//------------------------------// // Mare's Night Out. // Story: A Lost Soul Returns: The King of Monsters // by Dark Star the Crazed //------------------------------// No mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips. Betrayal oozes out of him at every pore. ~ Sigmund Freud. The next day. Trixie was walking through a meadow, she did not know how she got there, but she was there. She smiled at the large assortment of flowers, all of which were her favorite kinds. There were orchids, jonquils, red roses, and thousands of others. In the center of the meadow was a large, healthy, Witchhazel tree. Trixie walked up to it and laid down. Then she heard what sounded like voices. "Remember friends as you pass by... As you are now, so once was I... Remember in life, that you must die..." Trixie suddenly felt something wrap around her neck and hoist her up into the air, she looked down and saw a noose. She looked around and noticed that all the flowers had become gravestones. She felt the noose tighten, and then she fell towards the ground. Trixie's eyes shot open and she shot up. She looked around and realized she was on her living room couch. The blue mare looked out the window and saw that the sun was starting to set. "I really need to get my mind off of my trial..." A knock on the front door caught her attention. Trixie got up and walked over and opened the door, there they saw the other Elements of Harmony. "Oh, hey girls... Why are you here?" Twilight smiled. "We're having a mare's night out and came to ask if you wanted to join us." The others all nodded and Trixie smiled. "Sure, that sounds nice. It might help me get my mind off of the trial where I got my elements... Give me a second to make myself... Decent..." Trixie closed the door, went to the bathroom, brushed her mane and teeth and washed her face. She then went downstairs and out the door. "So what were you girls planning to do?" "We were just going to walk around the town... Well I guess that it's a city now, maybe try and help some of the ponies accept that monsters are real and that Ponyville is now a city." Twilight noticed that Trixie had a small notebook and a quill with her. "What's that?" The blue mare smiled and floated it over to her. "Read it and find out." Twilight raised an eyebrow and opened the small book. "Twilight Sparkle, Crimson Fang, Rainbow Dash, Thunder Dust, Pinkie Pie, Jekyll Dreadful, Rarity, Spike, Applejack, North Star, Fluttershy, Sulfuric Acid, Tamashii 'Soul' Souto, Apple Bloom, Babs Seed, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo." Twilight looked up from the book and at Trixie. "Ok... Why do you have a list of names that include us, our significant others, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders?" The blue mare sighed. "Look at the inside of the front cover..." Twilight looked back at the inside cover of the book and smiled. "The Friends I've Made So Far... You keep a notebook about the friends you make..." Trixie nodded and took the notebook back. "And I intend to make a lot more, maybe I'll even make one tonight..." Trixie smiled and with that the mares were off. About an hour later the group spotted a familiar pink and blue mane. Bon-Bon was hiding in some bushes, watching a pony, a pegasus mare, that was sitting across the street, talking with none other than Big McIntosh. The mare's saw the mare lean in and bite his neck, she was obviously a vampony. They then turned their attention back to the mare hiding in the bushes, who had yet to realize that she was being watched. "I can't believe that Twilight would marry that, freak, Crimson Fang... Sure he's a king, but he's a king of savage beasts that exist only to scare, kill, and eat normal ponies... These, things are dangerous... If I had my way, then these, things would be hunted to extinction! In fact, I'm going to rally some of the ponies in town and lynch some of these things!" Twilight coughed and Bon-Bon shot out of the bushes and into the air. She looked behind her and saw Twilight, and the others with a look of disapproval on their faces. "Oh... Um... How much of that did you hear?" "Everything from 'That, freak, Crimson Fang' to 'lynch some of these things.'