The house that Joe recommended they stay was odd on the outside, various simple machines like pulleys on oddly shaped slides lined up and all around the house. What was on the inside surprised everyone. It was....
Normal. Looked as Fluttershy's cottage would look with a couch chairs and a table that didn't look like it was crafted in twilight's basement or taken out of a junkyard. It was... welcoming. The only odd thing there was a Wirewolf who could pass to be as old as Granny Smith who Joe said was his grandfather(despite his age saying great) snoring on his couch then waking up startled knocking down a chair and a bookshelf. Rainbow dash withheld a chuckle but Joe did not."Don't worry Grandpa it's not the first time I walked in on something embarrassing."
Everyone just looked at Joe as he just stared into space reminiscing about something, Celestia the only one knowing what it was. Joe's grandpa was the one to break the tension.
"Anyway I'm Floyd. Joe's told me all your names." Floyd than looked at Celestia. "Especially you Princess, in fact he described how Ricky liked to talk about your appearance, especially your personality, and-" Ricky had come back to reality heard Floyd babbling about what he told him about Celestia,blushed a little,than proceeded to cover Floyd's mouth so no more could be heard.
"Don't mind any of that, he lost a few screws coming here. Floyd you said you had something to help the girls?"
Floyd had been oblivious of Ricky's hand being over his mouth the entire time but realized He was rambling when Ricky asked him that question. He took Ricky's hand off his mouth so he could be heard."Sorry i tend to ramble a bit sometimes. a sample is in the jar" He went to another room than returned with a jar full of a green goo."Behold, the Soul Robber. a little something I Reverse-Engineered from a sample a friend of mine gave me." The goo proceeded to burst out of the jar and cover Floyd's face, earning muffled screams from Floyd as he ran out of the room trying to get it off. Ricky broke the awkward silence at Floyd's screams
"Any way these things are meant to help you girls in whatever that Burlap Sack will throw at us."
Ricky had a jar on him, only this one didn't attack him and it split into one Soul Robber for each of the girls, Earning a grin of delight from Pinkie and Dash.
"Now let's get to Cadence to see if the Empire's been affected by this."
Twilight was ready to speak up after Applejack whispered something to her."Me and Applejack will go together. it's not like this guy brought a bunch of more skeletons and knew about the Crystal Empire and sent them there."
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Applejack was dumbfounded by what she saw and could only look at Twilight with one thing on her mind that Twilight was sure she was thinking of.
"I probably jinxed it"
Applejack could only look at the hundreds of skeletons that she could see just over the horizon and dignify that sentence with only one word.
"Eeyup."
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Terry was bored out of his mind at Floyd's and just began to ask random questions to everyone that stayed, his attention now turning on Ricky.
"Yo Ricky you said once you would seriously hurt anyone who messed with or insulted your friends."
"Yep. and if you say I was bluffing I do not bluff, i hit up that dragon who made fun of Celestia with Wade. you know the red and black wirewolf, with white eyes?"
"Wilson? Wade Wilson? Twin brother of Wilson Wade. Why didn't you take someone like that big Pegasus?"
"Bulk? you remember that time we brought that one guy here and we had a snowball fight? It's also why I never let humans come here again."
Celestia had joined in unnoticed to listen to Ricky's conversation. all though that sounds rude, Ricky always was a great conversationalist and this one certainly was interesting. Terry thought differently.
"Don't really care about that get to the point."
Celestia begged to differ."Terry don't be so rude you're only caring because he gave you that cute antique human wirewolf toy when he started talking."
Ricky indeed gave him a toy, it looked like a Rock'em Sock'em set with wirewolf's. Terry did not care as he began to play with it.
Unexpectedly the head of the blue one Terry's was punching came off earning a terrified scream from him, and Terry hiding behind a table away from the toy.
