//------------------------------// // Chapter XXVIII // Story: Journey to the center of Equestria // by Rarity Belle //------------------------------// The eyes of Twilight widened themselves. The mare was brought back to their own realm and time once more. The realm in which she was pinned down against the wall by the hand of the demoness that was once her friend. I also caused a realization to kick in for just a moment. With her own hands she struggled up the arm of Sunset Shimmer to loosen the grip. But the talons at the end of each finger had drilled themselves right into the stone of the wall. Escape was impossible unless Twilight could think about something really quickly. Though her mind was busy working on a couple of other things that went through it. Her breathing became less and less as the demoness managed to squeeze the very air out of her throat. Yet amongst the slow suffocation did Twilight manage to speak some words. Albeit them being spoken with a great struggle. “They, they never, b-banished you. T-They never broke, the deal, as, as they told. I-Instead, they d-dumped you here. B-But I c-can help you. If you, a-allow me!” the soothsayer exclaimed in a struggle. Her breath only became shorter and shorter. Time wasn’t truly on her side and she knew that fact. It was almost too late, almost. The eyes of the demoness narrowed themselves and they gazed deep into those of Twilight. A growling snarl was then released from whatever remained of the creature’s soul. “You, helping me?” she spoke in a snarl. Her tail flicked itself from side to side like a whip ready to strike. “You would rather help me to see me six hooves below the dirt! No Sparkle, you choose your side a long time ago. And it isn’t the right one.” “A-At least l-let me try!” Twilight exclaimed to Sunset. She struggled even more to lighten the grip around her throat. It was a shame that her skin was already a shade of purple, otherwise Sunset could have seen her enemy becoming that very color. Very little air was allowed into the lungs of the soothsayer as the demoness gained a satanic grin across her lips. “You never wanted to help me when I asked. Look where it got me now, Sparkle. In perhaps a strange way, I am your creation!” What happened next was that a devilish laughter filled the room before the face of the demoness was brought even closer to Twilight. The flaming pattern of the hair and the fire red skin, accompanied with the irises, it was a true fuel for nightmares. The worst of all had to be the fact that Twilight couldn’t look any other way. The tip of the demoness’ wings even had horns or perhaps even the very bones that stuck out at the very end of them. They looked dangerously sharp but weren’t long enough to lethally impale another anthrony without dangers for the user. What they could be doing though was leave a nasty flesh wound from the looks of it. But it was nothing from that happened to Twilight. Twilight continued to gasp for air. The wings drilled into the wall so that the unicorn could only look right at the demoness. The unicorn’s world had become a whole lot smaller. Yet the words of Sunset’s demon form being her creation was something she never could have expected to come. “I, I didn’t, make you! You, made a deal with her!” the soothsayer managed to say. The struggle to get loose still wasn’t won or lost, it was still going on all of its fury. She remembered the day all too well, the day that it actually happened. Every minute and every single second she still had the sights burned on her retina. “Wrong,” the demoness whispers in a hiss. A hiss that showed her serpent tongue. “You could have stopped me, for I saw you standing at the doorway that time. You just watched as she turned me into this. You wanted to know, what would happen, didn’t you?” The words that Sunset spoke were just about the most pure venom that there was. Something must have had deluded the mind of the demoness over the years she had been living in banishment. Sunset must have remembered the events in her own way. A way that was a whole lot more self-centered instead of objectively. “You think it was a mere coincidence that you stumbled upon me?” she hissed towards the soothsayer. The demoness retracted her face just a little bit. The other hand rose itself up as it curled up into a position to hold a ball of fire. “No Sparkle, I lured you here. You couldn’t resist the tones of an old friend calling your name in the dark words of old,” continued Sunset before the grin returned just as devilishly. In her palm could it be found. A ball of fire that was ready to almost literally be shoved down Twilight’s throat. The violet rims of the unicorn glanced over the ball and she could see her end within it. It terrified her to the point where she began to cry. The powerful soothsayer had begun to cry like a foal in that moment. Which in return managed to amuse Sunset Shimmer. All the way to the point where she balled her fingers into a fist which vanquished the ball of fire. What she did next was to deliver a massive punch forward. Twilight noticed the motions happen and closed her eyes with force. She began to wait for the impact to happen. The next thing that could be heard was that of stone being shattered as pieces of the granite wall fell down to the ground. For just a moment didn’t Twilight have any feeling going through her. Everything within her body had gone numb as she feared the worst. She never dared to open her eyes again. For within her own mind