//------------------------------// // Chapter 24: Polygraph of a Shadow // Story: The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee // by FlanChan //------------------------------// The Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee Chapter 24: Polygraph of a Shadow Twilight took a few moments to steady herself, her mind still racing from everything that happened all at once. She won the battle in the most hopeless situation, quite literally taking life from the fangs of death. She really was quite luckier than usual. She turned, expecting to see Emerald Joy’s lifeless—or at least near lifeless—body in the middle of the room, but instead there was just a black smudge on the ground. Twilight kneeled down to investigate it further, cocking her head to the side in confusion. From what she understood, the magic she used only drove away evil, leaving anything good or neutral behind. At the very most, she should have only died. It couldn’t be that her body was simply a manifestation as well, corrupted just like Ondine? Speaking of her, where had she gone off to? Twilight remembered seeing her struggle to regain her composure after channeling The Elements of Harmony, but once she started fighting Emerald, Ondine just up and disappeared. Had she walked off in the chaos of the fight? Somehow she found that sort of thing unlikely. But considering she was made of magic and was controlled by Emerald, perhaps she had dissipated once she was killed? The more she thought, the more questions arose, but with Emerald unable to monologue more about how everything worked, she found thinking about them right now to be futile. Could she even truly believe what she had said? Her explanations made sense, so Twilight supposed she would have to believe her words, at least for now. She stood back up, scanning the room for any possible signs of life. What should she do now? Would the populace be cured of their curses by now? Surely they would be in an uproar sooner or later. However, when she looked at her five friends still asleep, she wasn’t so sure. Even with them dead the curse didn’t break? She sighed. Maybe she should try and get them down. She began slowly walking towards Emerald’s throne, her body not wanting to make any sudden movements. Even with all of the magic used to heal her, she still felt weary from the action. She stopped. Something wasn’t right. Upon closer inspection, there was a flurry of dark wisps materializing in front of the throne. She took a defensive stance. Even with the little knowledge she had on the subject, there was no doubt black magic at play. Of course the battle wasn’t over yet. The darkness increased in size and density, swirling together to form one solid form. Starting from the bottom, the black gave way to color, and the image of Ondine broke out of the shadows. After a second or two after her reformation was complete, her eyes opened, though they didn’t seem to be fixated on anything. Rather, she was just staring blankly forward. Twilight took a cautious step closer, relaxing her tense pose. Ondine was completely unresponsive. It was eerie how dead she looked, but she was most definitely alive. Perhaps that was because Emerald wasn’t alive to control her anymore, so she was nothing more but a useless puppet? Why was she even there, anyway? If she was linked to Emerald as she had said, then why hadn’t she disintegrated? Twilight slowly stepped closer, more intrigued than ever. She was about to take another step, but jerked back in surprise when she saw movement in Ondine’s eyes. They were still glazed over and distant, but there was a small ripple along her top waterline. Twilight moved closer to get a better look, but kept a safe distance away. The strange movement continued, and it looked like some sort of black ooze was making its way down Ondine’s eyes. She stayed completely motionless otherwise, and that perhaps made it even creepier. Soon her eyes were completely black, and the seepage started flowing out, leaving a few streaks down her face, before stopping. There was no further movement. Twilight raised her hoof to draw closer. With a jolt, Ondine turned her head towards her at lightning speed, and even though there was no visible pupil to indicate it, Twilight could sense that she was staring right at her. The rest of her face was still blank, but her eyes were wide open. Twilight realized that she hadn’t seen her blink the whole time after she had teleported in a minute ago. A chill went up her spine. On instinct, Twilight shot a blast of magic at her opponent, who did nothing to retaliate. The burst hit Ondine full force, but instead of being pushed backwards, she stood firm. As the magic cleared away, Twilight could clearly make out a hole in Ondine’s body, but instead of blood, or even any normal sort of magic trying to repair the wound, there was a sea of black and purple sparks crackling inside of her. Twilight stepped back, completely baffled, as she witnessed a blob of dark magic exit out of the gap, engulf any remaining wisps of the purple magic still in the air, and then return back from whence it came. Once it did, the hole patched itself up as if nothing had happened. Twilight stood there, her mouth dropped and her eyes wide with horror, as Ondine instantly produced a blast of magic about five times larger than the original. Even knowing what she was, Twilight couldn’t help but ask herself what kind of monster she had just started a fight with. Sparing no time, Ondine unleashed the huge orb of black magic, following it up with many others of the same kind. Twilight turned and fled, trying to dodge as many as she could, hurriedly throwing up a barrier whenever necessary. This kind of tactic was useful against Emerald, who couldn’t be too bothered to run around when it wasn’t necessary, but Ondine was a different story. Once realizing that her prey was making a run for it, she dashed after her, her speed much greater than should’ve been possible. Twilight knew that zapping her again to get her off her trail was no use, so instead she moved in and punched the side of her face to stall her for a bit. But Ondine was no pushover when it came to physical attacks, either. She aimed for Twilight’s temple and swung, throwing Twilight to the ground and halting her getaway. Unable to get up in ample time, she resorted to swinging her leg out to kick Ondine’s shin, making