"Anyway i hit'em with a classic: Sock. i know what you'll say not really painful but that's because i didn't tell you they were filled with butter left in the freezer for a week. But long story short I have closure, no clue where Wade is anymore and I'm never welcome in the Badlands again."
Celestia was a little interested as Ricky was so quick to defend her name that quick. Terry however saw her question a mile away.
"He did because he loves you..." Celestia turned to look at Terry so she didn't see Ricky's right arm turn into a blaster which began to aim for Terry at the word love. "Calyptus trees, one of them was named after you and he was defending that one's honor too."
Celestia found that to be quite odd and would've asked Ricky why he likes Eucalyptus trees so much when a zebra came in she recognized as Zecora from one of Twilight's letters. To Ricky this was his break but was also odd.
"Zecora what are you doing here"
"I came with a tale of great gloom,
We can find no Crusaders or Apple Bloom."
Terry was just utterly confused."In Engli-Equin-Poneys- translation please?"
"All the crusaders are missing." Ricky easily explained to Terry.
"Can't get worse."Terry stated earning a groan from everyone in the room.
"Terry in as long as I lived even I would know never to say that." Celestia said earning agreeing looks from Ricky and Zecora.
As if by cosmic chance, Marty came in with a panicked expression on his face."Guys lot's of blips on the map, moving real fast!" Marty closed his left eye and rise right eye let out a light like a movie projector but put a map of the Crystal Empire and the surrounding area on the floor. Hundreds of white dots represented the skeletons stationed outside the Empire and on it's streets Marty was right the ones outside the area near where they dropped off AJ and Twilight... and they were running towards a orange and purple colored dot.
Ricky knew the question he was about to ask was stupid but asked anyway"They're going after Twi and AJ?"
"Eeyup."
Terry didn't care about this as this brought a revelation to him."So that's what happened to my prank kit of whipped cream and feathers."
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Twilight was scared, this could've gone flawlessly if she just said no. But that didn't help so she went with #2: make the pony who thought that was a good idea admit she was wrong."Still think it was a good idea to pull a prank on the one guy who actually took a nap?"
Applejack heard her question but was busy dealing with the skeletons in alley ways of the Empire popping out left and right forcing her to dodge to avoid a fight as they already had enough skeletons chasing them."In hindsight ah should've seen it coming a mile away and ah should've thought it through."
Something made Twilight panic inside, the skeleton Applejack pranked was at the front, and he still had the cream on his face, but what caused the panic was the fact his eyes were blood red with anger and his constant shouts of rage at them. Twilight turned around to see the castle entrance not too far away, did the calculations, than used her soul robber to trip the skeleton causing the predicted chain reaction of all of the skeletons following them crumbling creating a tidal wave of bones following them Twilight used her magic to levitate Applejack to her then flew into the castle closing the door behind them causing the wave to crash, then die down. Unbeknownst to either ladies, a hand made of several bones arose from the collection followed by a hand.
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Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as they finally made it into the throne room. She saw no one at first but looked towards a window and saw her sister-in-law looking sadly out the window.
"Cadence!"
"Twilight!"
They both ran to each other and hugged before backing away to do something they've always done.
"Sunshine, sunshine ladybugs awake,
Clap your hooves and-"
They're chant was cut short as something burst through one of the castle windows.
The thing that broke the window was a skeleton but not like the other ones. for one thing it was as tall as the dragon that chased Spike, and to make it better it was made up of several bones from other skeletons and some bones were symmetrically poking out to make it look more fearsome. At first glance it looked like it would be any other skeleton, but Twilight studied it a little more and realized this was the skeleton Applejack pranked.
"We never had the time. Skulls is the name and my game is getting revenge." His tone now turned menacingly."mainly on you two."
For some reason Terry decided to run all the way to the Empire to tell the girls something instead of sending a message to her via Celestia. "Girls don't worry, it magic is more than enough but can't kill anyone" Skulls was already bothered by this and did the most logical thing: breathed fire right on Terry."but'll be surprised what you can live through" Terry told you before falling unconscious.
