//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty-Two // Story: Rainbow Connection // by ahilty //------------------------------// Chapter Twenty-Two Rath stared incredulously at the unicorn that Twilight had brought him. He turned his skull very very slowly and looked at Twilight. His eye lights flashed twice. “…you’re joking.” “Of all the ponies I know, she’s the most organized, and its not like we have the time to go around Equestria giving auditions.” Twilight replied. Truth be told there were probably any number of unicorns that Twilight knew that could help, but right now the closest was… “Well, there’s no need to be rude.” Rarity huffed at Rath, giving him a stern look. If the big monster at all intimidated her then she showed no sign of it. Instead she merely walked closer till she was only a few inches from him. “I may not be as magical as Twilight, but I can hold my own.” Rath sighed. “Alright…lets see if you can even pick one up. Purple over there couldn’t even manage that.” Twilight was determined to ignore Rath’s insults, instead looking at Rarity. “I think the issue came up when I kept touching the carving itself with my magic.” Rarity nodded as Twilight pointed to the rune inscribed on the stone that Rath had put on the ground. It was a water rune. The fishy ones. “Well if it activates when touch this part here.” Rarity pointed to the writing inscribed on the rock. “Surely we can just pick it up by the sides.” Twilight shrugged. “I always just pick things up, I never had to be careful of not touching something like that.” Rarity smiled gently at her friend and concentrated at the rune. Blue energy surrounded the edge, not touching the writing itself, and showing an amount of dexterity in her magic that Twilight couldn’t reach. Rarity lifted the thing easily, and for a second Twilight felt mildly embarrassed that she couldn’t master this as easily as Rarity had. Granted Rarity couldn’t perform most of the spells that Twilight could, but this was still impressive. She watched, fascinated, as Rath attempted to explain the whole bizarre process to Rarity. This odd way of approaching magic was foreign to Twilight. Usually it was just a matter of either memorizing a spell, or a matter of willing one’s own magical energy to do what you wanted it to do. Most unicorn’s special talents came as natural to them as breathing, and telekinesis was also a natural process. It had to be, or they wouldn’t get much done. Twilight wasn’t quite sure how the Ponylanders managed with only one of them able to levitate objects. It was a bit odd how teleportation, instead of telekinesis, was the universal power among the Ponylanders instead of how it was with Equestrians… Wow, Twilight, you need to stop going on mental tangents. Twilight shook her head to knock the random speculations away. There would be time later to study all the differences between the two different pony species, after all. The little researcher inside Twilight’s head was itching to corner a few of the Ponylanders and talk about them, but now wasn’t the best time. Still, her mind seemed to want to wander a bit. Rath, despite his attitude, brought up even more mental cans of worms for her to think over. Focusing on the action in front of her Twilight smiled as Rarity hovered three runes above her head. Rarity was clearly concentrating hard, her eyes focused on the runes as she made them float in front of her. Rath studied them for a brief moment, before suddenly snatching them out of the air. “Good. Now, go to the other end of the field. I’m going to hurl them at you. You catch them.” Rarity blinked. “I beg your pardon?” “Normally.” Rath reached into the bag at his waist and pulled out some more runes. “This is how it works.” He flicked the rune upwards into the sky, as if flipping a coin. He held up his finger, which started to glow with dark energy, similar to the dark energy that Twilight used at times. As the rune fell Rath struck it on the writing with his glowing finger. Twilight saw the rune flash, then the thing seemed to crumble, and a small breeze lifted and flew from where the rune had been. “But you don’t have fingers. Or thumbs. I have to make sure you will be able to give it enough lift to strike it.” “…dear…” Rarity grabbed the runes with her magic and held them in front of her. “Can’t I just hold them in front of my face, like this?” Rath turned his skull and his lights blinked. “…well shit, take away all my fun why don’t you?” “…that’s how you use runes?” Twilight blinked. “Magic in your time must have been…strange.” She had this image of human mages flicking pebbles at each other, and it honestly made her want to laugh. “We can all have magic bones stuck to our foreheads.” Rath