she thought to have actually departed from their world to the very next. But then she was brought back to reality. For that haunting and strangely seductive voice of the demoness filled her ears. “I’m your worst nightmare, and you, of all beings, you shall burn with me.” After the words had been spoken could Twilight feel the serpent tongue traveling down one of her cheeks. “N-No!” Twilight managed to say. She was literally at the last inches of her breath. The unicorn happened to be just so close to suffocation as even more force was applied to her throat. The struggle on the other end had been seized the moment she noticed the first of Sunset traveling into her way. "What?” Sunset asked when she watched how Twilight opened her eyes again. The mare looked through her hair into the eyes of the demoness who could see a strange glance within them. Not one that managed to actually scare her, but at least got her worried by a little bit. “I shall never, burn with you,” the soothsayer managed to say both loud and clear. Of course was it a thing that not even Sunset had actually expected to happen. Yet the words also caused her to become perhaps a whole lot more angry that she needed to be. For right after the words had been caught in her ears could the burning sensation be seen in her eyes. She had the chance to snap the neck to the unicorn right there and then. To end years of mental torment once and for all. But that was too easy. Taking Twilight hostage and take her magic like that was too easy. No, Sunset was a feisty demoness. She wanted her enemies taken down in the glory of battle itself. She felt that she needed to work to end the life of the other unicorn. “You shall, burn with me!” the demoness shouted as the forces applied to Twilight’s throat only became greater. Yet the talons managed to cut themselves through the stone and get an even greater hold of the mare. “I’m your worst nightmare, and you… You are my great triumph!” “N-Never shall I, b-become something like, t-that,” brought Twilight out. She still looked through her own mess of hair into the eyes of the demoness. “Let’s see about that for ourselves!” The wings of the demoness were taken out of the stone wall in a split-second before the deed was done. With a powerful motion of her arms, had Sunset Shimmer managed to throw Twilight across the room. The landing place for the soothsayer was one that could have been a whole lot more comfortable though. The place she landed into was nothing else but the system of pipes that the organ carried. Twilight could ready herself for the impact all she wanted, it wouldn’t have made any difference though. The pain that was then racing through her when one of the pipes acted like a blade of some sort. What happened was the deafening sound of the metal pipes clashing against each other that was sent through the room. A thing that didn’t even manage to budge Sunset Shimmer out of the way. She just wanted to see Twilight Sparkle dead for once. The body of the unicorn dropped itself down to the keys of the instrument as both of her hands actually managed to slap right into them. It released a hellish sounding sound that came through the distorted arrangement of metal pipes. The sound of a ghost howling or somepony yelling itself to death was released into the world. Or perhaps even nails going over a chalkboard was sent into the room and far beyond that. ~~~~                       The company of four mares had been wandering around the castle to the best of their abilities, yet hadn’t found a single clue of Twilight. After minutes of searching through the interior of the place could they all be found in the room with the strange, cobweb covered altar. Rainbow Dash had taken position on one of the stone orbs as the others just stood there while looking around themselves. Only Applejack was pacing up and down in a pondering manner. She knew that Twilight couldn’t have been all that far away. Rarity even told her she caught a sniff of Twilight’s magic in the hallway they came through. “Ah can’t believe this, all this way and she’s just vanished from the face of the earth!” the admiral exclaimed. “Happens all the time at sea, dear, you know that just as well as I do,” replied Rarity then. She was cleaning her flintlock a little bit during the calm. It was perhaps the only thing she could be doing to either not annoy anyone else or to constantly think about Twilight’s or their land’s fate. “This is different, Brittenburg,” said Applejack in return in a normal tone. They really seemed keen in keeping their truce alive for as long as it was needed. “The sea’s constantly shifting, drifting us apart. Land, doesn’t do that. Well, usually.” “Like any of this was normal to begin with,” muttered Rainbow Dash to them. She leaned her body against another stone orb. An orb that surprisingly laid well against her upper back and therefore was the most perfect backside. “I’m not even going to discuss that,” the doctor mumbled to herself. She lowered herself down to the foot of the altar and leaned against that. With her legs laying lengthways over the floor and her hands resting upon her belly, she thought to have had an almost perfect view of the situation. Though nothing could have prepared them for the things that would be coming next. Applejack was pondering, Rarity was cleaning and both of the pegasi were resting. Out of nowhere did the distorted sound of the organ penetrated itself through the walls. All of the anthronies got the scare