. Bon-Bon, why do you hate Fang's, correction, mine and Fang's subjects so much?" Bon-Bon scoffed. "Have you never seen a monster movie!? These things are going to kill us all!" "Bon-Bon, give them a chance, they aren't like the things you see in monster movies, they are made like that in movies for a reason, and that reason is to scare you." Bon-Bon shook her head. "You have been corrupted by your incarnation of pure evil of a husband!" There was a laugh above them and all of the mares looked up and spotted a pony with leathery brown skin, pointed ears, more pointed than a normal pony's, and what looked to be a forked tail, it was a goblin. "Hmmm... You think we're monsters?" Bon-Bon growled at the creature and nodded. "Well... I have to disagree, if anypony here is a monster, it would be you Little Miss monsters are bad and should be hunted to extinction." Bon-Bon raised an eyebrow. "How am I a monster? I make candy for a living-" "And so do I." The goblin turned and let the ponies see his cutie mark, a red lollipop with a smiley face on it. He then looked at Twilight and Bon-Bon. "So Queen Twilight, can you explain why Bon-Bon is the monster here and not me?" Twilight blinked and shook her head. She knew the answer of course, but she wanted one of her friends to answer, just to see if they could. "Well, can any of you explain it?" "Bon-Bon is the monster here, because she has decided that all monsters are evil and should be purged from existence, without even speaking to and trying to get to know one." Everypony looked at Trixie and the goblin on the roof smiled and jumped down. "That's correct my friend, now, how about we go and remedy this mistake?" The goblin looked at Bon-Bon and smiled. "Shall we?" Bon-Bon was about to tell the goblin to go and sit on a manticore's stinger, then she heard laughing and looked around. She was shocked to see that normal ponies, most of which were her friends, talking and laughing with the monsters, some of the monsters were even giving the ponies they were talking to carved wooden pendants that resembled wild animals. Seeing how others got along with the monsters made Bon-Bon realize that she might have judged them too quickly and that they weren't as evil as their appearances suggested. The mare sighed looked back at Twilight. "I'm sorry for insulting your husband, could you ever find it in your heart to forgive me...?" Twilight smiled and nodded. Bon-Bon then looked at the goblin, only to receive the feeling of string wrapping around her neck, the goblin pulled away from the mare, smiled, and pointed at her neck. Bon-Bon looked down and saw what could only be described as a totem, it was carved to look like a crow. "What's this?" "That is your Spiritus Bestiæ. The crow represents change... Now, let's see if we can be friends, shall we Bon-Bon? Maybe we can even exchange a few recipes..." The mare smiled, nodded, and walked off with the goblin. "Well... That's certainly a happy scene... We actually got Bon-Bon to give the monsters a chance..." The other mares all nodded to Trixie and they walked off once again. Two hours later. The mares were walking through the Ponyville market, which had grown substantially since Ponyville and the Everfree Forest had combined. There were all sorts of stalls, selling not only things like produce, but things like amulets, daggers, and patches of manticore fur and cockatrice scales. All sorts of oddities. Then Twilight noticed something, there was a pony sitting in an alleyway, beckoning them over. The seven mares shrugged and walked over to him. "Hello... Do any of my wears catch your interest?" The mares all looked at the blanket in front of them and shook their heads, except Rarity. The white mare picked up a black box. "What's this?" The cloaked pony smiled. "Ah, you have a keen eye white one, that is what is known as a Midas Box. A mystical object that is rumored to turn anything you put inside it into gold overnight." Rarity's eyes lit up like stars. "Does that mean I could use actual gold in the dresses I make?" The pony nodded. "How much?" Rarity pulled out a bag of bits, but it got put away buy the pony sitting in front of her. "I don't deal in bits, I wish to make... A trade... You can have that... If I can have the necklace you're wearing." The mares all looked at Rarity and saw that she was wearing the necklace that she had made with the fire ruby that she got from Spike on his birthday. "It would make a nice addition to my collection." The pony opened their coat and revealed that he was wearing about twenty different necklaces. "So, shall we trade?" Rarity looked at the box and shook her head. "I can't, I got the gemstone on this necklace from somepony very important to me." "Very well then, I will take something that is of no value to you." Rarity raised an eyebrow. "Like what?" The pony chuckled. "Does it really matter? If it is of no value to you than you won't miss it, will you?" Rarity thought for a second before shaking her head. "No I suppose not..." Rarity smiled and looked at Twilight. "Do you think you could?" Twilight smiled and nodded, but a voice rang out through the night before she could finalize the trade. "Queen Twilight! Do not finalize that trade!" The mares turned around and saw three guards with their swords drawn. "That stallion is a wanted con-artist, while he trades artifacts that work, the cost is to high!" Rarity raised her head and looked at the guards. "What do you mean? The cost doesn't seem high at all to me. He said he would trade me this box for something that was of no value to me." The