growled at her. He turned to stare at Rarity. “Alright…fine. Let’s see you use one in practice. You see the wind one to your left? Let’s see you make a breeze. Just visualize a breeze in your mind. Focus…” Rarity turned her eyes to the wind rune. She flung it upwards with her magic, and let her magic envelop it. Twilight grinned as the rune disappeared like before and summoned a breeze similar to the one that Rath made. “Alright, now, the fun part.” Rath smiled and suddenly flicked a few more runes into the air. “Got to make sure you can do it under pressure! Dodge!” Twilight’s wings shot up in shock as a small fireball was suddenly hurled towards Rarity. She gasped and shielded the shocked Rarity. Rath shook his skull. “You are missing the point.” “Oh no, I get the point. But if it gets to close to her, then I am shielding her. You aren’t hurting her.” Twilight snarled. “That’s not how it’s done.” “Welcome to modern Equestria, that’s how it’s done here.” Rath glared at Twilight, then flicked a few more runes into the air. “Very well.” A stream of water, a large breeze, and a few lightening bolts arched towards both ponies. Twilight lowered her head and blocked them before they got to Rarity. She looked behind her at the still recovering unicorn. “Get him! I’ll watch your back!” Rarity gulped and nodded. She floated up a few of her own runes and shot them towards Rath. Five fireballs appeared, but Rath backed up one step, pulling what appeared to be a wand out wherever he kept things, and waved it. Twilight blinked at the dark red barrier that suddenly popped up and snorted. That was right. If he was a lich that must mean he knew a few necromantic spells in addition to runes. “How much necromancy do you know, and how do you know it? I thought you just knew runes.” “Necromancy was actually fairly new when I learned it. My Clan’s enemies were fierce, and used a lot of dark magic against us. We turned to darker forces to match them. I was originally a Runecaster, like all leaders of my clan, but we needed something stronger. I turned to necromancy, but I never forgot Runecasting. When my kin went to far I turned back to it to save them. But I didn’t forget necromancy either.” Rath snorted. “I am not teaching you that.” “I’m not asking you to.” Twilight said. She repressed a small shudder. While it may have been true that Rath didn’t kill Clover, and he may be helping them, that didn’t change the fact that necromancy was, for most ponies, a fairly vile form of magic. Twilight always believed that it was intent that was important, not the nature of the magic, but it was hard to see good intent in the raising of dead bodies. There wasn’t much wiggle room in summoning up the souls of the departed, or desecrating the dead. A part of her wanted to ask Rath about it, but most of her did not. There was a part of her that didn’t want to be judgmental, even though most of her brain was unsettled by it. “Good.” Rath snarled again. More lighting, more fire, but Twilight blocked all of it as Rarity prepared more runes. She was a bit relieved that he seemed reluctant to share the necromancy he knew. Maybe that was a good sign. It was going to be a long day. It had been stormy that day, and Draggle could only barely remember why she was hanging around Fizzy. In fact, no, Fizzy had been the one hanging around her. She wanted to be friends, but the witch wasn’t having any of it. Fizzy had a strange stubborn streak that Draggle didn’t know about, and the young mare had stuck to her side ever since she and Wind Whistler had come back from the Volcano. “I don’t want you around. I’m not your friend!” “Not yet. But it takes time. That’s what Wind Whistler says.” It didn’t matter what she said. Fizzy was persistent. Even as the more…energetic baby ponies had started to pull pranks on Draggle, even as the Baby Sea Ponies made it clear they saw her as something to launch balls at. Even as she retaliated on them (and certain bossy ponies had not been happy at said retaliation, oh not at all), after all that, and Fizzy was still trying to be friendly. And when the damn horse had followed her into the woods, and Draggle forgot a bunch of the pointless wandering. Memories were like that. Sometimes they were…edited. But the part that wasn’t edited…was important. She could remember Fizzy staying with her even as the night fell. Draggle half expected her to be gone the next morning. But she hadn’t. When the sun rose Fizzy had still been right there, and Draggle wasn’t sure why she was so grateful for that. She didn’t act a bit differently towards Fizzy, expect when she put her hand on the cheerful unicorn’s head and stopped telling her to go away. And she never did. Never. And Fizzy never stopped being