfort, what happened to it?” “Well speak of the devils; they must have reached it for the jinn to suddenly disappear like that. Unfortunately it’s now their problem and that’s far worse for them given they can’t receive help.” Velvet leaned out from behind the pillar and looked towards the vizier who stood up and he flared out his cape he sneered at them. “Do not think me any easier just because the jinn left.” He flicked his scepter forward sweeping a beam of energy across everything in his vision. He watched as all his adversaries duck behind the pillars, which were now starting to take damage as he began attacking them with as much power as he could bring forth. The jinn had avoided damaging the surrounding walls thus far; as it would not do to have the entire palace come down on their heads, it would have been counterproductive to aiding Jabber in his goals after all. He personally had no such compunctions to avoid destroying everything between him and his enemies. “I sure hope we’re not the ones left paying for all this once this is over!” Twilight yelled over the cacophony of fireballs, blasts of wind, lightning bolts and beams of imminent death that started slowly whittling the pillars down. Idly Twilight noticed that these were of the same abilities that the jinn had, it certainly explained where the scepter came from.