guards, walked up and placed hoof cuffs on the cloaked pony. The hooded pony laughed. "Tell me Lady Rarity, have you ever thought about how much you value your soul?" Rarity blinked and dropped the box in shock, which resulted in it cracking in half and releasing a cloud of gray smoke that had two draconic arms and a glowing green eye in the center of it. One of the guards pulled out a blue, crystal ball and mumbled something. The mares watched as the cloud of smoke tried to escape, only to start getting pulled into the orb. The creature began to panic. Twilight remembered seeing these orbs before. Fang had used one to trap the demon that had been possessing Sunset. "No! I won't go back alone!" As the demon began to get pulled in, it grabbed the cloak wearing pony, ripping the cloak off, revealing an extremely twisted creature. His eyes were red and goat like, he had two wings attached to each of his hooves, and his mouth was full of razor sharp teeth. The pony began to thrash as both he and the demon were pulled into the orb. The guards walked up to the blanket that held the pony, that had actually been a half demon, wares, rolled it up, looked at the mares, and nodded before teleporting away. The mares just stood there for a second, trying to wrap their minds around the fact that Rarity had almost traded her soul away for a box that would have turned things into gold. She hadn't even done it because the gold would be valuable, she had done it because it would have given her dresses a flair. "Oh, I knew it was too good to be true." "Mmm... Perhaps not Miss Rarity... Just don't let your greed take hold of you..." The box suddenly started to mend itself with a golden glow. A small orb of golden light floated in front of the mares before vanishing. "... Do any of you know what that was?" Everypony shook their heads and Rarity sighed. "Well... There's no telling what this box might do now... So I suppose we should give it to Fang or Celestia so they can lock it away in the vault of one of their castles." The others nodded and Twilight teleported it away, to her and Fang's bedroom. With that the mares smiled and continued the night. Two more hours later. Trixie and Twilight had separated from the others, it was getting late and they had decided that it would be best to get home, then they heard something that chilled Trixie to the bone. The source of the sound was a dark alleyway. "Trixie Lulamoon is somewhere in this town! Find her! Check her home, the park, the market, even the castle if you want to! Just find her and bring her to me alive! I want to make her suffer before I tear out her heart! We already have the other elements, now we just need her and the queen!" The blue mare shivered. "No... It can't be... It just can't be!" Trixie ran into the ally, quickly followed by Twilight, there they saw three beasts that resembled the shade like entities that had attacked and tried to kill Trixie and Hex. The other elements were tied up in a corner and there were tow ponies standing over them, one black, the other was slate grey. "Nigrum! Let my friends go!" The two ponies turned and looked at the two mares that had come into the alleyway "Hmm... It seems like our pets won't have to search for them after all, will they Nero?" The black pony shook his head and the grey pony smiled. "Cousin Trixie... You know I can't let any of them go... They have all sealed their fate..." The grey pony glared at Trixie. "So now, all of them are going to die..." "Why!? Why are you doing this to me!? I have enough trouble in my life without you interfering with it!" The grey pony looked down. "To whosoever should find this note, I am sorry for the sin I am about to commit. I know that with this act, I take not only my own life, but the life of my unborn filly. It makes me ashamed to say how weak I am, knowing that without my true love I can not bare the burden know as life for another day. Signed, Snowbell." The pony looked at Trixie. "That is why I am doing this. By revealing to the judges that I was going to use black magic in my entrance exam, you not only got me banned from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, you also got my father to make it so that the mare I loved, who was secretly my fiancé, think I hated her. Because of you, she thought I hated her, because of you she took her own life and the life of my unborn daughter. You ruined my life! And now I'm going to ruin yours!" The grey pony pulled out a dagger and brought it down towards Rarity. "Holly." The grey pony froze in place and looked at Trixie. "W-what did y-you just s-say?" "Holly... You and Snowbell were going to name your daughter Holly, after your fiancé's great grandmother." Nigrum dropped the knife and continued to stare a Trixie. "How? H-how could you p-possibly k-know that? Snow and I were keeping our relationship a secret because we knew our fathers wouldn't