so damn upbeat. It was irritating. But not really. But if she kept thinking about that, then the damn Changeling Queen would keep feeding on her, and grow stronger. And Draggle didn’t want that. More memories kept bubbling up, and each time it seemed to rock Draggle’s mind back just a bit more. It was like she was living the last three years of her life all over again, only for some reason Chrysalis and her mind powers seemed to be able to drege up the most positive memories, and glossed over the bad ones. It didn’t matter how much she tried to remember the bad ones as a counter, someone Chrysalis managed to bring her mind back to the positive ones. The times when Catrina, a much more patient teacher then her mother, had helped her with the spells that witches normally used. For one thing the fierce catwoman actually paused to explain the basic steps. That had helped. She could remember the ponies, most of them anyway, slowly starting to accept her and she was failing them. If she didn’t find a way to stop this from happening… But then she woke up. Or at least it felt like waking up. She wondered how much of that was dreaming, and how much was the Changeling feeding. It was damn hard to tell, and her brain felt like someone had taken a hard brush and vigorously scrubbed it. She blinked and shook her head. She didn’t realize her eyes had the green glow of a person hypnotized by the Changelings, nor did she notice that it was actually fading. She did notice that was starting to focus more, though what she saw didn’t bring her any comfort. Still in the dungeon. Still stuck to a wall, and that egg that Chrysalis was cooing over was getting bigger, and pulsing more. It was a disgusting, slimy thing, and Draggle disliked it more and more with each pulse. Chrysalis looked up at her and frowned. “…interesting. You can’t be stronger then Shining Armor…not mentally at least. Yet you recover faster…perhaps its because I didn’t catch you off guard?” The Changeling Queen shook her head. Shining Armor’s mind had been easier to break into, but then again the stallion had though her the love of his life at the time. “No matter I suppose.” Draggle sneered and attempted to break the goo again. Her limbs barely twitched, and she wondered if that meant she was getting weaker from Chrysalis’s feeding, or the goo was just getting stronger. Chrysalis suddenly smiled and walked over. She lifted her hoof and slammed it against the goo gluing Draggle down. The goo shattered on impact. With a grunt of surprise at the action, Draggle attempted to haul herself up, intending to make a break for the door. She didn’t know why Chrysalis was letting her go, and at that moment she didn’t care. She lifted herself up by the elbows, and promptly slid back down again. She attempted to roll over and us her hands to lift herself, but again slid back down. She glared up Chrysalis, unable to get herself up. “I keep telling you it’s pointless. The goo is hardly needed now. No matter how much your mind resists, you’re still too powerless to run. You might as well just lay there. No one is coming to save you, and you certainly can’t save yourself.” Draggle snorted and tried to lift herself up again. Her arms shook, and once again refused to support her. This time when she slid back down she stayed down. Chrysalis smiled again, and turned back to her egg. Her tattered horn glowed, and once again showered the egg in light… The Rainbow between Megan’s home world ‘Earth’, and Ponyland was far more stable then the mirror Rainbows. So stable that ponies were able to go to her, and vice versa, frequently. One of the things that Megan and her siblings had brought back was a ‘t.v.’ Somehow it worked in Ponyland, though Draggle wasn’t sure how (Danny would always babble something about batteries and she had no idea what the twerp meant). The strange metal and glass was a mystery to her, as well as the V.C.R that had come with it. Either way, Megan and her siblings had wanted to share their culture’s treasures with the Ponylanders. Almost each Ponylander had a different favorite ‘tape’, but every so often the Earthlings insisted on seasonal events. On of these was Danny’s Halloween Marathon. Most of the tapes he brought were brightly painted artwork that he called toons. They were silly, harmless, and in a few cases very insulting to witches, and the first night Draggle had almost given up on it. However, Danny insisted that she come back after the younger ponies were asleep for ‘the good stuff’. Since he had made sure Megan wasn’t around when he spoke of the ‘good stuff’…well she couldn’t help but be interested. And to her surprise this ‘stuff’ was indeed good, or at least better then what had been shown before. Danny