of their lives because of it. They hadn’t even the faintest of clues of just where the haunting and terrifying sounds actually came from. When the air became calm again, Fluttershy was shivering and curled together. Rainbow Dash had been knocked off of her place, both Applejack and Rarity looked at each other with a look of questions. “You think..?” Rarity dared to ask. She made a motion with her hand pointing down. “Oh yes, Ah think that,” replied Applejack. Then she got a strange grin going across her face. None of the other anthronies could even know the fact of why she was just that happy after such a devastating sound. “Alright everypony, time to hit the dungeons. Weapons locked and loaded. We’re going in!” the admiral yelled to them al. Not much later had she drawn both her sword and flintlock. Applejack was the first of the company that got out of the chamber and continued to walk down the hallway. Even though the others really didn’t wanted to head further down, they still had to do it if they wanted to have any hope in finding the one anthrony that got them together. “All for nothing, and nothing for all!” spoke Rarity with a cocky grin. She readied her other flintlock. Rainbow Dash followed both quick and silent. Fluttershy realized only a couple seconds later that everypony had left. She let out a loud yelp of terror before rushing over to the others. They would find Twilight, no matter the cost. ~~~~                       Speaking of Twilight, the unicorn had managed to stand up from her impact with the organ and held a hand over the right side of her body. Even in her hand she could feel something warm gushing itself out of it. She knew well enough what it was, though she couldn’t die like that or at the hands of the demoness. She wouldn’t allow herself to do such a thing. “What’s the matter? Feel like you lost something, Sparkle?” Sunset chuckled up before she just showed Twilight a toothy grin. Then it hit the unicorn. Something was indeed missing from her, something that she needed just so much. Her breath was still out of her control as the eyes began to look around the place. She wanted to speak the words that were on her mind and ask the question yet the sounds just weren’t allowed to leave her. All that she brought forth were groans and moans. Though she knew exactly what the problem was. She knew exactly what had been missing from her. The thing happened to be her very own staff that had just been gone. The thing was nowhere to be found within the room by the glances that she took around it. The thing seemed to have just vanished into thin air if the mare didn’t know any better. Luckily she was one that knew better. Her best conclusion was that after the door had been closed, the staff had rolled out. It seemed to have been unlikely but it was literally the only thing that the mare could be thinking of. But much time to gather up her strength wasn’t given. Sunset Shimmer closed in their distance while Twilight still stood there. Weak, feeble and absent in her mind. Her end could have been right there as the flames began to engulf the hands and forearms of the demoness. “Everything burns with me,” she growled in a demonic voice. Once she had said that, did the signature laughter followed almost up right away. “Oh just shut up for once, would you!” Twilight managed to return to her as she thought to actually be back in their school time. “Just, shut up!” But the wish was never granted. The horn of the demoness began to coat itself in the cyan colored magical aura. The next thing that Twilight knew was that they were both engulfed in the light of a teleportation spell. A spell that literally could be bringing the both of them to any given location that Sunset Shimmer wanted. With Twilight’s own magic still suppressed because of a force field that was set over the room, any changes in directions couldn’t be made. The unicorn could only pray on her life she wouldn’t just be dropped in a pool of lava somewhere inside of Tartarus. The lights began to fade quicker and quicker, the real world once again too its shape. The mare managed to look around her and inspected the place she was in. Even though her mind was still pretty much like scrambled eggs, she realized that they were still somewhere in the castle. Though where exactly couldn’t be told. All she saw were broken windows and a strange looking altar. “Mwhahaha, this is going to be all too easy,” the demoness spoke to her. That got the attention of Twilight. With her arms still flaming could the mare only hope that whatever happened next, would be something that was quick. The soothsayer’s arm never left the bleeding side of hers as her other hand got a tingling feeling into it. That very same feeling told the mare everything she needed to know. For the first time she had been captured by the demoness could a faint smile be found across her lips. Sunset Shimmer walked once more closer towards Twilight with her hands flaming. They were ready to fire the shots that she want too. Everything was going right according to her plan. She was literally that close of finally exterminating Twilight Sparkle from the face of the land. There was however, one little problem. A little problem that she seemed to have forgotten about. Her sheer hatred for Twilight Sparkle and years of perfecting her plan in utter isolation had caused her to see one thing not as clear as it should have been. The demoness closed in even further and she almost stood right in front of