approve! Nopony even knew that we were together! How do you know what we were going to name our daughter!?" Trixie frowned. "I... I can see and talk to the dead... She's with us right now... She told me what you two had planned to name your daughter..." Nigrum growled and shook his head. "No! You're lying! You can't talk to the dead! This is just you trying to mess with my brain! Trying to distract me while Twilight saves your other friends!" While it had not been her intention, Trixie had distracted both Nigrum and Nero long enough for Twilight to save the others. "Glacier... If it was a colt then you two would have named him Glacier..." Nigrum sat down and grabbed his head with his hooves. "If your fathers tried to separate the two of you then you were going to leave Canterlot and live in Vanhoover... You met completely by accident, as if it was fate, in the market when you bumped into her after you bought a book on how to make golems, she had just bought a dozen bluebonnets, her mother's favorite flower, for her mother's birthday. You helped her up and the two of you fell in love the moment your eyes met. Your first date was at a movie theater where you saw a romance story known as 'Over the Sea and Back Again'. A story about a stallion who leaves a mare to travel the world and comes back three months later because he could not bear being away from her for another month." "Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up!!! Stop it! Stop bringing back my memories! I don't want to remember her! I want to be with her once again! The day they found her body I swore that I would sell my soul to Hades if he brought her back! He came to me and offered a counter proposal, if I bring him the soul of one of the members of my family he will bring both Holly and Snow back, and it would be like she never died..." Nigrum began to talk to himself, he was obviously having a mental breakdown. The elements began to walking towards the two ponies. "There's a stallion going 'round taking names, he decides who to free and who to blame. And everypony will be treated all the same..." The mares stopped and looked at the black pony, Nero. "I believe that Nigrum and I should depart... Take my words as a warning. The longer you resist the inevitable, the more ponies will suffer..." Nero placed a hoof on Nigrum and the two sank into the ground, along with the three shade like beings. All was quiet for a few seconds before Trixie spoke up. "I'm so sorry... Being friends with me has put you in danger again... I suppose this is where our friendship ends..." Trixie lowered her head and began to walk off, only to be stopped by the six. "Trixie, we're still friends. This isn't the first time we have had to deal with a psychotic pony... Besides, you've earned the right to cull us your friends. Nothing is going to be able to end our friendship." Twilight gave a small smile which Trixie returned. "Yeah! We're going to be friends..." Pinkie Pie was suddenly standing between Trixie and Twilight. "FOREVER!!!" The group of mares giggled at the pink one's antics. "Pinkie... You are so random..." The mares walked off and headed home. That night was the first time in weeks that Trixie did not have a nightmare about her trial. In Fang and Twilight's Castle. A group of four, three shades and an alicorn, were sitting over the journal of Starswirl the Bearded, trying to break the ciphers in the book. "I give up... It's your turn Fang..." Fang sat down as Soul got up. "Gsv Mrtsgnziv Ivevozgrlm Hkvoo... Hgzmw rm uilmg lu z nriili zmw hzb 'R drhs gl hvv nb hszwld.'..." Fang sat there for a second before a smile lit up his face. "I got it, he used an Atbash Cipher here... Let’s see... With Atbash A is Z, B is Y and so on..." After about a minute Fang had finished. "I am ninety nine percent sure it reads 'The Nightmare Revelation Spell. Stand in front of a mirror and say 'I wish to see my shadow.'... Let's try it-" Fang and Soul yawned. "Tomorrow... I want to tuck my daughter in before I go to sleep." Muse and Edge nodded as the two ponies left. Soul went home to Trixie while Fang went to tuck Ana in. Muse looked at Edge. "You know, I think I remember something... I'm pretty sure that I had a brother..." Little did any of the group know, a shade in dark grey robes that were decorated with black flames was standing on the outskirts of Canterlot. "Once he awakens, King Nox will be pleased that I have taken the lives of Scarlet's final act of spite." In Canterlot a splitting pain shot through Luna's head. 'Luna... I know that you are probably still angry with me, but you need to listen, a dark force is coming and you and your family are in danger!' The blue alicorn growled at the voice in her head. "Shut up Nightmare..." 'I told you before, my name is Tsukiyomi.' Luna sighed and went back to sleep. Delay is the deadliest form of denial. ~ British historian C. Northcote Parkinson.