had kept the volume low, as while Megan had gone to the nursery to ward off baby pony nightmares, there still was a chance she might spy them, and Danny indicated that she, and their parents, wouldn’t be happy with the tapes he had snuck in. But Draggle had been fascinated. Most of them were bloody, and gross, and of course a creature like Draggle, when faced with people getting their faces chewed off by a monster from ‘outer space’, had been less of a visual horror and more of a work of art. She wasn’t quite sure what Danny saw in these films, but about halfway through something called Halloween, named after the holiday, and Draggle had stopped caring why Danny had brought them and just enjoyed the show. Though he did shoot her odd looks every time she laughed at a particularly nasty death. She thought that Danny was testing his courage, seeing has how Gusty had also been there declaring that Danny had nothing in his catalogue that could scare her. So, when the queen’s egg pod slit open down the middle, and ooze poured out onto the ground, Draggle was reminded of that Alien tape. It had been a very fun movie. Although now she sort of understood why Gusty had ended up hiding behind the couch now. She once again tried to get up, but once again nothing happened. All she could do was watch as a long, dainty, holed hoof emerged from the egg pod. There was a wiggle, and a long horn emerged. A shake of the pod, and the egg fell on its side. Another hoof emerged and pulled itself from the oozy mess. The baby queen shook the ooze away from herself, lifted her head, and cheeped. Draggle blinked. It was adorable. Maybe it was the witch instincts, or maybe it was just naturally cute, as most babies tend to be. It had huge, strangely innocent looking green eyes, which gazed around its surroundings with open curiosity. Maybe it was the look on its face that helped with the cute factor. It didn’t show any of the malicious hate that its mother had. It was tiny, smaller then the little worker Changelings (who was hovering around, humming happily at the little queen), and while it wasn’t cuddly or fluffy, it didn’t seem particularly evil. Granted it didn’t radiate innocence and light like the pony babies, but it wasn’t a totally evil creature. It was just…there. Chrysalis smiled and poured some more of the stolen love into the baby, who squealed adorably and bounced in front of her mother. Draggle just watched, not sure how to feel about this. They were the enemy. Both of them. She had to remember that. As she was remembering that a bright pink bit of fuzz literally exploded into the room from somewhere near the floor. Draggle wasn’t sure where. Chrysalis turned and hissed, covering her young with a leg. The worker and drone Changelings also hissed. Draggle looked at the pink thing and for a moment was hopeful. Then she noticed that Pinkie’s huge eyes were yellow instead of blue, and her heart sank a bit. She wasn’t sure she was ready for a corrupted Pinky Pie. Pinky didn’t pay her any mind though. Instead she bounced over to Chrysalis and her young, grinning. Pinkie grinned happily, a perfectly normal Pinky grin. “Happy Birthday!” Pinkie smiled down at Chrysalis’s child and started to sing her happy birthday song, interchanged with a few lyrics about slaying the innocent and drinking the blood of virgins. Chrysalis blinked at the corrupted pony. “…First, how did you know about my egg? Two, we don’t eat ponies, stop singing to my daughter about eating ponies. Third…what is wrong with you?” “Oh I know everypony’s birthday! It’s part of my talents! And there’s nothing wrong with me! I’m just…Nightmared I guess?” Pinkie tilted her head and giggled. It was actually somewhat chilling. Draggle snorted and glared at Pinkie. “I can’t tell if you’re more or less annoying now.” “Awww,” Pinkie’s grin was now distinctly more sinister as she smiled at Draggle. “You stupid thing. You’re still trying to be a pony? You know none of your friends give a damn about you now? I know, because I’m good at that.” Draggle hissed. “You’re lying.” “No, no I’m not.” “They’re only acting like it because of the corruption.” “Then why aren’t I that different? Shouldn’t I be all mean and gloomy? But I’m not. I feel just as happy as before!” Pinkie bounced. “They were just nice to you because that’s their tradition. They didn’t like you for you.” Pinkie lowered her head and hissed. “Not even Wind Whistler. I asked her. She only helped you because that’s what ponies do.” Draggle just stared. “No…” She hesitated. “No way.” “Believe me or don’t. I’m not the one leaving you here to rot.” Pinky laughed and went back to singing at the Changeling princess. The little creature buzzed towards Pinky and started to bounce