her lose her balance as well. She grabbed at Twilight’s leg to drag her underneath to cushion her fall, but Twilight refused, kicking her attacker in the face instead. Ondine didn’t seem fazed by the blow, and required no time to recover. She released another blast right where Twilight was laying, knocking her over a few paces. Twilight let out a yell, then quickly freed her hoof out from under her when she heard Ondine drawing closer. She took a deep breath, then shot out a long strand of light, which attached itself to the high ceiling. It retracted not a moment too soon, carrying Twilight many meters above the ground. She began charging immediately, the magic circle beneath her stopping her from falling even though the line was gone. Ondine couldn’t stop her from that high up, so she would be safe to prepare one of the largest scale spells she could think of. There was no way that it would be able to be absorbed, since its force was so strong that it would blow anyone apart into nothing but a mist of atoms. However, its preparation was so tedious and noticeable that using it in a surprise attack was essentially out of the question, not to mention the fact that she wasn’t even sure if it was safe to use or not. “But the only way to beat someone that copies your moves is by being reckless, I suppose,” Twilight muttered under her breath. Her every muscle strained to gather enough energy. By the time she did, she had no way to possibly dodge Ondine, who had kicked off the wall a number of times to bring herself up to her level, since she lacked the ability to do the same as Twilight. She felt the spell getting to its climax and finally released it, but not before Ondine landed a kick right in her gut, throwing her off balance and disrupting her concentration. The magic circle keeping her up flickered, then disappeared, but her spell still carried through. In freefall, she let out the largest beam of magic she had ever attempted, a magical cannon of sorts that completely annihilated anything in its path. The room shook with its power, and yet the ceiling miraculously stayed together. The spell ended before she reached the ground, but she still didn’t have enough time to cushion her fall by very much. She landed with a sickening thud, coupled with a burst of pain shooting up her spine. Clenching her teeth, Twilight opened her eyes to see whether her efforts were in vain or not. She squinted, and was able to make out shadowy clouds floating about, chasing after the rapidly disappearing sparks from the laser. Once one of the clouds caught one, it blackened, then slowly lowered to the ground. Twilight assumed that they were going to burst and dissipate once they landed. Instead, they all clumped together and reformed into the shape of a pony. She gasped, scrambling to get to her feet despite the pain in her back. Ondine quickly reformed, only now a purple aura wavered out of the edges of her blackened eyes. Twilight gulped, scampering away as fast as she could, but she knew it was useless. If Ondine survived something that was theoretically impossible to live through under almost any circumstances, there was absolutely no way that she would be able to defeat her with her own power, especially since she had just fed her a great amount of magic. There was nothing left she could do now but endure her attacks or die trying. Ondine didn’t have her wait for too long before unleashing her next attack. With a wave of her hoof, the ceiling was covered by a quickly forming black cloud, electricity crackling out of it. Only a few moments after it appeared, a sudden pillar of fire shot down out of it, hitting the ground with such force that the whole room shook. Ondine stood unwavering, observing emotionlessly as Twilight was scorched by the flames. Twilight screamed, the scorching heat unbearable and the power keeping the flames intact unthinkably strong. Any barriers or other defensive spells she attempted were quickly extinguished. Her only choice was to withstand it. Thankfully, the blazing flames didn’t last long, but the attack was immediately followed up with another. A forceful tidal wave broke through the flames, pushing Twilight out of them and extinguishing her in the process, but also smacking her against the wall much harder than any other time. She felt the taste of blood in her throat, and her body ached, but she knew that the battle wasn’t over yet, no matter how much she wished it was. She suddenly felt small pricks pushing on her back. She turned her head and saw that emerald spikes were beginning to jut out of the wall. Two particularly large ones came out against her sides, forcing her arms upward, where a few more spikes were waiting for them. Twilight cried out, the newly forming spikes pushing into her skin. Her back, arms, and legs were effectively skewered, keeping her from moving at all. The sickening noise of tendons breaking and bones cracking were all she could hear, her tears flowing out of her as if her life depended on it. Screaming, she looked over to see that a few of the spikes had made their way completely through her arms and wrists, and her legs were soon to meet the same fate. She threw her head to the side to see The Elements of Harmony and her friends. If only she could’ve managed to get to them, she might’ve been able to stand a chance still. There was no way that Ondine’s composition could have withstood an attack like that, but even then... Pain was the only thought Twilight had after that. It was the only thing that she knew. Her vision started flashing white, blood trickling out of her ever-expanding wounds. She could hardly perceive anything anymore. She couldn’t even hear her own screaming. White sparks flashed out of her horn on instinct, but the main lines connecting the tip to her magic stores had been cut. She managed to tilt her head forward to vaguely see Ondine slowly walking closer. Her horn formed into one long spike, aimed straight for her heart. Of course, that would explain why the rest of them had stayed away from her vital organs. She wanted the pleasure of doing the honors herself. Her vision flashed white, gradually growing spotty. The blood in her throat rose to a high enough level to flow out of her mouth without her help. Eventually she went unconscious. The last thing she saw was Ondine’s head drawing back, then thrusting forward at full force towards her.