the mare. Then she pulled her arm back to deliver the fiery punch. “Now, burn with me!” she bellowed up in a sickening tone. Twilight on the other end was having enough of it all. In the short time that Sunset pulled back would she release a massive blast of magic from her hand. A blast so powerful that it even managed to get the demoness knocked out of the way. Resulting in her finally taking a flight. The wings of the demoness were then spread again. She made a controllable flight out of the unexpected take off. With no roof anymore above them was the sky not the limit anymore. Yet the eyes of the monster gazed down to Twilight and noticed how both the hand and the horn were coated within the raspberry magical aura. “How, how’s this possible!? You shouldn’t be able to use it!” Sunset yelled down to her. The anger was already building itself up. Anger that Twilight hadn’t seen in a long time by any being and she could also see the flames taking their shape again. Except that time they covered the whole body of the demoness. Though Twilight did have an explanation of why she could use her magic again. One that actually was quite logical in her eyes. Which on a deeper level of her mind, made the thought of why she hadn’t been killed in the room with the organ. “Your shield of disabling magic only works on your room. But I don’t think we’re in your little hidey hole anymore. Now come on and finish the job for once!” the soothsayer yelled to the demoness as she prepared herself to the best of her abilities. “You are going to play it like that? Fine. I shall take a bite out of the cake and enjoy slaughtering you. As I said, you are my greatest triumph!” Sunset Shimmer yelled towards Twilight with a serious tone. More and more energy began to coat itself around her horn. The wings of the flaming demon were tucked in behind her back which caused her to fall back down to the ground. With one massive impact she landed hooves first onto the ground and glanced up to Twilight. “I changed my plans. I don’t just want you dead, I want that head of yours on a mount on my wall,” she growled up towards the soothsayer. “Bla, bla, bla, you’re a lot of talk, but no bite!” Twilight countered in a nagging tone. It was perhaps stupid to do, the demoness was still too powerful for her. But she knew that one little fact that when Sunset got annoyed. It resulted in her thoughts becoming a lot more scattered with her mind. The equation was that the more annoyed Sunset was, the less she could be thinking straight. The only problem was still that she could become a real menace with her spell. Too much variables were lingering in the mind of the unicorn as she hoped for her plan to work. But the thing that she next was something she hadn’t really expected to be found. Sunset Shimmer then had drawn an arcane blade out of the ground. A blade that soon enough began to coat itself in the flames as the blare portion itself was this vibrant cyan blue coloring. A blade forged out of hatred caused the soothsayer to gulp a little bit. She had to fight that, as it was being handled by an angry demoness, while she was hurt. “Just another manic Monday,” mumbled Twilight before she conjured up a shield to block the slashes of the blade. Sunset hacked and whacked to the best of her abilities in order to break the arcane shield. Though the two powers cancelled each other out every time. Yet with each swing that was being made could Twilight feel the literal heat of the moment. The scorching flames of the sword came dangerously close to her with every single slash. Even though her shield had a great difficulty. For it felt like it was being burned to a crisp. The horn of the soothsayer constantly charged itself up and released blasts of all kinds of magic. Ice, fire, stone even and telekinesis were among those shot right at Sunset Shimmer. Yet the demoness showed little to no actual interest in them. She avoided them before coming right back at the unicorn at the snap of a finger. “Just die for once!” Sunset snarled to her ex-friend. She forced the blade further and further into the shield. Though Twilight wouldn’t budge one bit. Her legs had been covered in the stones of the floor which made her technically a part of it in order to keep herself upright. “Oh trust me, you will find out I’m not that easy to get rid of. Then again, you never paid much attention to me after the first year,” countered Twilight with a little bit of a struggle inside of her voice. The near constant hacking of Sunset’s arcane sword would bring its toll in the end. ~~~~                       Someplace else in the ancient and broken down castle did the company of four mares walk at the tips of their hooves. Silent and quickly they maneuvered themselves through the remains of the staircase on which Twilight had gone down from easier. Rarity was the one anthrony who could use her horn to light up the area. The brilliant sapphire blue aura was being cast in front of them and around them. Light wasn’t a problem for them anymore. It was only the things that were hidden among the darkness that concerned the lot of them. Each of them had their weapons drawn and ready to face the impossible when needed. Step by step did they came closer to the closed door that was leading to Sunset’s room. The room that had the shield around it. The closer they had gotten there, the more Rarity’s own magic began to conflict with something. The lights of her horn began to flicker an unusual amount of time after each