around her, laughing happily. Chrysalis watched them, but as long as Pinkie didn’t hurt her child she seemed willing to let Pinkie play with her. Draggle tried to get up a few more times, but again, nothing seemed to work. All she could do was lay there and watch a silly pink pony play around with the Changelings. Twilight surprised a growl of frustration as night fell. While she knew she couldn’t rush this, that didn’t make the waiting any easier. They had practiced all day, and while Rarity had become ‘passable’ in Rath’s words, both ponies had become exhausted. Rath had merely become even more annoyed. “I think tomorrow I can teach you the sequence. You have the basics, but it requires three specific ones in a row. I’d rather not try it when you’re tired…please tell me you have something you can test it on?” Rath asked. “Something nice and evil, hopefully infected by the Nightmare as well?” Twilight blinked. “We do have a few corrupted ponies around.” “Good.” Rath smacked his bony hands together. “We can see if the sequence works with them.” Twilight stared at him. “You mean you don’t know?” “Your princesses stoned me before I could figure out if the work Clover and I did worked.” Rath glared. “Blame them. Also, blame them if they explode.” “Oh no no no. You are not going to explode ponies! There has to be another way to see if it will work!” Twilight protested. “I can summon dark energy!” “Yes, but are going to infect say, a harmless woodland critter for me to test it on?” Rath asked. “Argh!” Twilight stamped. “I don’t like it!” “It’s not like it’s completely untested.” Rath said calmly. “It’s actually fairly simple. I had tested it on a few dark things in our world with Clover, just not a pony. This one here.” Rarity and Twilight both looked at the lich as he produced a rune in the shape of an eye. “Is called Reveal. Normally I can use it to say, spy on people, fine hidden objects, tell if you’re telling me a lie, things like that. But in this case you use it to alter your vision to see the darkness within a soul. It’s like looking at someone covered in dirt, only it’s a dark aura. Then you use this one.” He pulled out other, which appeared to be more lines. “Is called Separation. You use it to separate the good from the bad. The last is Dispel.” “I know that one.” Twilight said. “Unicorns use it all the time to cancel a spell.” “I bet it’s that fucking booky watered down version.” Rath grumbled, and Twilight glared at him. “This will destroy the evil a lot better…but naturally you’ll have to make sure you are totally focused on the darkness, and not the person. Or pony.” Rath stared at Rarity. “You got that?” Rarity gulped and nodded. All of a sudden she really didn’t want to do this. It sounded complicated, and while she wanted to help their new friends, if she failed they’d be hurt. Or exploded. Neither of which sounded at all good to her. “Alright, try it tomorrow.” Before Twilight or Rarity could react, Rath suddenly glowed red and shot straight down into the ground. Twilight couldn’t really tell how he had done it…although the grass seemed a bit disturbed. “How…did he do that?” Rarity asked. “Well, he is undead. Maybe he sank into the ground?” Twilight theorized. Rarity shivered, her ears lowering. Twilight looked at her and patted her on the shoulder. “Are you okay?” “I…honestly don’t know, Twilight.” Rarity said. “At first I wanted to help, but what if it doesn’t work? What if I end up killing those poor ponies? Or if I can’t make the spell work.” Rarity stared at the grass. “I know what I said to that creature, but I’m not you. I’ve never done anything like this before.” “Hey.” Twilight nuzzled her. “We’ve saved the world before.” “But that was different, dear. It was with all of us. Without the Elements, what can I do?” Rarity asked. Twilight shook her head. “I have a few ideas…get some sleep, Rarity. He had a point. We can’t do anything if we are to tired.” Rarity smiled at her, her confidence returning. She, like all of the Element Barers, had faith in Twilight. Twilight only hoped that she could live up to the faith. The next morning Twilight and Rarity had gathered once again with the forces of Ponyland and Equestria. Everypony, and everything else allied with the ponies, had been inoculated, and hopefully they would last for Twilight’s plan to work. And she did have a plan. She had been working all night on it. She was sure it would work. Positive. “The plan is simple.” Twilight began, pulling out her magical flow chart, which had been changed during the night from magical methods to battle plans. “I want to go over this before the guards come with the corrupted ponies, just in case something happens we don’t want this getting back to Tirac.” Galaxy