Skulls only chuckled at his deed."he would've been good for a laugh"
Twilight wasn't about to let Skulls do the same to her."oh yeah?" She quickly proceeded to fire several concussive blasts at him to see if there was any effect and to her joy there was nothing in his spot but a smoldering crater that was in his place."Who's laughing now?" She felt fear as a familiar chuckle filled the air and appearing out of thin air was Skulls at the same height but now as a regular skeleton.
"Why i believe it's me." Applejack could only make sound as music played and Skulls stood there unscathed.
"I must admit, your parlor tricks are amusing
I bet you've got a bunny under your hat
Now here's your chance you get the best of me, hope you're hand is hot.
Come on clown let's see what you got
You've tried to slam me with your hardest stuff,
but your double whammy is just a snuff,
I'll set the record straight,
you're simply out of date,
you're only second rate.
You're acts so tragic but you're tiger's tame
you've got a lot to learn about the magic game
so for you're education i reiterate
You're only second rate!
Ponies cower, at the power, in my pinky,
My thumb is number one on every list.
But if you're not convinced that i'm invincible,
put me to the test.
I'd love to lay this rivalry to rest.
So go and zap me with the big surprise,
Slap me in a trap, cut me down to size.
I'll make a big escape, it's just a piece of cake.
You're only second rate!"
Twilight heard enough from Skulls as he bragged as much as Trixie. So she took over and began to fire at Skulls, these shots actually doing damage to him.
"Skulls you magic is now way tough enough,
To make my mega magic no measure up.
You should pontificate,
in every sorry state
you'll be second rate.
Zabba-cabbra-dabbra.
Twilight's gonna blast ya!
Alacazam De-Nus
My magic better than the both of us!
So spare me your great despair
You look disgusting in your underwear
You already sealed your fate
to discombobulate
get packed in a shipping crate,
you'll better as a spinning plate!
You're only second rate!"
The last shot sent Skulls straight through a wall giving Twilight time to use a trick she used back when Sombra was trying to break in. Terry came to at the same time as Skulls and saw Skulls had a face of rage written all over it and only said one sentence. "I'll show you can't kill!" Skulls proceeded to charge directly at Twilight in hopes a direct hit would suffice. but as Skulls lunged to swipe at Twilight, she dodged out of the way in time for Skulls to roar in rage as he fell into the abyss below.
Twilight than turned to her sister-in-law and began to bring her up to speed on the events that transcribed while she was in the castle. Cadence spoke as soon as she was finished.
"That explains most of this. Shining went back to Canterlot to see if he could help Aunt Luna last i heard he was fighting off these things. when i tried to get out, some of them tried to grab at me so i locked the door inside to prevent them from getting in."
A twinkling noise caught the attention of all 3 ponies and they looked up to see not only the Element of Generosity, but a fireruby, the very same fireruby Spike gave to Rarity the day before his birthday. Twilight snatched the Element while Terry snatched the ruby.
"So this is what powered him up."
A flash of light surprised and caught the attention of all 4 ponies(and wirewolf). they looked outside to see a large orb with a video of two skeletons. the one on the right crudely dressed like Twilight beginning to talk in a accent equal to the costume.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle, i give into peer pressure and believe in things that don't exist when everyone else does." The skeleton to his left laughed at this.
"Those are so her mannerisms. and include how she believes in the Pinkie Sense even though it's probably just a very good prank on her"both then proceeded to laugh at her. Twilight found herself furious, and just as furious as she was at Froggy Bottom Bog. As if right on que at that thought, she ignited in flames of anger and blasted off at a speed then would make Rainbow Dash jealous. A few second after that a explosion from Canterlot was heard. AJ, Cadence, and Terry were dumb founded at what happened so quick. Applejack was the only one to speak about that.
"Never that would happen again. Terry you think you could give me a lift?"
"Not unless you wanna go back in the bag."