squinted at the chart. “…why do I have a bad feeling about this?” She muttered to Ribbon. Ribbon shrugged. She hoped it was just the situation in general and not something specific in Twilight’s plan. “The first part is based on a theory.” Twilight said; ignoring the slightly wide-eyed look Galaxy was giving her. The poor unicorn’s danger senses were starting to work on overload. “If this creature is a mixing of the Nightmare and Tirac, it means that it will likely bear grudges. Since myself and my friends beat it before, as did Megan here.” She nodded at the human. “It makes sense that Tirac will leap at the chance to claim us. Therefore, if we dangle a large target in front of him, he will be drawn to it, and therefor the leave the Heart venerable. Now, I’ll need most of the leaders on this team, as well as the bulk of our forces.” Twilight paused as the assembled masses shifted uncomfortably at this thought, but no one interrupted. “Now, normally we’d send a smaller force in to take the Heart, but I think Tirac would expect that. That’s why, in addition to Team Purify, I also propose Team Break Things.” “…Team…break things?” Majesty blinked at Twilight. “Basically, a second, larger team to sneak into the fort, and then cause as much chaos as they can. Free prisoners, kick things over, burn tapestries, whatever you need to do to attract attention away from the Heart, and away from Team Purify.” “I volunteer to lead that team.” Cadence suddenly stepped forwards. Twilight hadn’t noticed her there before, but the princess was clearly agitated. “My husband is still there. I have no issue taking that castle down brick by brick to find him.” “I’ll go! Come on, Megan, It’s right up my alley!” Danny begged Megan. Megan looked at him, and for a moment Twilight thought she was going to say no, until Danny continued. “Megan, Surprise is there.” Megan sighed and nodded. “Stay close to the alicorn, and be careful.” Danny grinned. It was the kind of grin that Twilight usually saw on Discord, and she almost felt sorry for the poor villains that would come across Team Break Things. Along with Cadence and Danny, five guardponies volunteered for Team Break Things, among them, much to Twilight’s interest, the pegasus Flash Sentry. Twilight once again wondered how much the pony version was like the human, but right now it hardly mattered. There was no time to talk about it, and it seemed weird to talk to a pony that she only really knew as a human. Also accompanying Team Break Things was a Flutter Pony named Honeysuckle, two griffins (who seemed to like the idea of invading a place simply to break it), a diamond dog (why where they still here?) and to Twilight’s surprise the oddly grumpy Ponylander Truly. She wondered why the Ponylander kept glaring at everypony on Team Break Things if she was going to volunteer for said team, but it seemed that Truly was just the sort to be argumentative. Either way, Twilight nodded and continued. “Team Purify has one goal. To get Rarity to the Heart so she can purify it. The rest of us will lay siege to the castle, as the main distraction.” “I can lead her through the castle.” Red Spike waved a claw, and his gaggle of Bushwoolies leaped to volunteer as well. “I lived there for a while.” “If he’s going, so am I.” Green Spike said with a defiant look at Twilight, as if daring her to defy him. Twilight was about to forbid it, but then she remembered Sombra, and how he had been the hero. She remembered how much help he had been in the human world. While she didn’t like it, he would probably be safer with Rarity then in a large battle, and she had a feeling he wouldn’t tolerate being shoved to a medic tent again. She could see it in his eyes. “Alright. Be careful.” Twilight tried to swallow the lump in her throat, and she wondered if she was giving her Spike the same look Megan was shooting her brother. “Dogs go to.” Twilight, still not sure why the mutts were here, nodded at Rover as he and his followers slide over towards Rarity, who looked at them in surprise. “You don’t have to.” She started, but the dog leader interrupted him. “Much to make up for. We help.” Rover insisted. Green Spike glared at the dog, but didn’t object. Maybe he realized they needed all the help they could get. “Now, all we have to do is test out the runes, Rarity?” Twilight looked at Rarity, who gulped, but nodded. Twilight looked around, and realized the lich wasn’t anywhere in sight. “Hey, where’s-“ “Are all your plans this stupid?” Twilight didn’t jump as Rath suddenly appeared behind her. She looked down to notice a bit of disturbed earth, and figured that he had simply popped out like…well a zombie. She wondered if he had been down there the entire time, watching them somehow. “You got a better one?” Twilight challenged, and Rath shrugged. “Don’t care, honestly.” He turned his body and blinked at Rarity. “Well, might as well see if this is going to work.” He clapped his skeletal hands together, making a dry rattling sound that sent shivers down Twilight’s spine. “Now, where are the victims?” “…did you really need the evil chuckle there?” Green Spike deadpanned at the lich. “Alright.” Twilight flew down to Majesty, Megan and Cadence. “Get yourselves ready, we’re going to Canterlot to test the magic out. We’ll be right back.” Twilight was almost afraid that they would start to panic. She was a lot better with a group of five then a small army of ponies and other assorted magical things, but to her relief Galaxy and Megan started to organize the Ponylanders, Rosedust began to organize the…ten or so Flutter Ponies that had survived. Most of the other factions followed their lead, and Twilight was relieved to see Cadence going through the army as well, making sure everything was going smoothly. She nodded, her confidence growing. Rarity steeled herself and walked over to Twilight. Twilight looked at Rath and waved him over with her hoof. She wasn’t sure if the creature was amused or concerned or indifferent. It was very hard to read a skull. “More teleportation?” Rath folded his arms and appeared to glare down at Twilight. “I’m not walking.” Twilight said, and before the irritating thing could complain some more she teleported them all to Celestia’s throne room. “Gaaah, I hate sparkle magic! It’s bloody itchy!” Rath bellowed, his voice echoing through the throne room. Celestia, who had been organizing the guard in case of invasion, looked up and frowned in a slightly irritated manner for a brief moment. She turned and trotted over to them. “I assume you’re here to help the Ponylanders infected with the Nightmare, right?” Celestia looked very deliberately at Rath, who again folded his arms with a small rattle. “No. Prissy there is.” Rath pointed to Rarity. “My name’s Rarity.” The unicorn objected, but Rath just snorted…somehow. Twilight couldn’t help but wonder how the world he made noises that technically required a throat and nose. Celestia smiled and stepped closer to Rath. “I realize we made a mistake, but if you ju-“ “I’ve heard enough of your friendship lectures in stone.” Rath shook his head. “Let’s skip the crap and get to business.” “Very well.” Celestia closed her eyes, not pleased with the lich’s outright rejection, but she realized that it may take a long time to repair what she and Luna had done in their haste. She suppressed a sigh. For all the reverence her little ponies gave her, Celestia knew she wasn’t perfect. Still, dwelling wasn’t going to solve anything. Rath glared down at Rarity. “Let’s get this over with. The bright pastels are hurting my eyes.” “You don’t have eyes.” Twilight retorted. “…they’re hurting the –memory- of my eyes.” Rath turned his skull again, and he unfolded his arms. Twilight looked, and noticed he was looking at one of the windows depicting great events in the history of Equestria. It was, in fact, the same one that illustrated the defeat of the Windigos. Maybe it was just her imagination, but she had the thought that Rath was gazing at the small figure of Clover the Clever. He stared for a minute, before turning his skull towards Celestia. “Well, where are the victims?” Rath grumped. “I didn’t teach Prissy here for my health.” Celestia sighed. “Right this way.” Like the Ponyville jail, the Canterlot dungeons rarely held ponies. That is not to say there were never used, they were just used much less then your average jail. However, there was much less dust, as Celestia did have a small army of servants to maintain it. The first three cells of the dungeon were now occupied by Magic Star, Ember, and the Ponyland Applejack. With them, sitting outside with the guards next to a small table, was the pony that Twilight Sparkle had to keep telling herself was not her mom. Twilight Unicorn turned her head as Celestia opened the door to the dungeon, followed by the others. The Ponylander pricked her ears and stood up. Twilight Sparkle folded her wings and for a moment the two of them stared at each other. “I…don’t think we really met. I’m Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight Sparkle said gently. Twilight Unicorn smiled. “I’m Twilight as well…you’re a winged unicorn, correct?” “An alicorn, right.” Twilight Sparkle smiled, but it faded as her eyes turned to the captives. “Are they okay?” Twilight Unicorn sighed and ducked her head. “They’ve barely spoken to me.” “There’s not much to say.” Magic Star sneered at Twilight Unicorn. “What do you think you’re going to do? Wish us back to being weak like you?” “The magic of friendship-” Twilight Sparkle started, but Magic Star laughed. “Is that all you morons can talk about? Give it a damn rest!” “…I like them better this way.” Rath said. Twilight Sparkle snorted. “Okay, fine, we’ll skip it. Rarity. Zap them.” “One at a time.” Rath said, leaning against the wall casually. Rarity nodded and hovered the three required runes in front of her as she approached Magic Star. The Ponylander started to curse rather creatively at her, Rarity had no idea why one would do such things to a rooster, but she knew that she couldn’t listen to Magic Star at the moment. Instead she focused on the Reveal rune. She visualized being able to see the darkness within the Ponylanders. With this little rock she would be able to see the darkness herself. And then she would be able to fix it. She concentrated, then allowed the magic to leak into the rune. Unlike the dramatic winds and fireballs from before, all Rarity noticed was a flash of blue light, and for a moment all she saw had a blue tinge to it. She looked at Magic Star and almost gasped. There it was, swimming under Magic Star’s hide like oil under water. Rarity gulped, suppressing her urge to draw back in horror at the filth. Why did it have to look like gross sticky oil? No matter. It almost made it easier. She was getting rid of something dirty. She was going to make this Ponylander right again. Like a spa trip. Rarity raised the second rune, the Separate Rune. She knew exactly what she wanted out of it. Separate the good from the evil. She focused on Magic Star and unleashed the rune. To her surprise she felt a sudden pain in her horn as the dark sludge within Magic Star reacted to her casting. The ick slid slowly out of Magic Star’s ear, but at a slow, horrible pace that made the Ponylander cry out in pain. Rarity gasped. “Don’t be weak now, unicorn.” Rarity heard Rath, but it seemed to close. Wasn’t he still leaning against the wall? “I don’t pass my runes to the weak. Do it. If your kind are still anything like Clover, you will.” Rarity gritted her teeth. It was almost like using her real magic, but the grip was tenuous and slippery. Rarity focused on the oil. There was no way it was going to win! She was going to pull that horror out and purge it! It WOULD come out! With a mental and magical yank and a heartbreaking scream from Magic Star (Rarity could hear the Ponyland Twilight screaming as well, but she had to ignore it or she would lose her focus), Rarity managed to separate the last of Nightmare from Magic Star. With far more effort then usually took, Rarity lifted the last of the runes, but her eyes were on the floating blob of Nightmare that was currently hovering over Magic Star. Rarity barely noticed that the other pony was leaning down, her nose to the floor and panting in pain. She couldn’t notice. Dispel. Destroy it. With a small flick the Dispel rune flew at the Nightmare. Rarity could have sworn that the Nightmare screamed the moment the rune hit it. There was a small eruption of magic releasing, and Rarity rocked back a pace. She blinked, and stepped a bit closer to the bars of Magic Star’s cell. The Ponylander was on her side, still breathing, but apparently knocked out. Rarity looked down and blinked as Magic Star’s hide began to lighten and brighten. Rarity thought it looked more like it had before. “Did…it work?” Rarity studied Magic Star as Magic Star stirred. Magic Star lifted her head and blinked. Rarity smiled. Magic Star’s eyes were losing the terrible yellow glow, and fading back to her natural color. “Magic Star?” Twilight Unicorn gently pushed Rarity aside and looked down at her friend. “Are you okay?” “Twilight I…I…” Magic Star sobbed and flung her hooves out of the bars around Twilight Unicorn’s neck. For a moment Rarity was afraid that it was a trick, and Magic Star was going to throttle Twilight Unicorn. However, to her relief that didn’t happen. Instead Magic Star leaned her head against the bars, close to Twilight Unicorn, and sobbed even more. “I’m sorry Twilight, I’m so sorry.” As best she could with metal bars in the way, Twilight Unicorn reached out and hugged the younger mare. “It’s alright. It’ll be alright…” Rarity backed up and looked behind her. Rath was still standing there, and it didn’t look like had moved at all. But she was sure she had heard him. The lich just looked at her and waved casually at the next pony in line, Ember. Rarity nodded, and turned to Ember. The young corrupted pony looked at her with some amount of fear. Or maybe it was just the Nightmare that was scared. Good. It should be scared. By the time I am done, there isn’t going to be any left. Rarity raised the runes, and prepared to do it all again.