other. Something that caused the attention to be caught by all of the others. “What’s the problem, Rares? Can’t even keep up a simple light anymore?” Applejack asked in a manner that could be seen as joking. But Rarity knew that she was dead serious on the manner. The unicorn just shrugged a little bit before she gestured for them all to stand back just a little bit. Once they had cleared the area for her, one of the arms was stuck out in front of her as the hand formed a gripping pose. Almost as if she wanted to hold something that came from the arcane. “You sure ‘bout what yar gonna be doing?” Applejack then asked to her. The admiral wondered what would happen next. Something that each of them actually thought about. “Applejack, if I wouldn’t be sure, I wouldn’t be doing this. I just hope I don’t wake every living thing down here,” replied Rarity just before she shushed the group. It was most likely her moment to shine and there couldn’t be made one single mistake. The hand coated itself within the magical aura as well before the entire arm began to shake a little bit. Enormous amounts of magic were rushed through the unicorn. Somewhere in the darkness it could be heard moving. Something clattered against the stone in a rapid manner as if it would have been coming their way. None of them knew what to expect, but suddenly the sounds stopped and all that could be heard was a whoosh into the air. Which was followed up by the sounds of something impacting against an anthrony. The body of Rarity fell down to the ground and her magic was cut short. With no light to guide them, the others couldn’t have done anything to help her. All they knew was that they could be making it worse than it already was. Seconds it remained dark until something began to give off a shimmer of light. An orb began to faintly light itself within the raspberry colored magic. It faded in and out of existence for some time until it finally just caught the vibe. A sudden burst of light illuminated the whole hallway again. What then revealed the scene to the other anthronies. None of them had ever imagined just what had happened but they could picture it all pretty well. Rarity’s nose was bleeding heavily and on her chest laid a staff. Most likely had she called upon the thing. But instead of appearing in her hand, it rushed past it and hit her right in the nose. The more Rainbow was looking down at the design of the staff, the more she began to recognize the shape. Fluttershy hurried herself over to Rarity in order to help her. But she was quickly ‘pushed’ away as the unicorn didn’t require her help. “Hey, isn’t that staff..?” Rainbow started. Everypony then took finally a good look to the thing. The shapes it carried were familiar to all of them. There was no mistaking it. “Ah think yar right, partner,” said Applejack. She had confirmed the thoughts. Fluttershy just went wide eyed as Rarity’s fingers coiled up around the handle of the staff. “It’s Twilight’s.” The other unicorn continued to gaze over it with an expression of the unknown carried within them. She couldn’t be tying the ends together one bit. It just didn’t make sense to her. She wiped the blood away from her lips before just hung her head backwards. “What I don’t get is this,” stated Rarity from the awkward position, “why would Twilight leave her own staff here? It just doesn’t make sense to me. The way she held it in the forest, it almost seemed that they were inseparable.” The horn of the mare charged itself up once again. It created a mixture of raspberry and sapphire blue light that was being irradiated down the hallway. What followed a was a deep groan from the mare as she set the bones right back in her nose and closed the veins that were bleeding. Something that wasn’t all too happy to listen to but it had to be done for the right reasons. They all wanted to return topside again and continue to argument as a massive explosion knocked them all right back on their hooves. Terror took over as they all looked at each other with scared expressions. Just the sheer volume was enough to get them all worried. “Ah think we better go,” said Applejack with a worried tone. All of the others hadn’t really too much trouble following that very advice. ~~~~   The company rushed over to the hall they had taken a rest through before and they noticed the lights of fire which came out of the chamber. It was without a single doubt that they had to be there. The light that the staff irradiated only seemed to have become stronger the more topside they went. Twilight must have been there. They all rushed into the room and stood just there for a moment or two as they saw the demoness for the first time in their lives. Fear took them over before all of their flintlocks were pretty much fired. Shots were fired at a demoness who had struck down Twilight and wanted to deliver the final blow. The musket balls were flying all around her ears, piercing through her wings and overall just being a massive annoyance. The creature turned its head over to the mares and noticed they had the sheer amount of numbers. There was only one thing that she could be doing and that was to actually make a retreat for her life. “This isn’t over!” Sunset shouted towards the lot of them. She then shot away not one, but two massive fireballs into their direction. Only after that she just faded out of existence, waiting for another chance to end the life of Twilight Sparkle. The company was then split up into two little groups to avoid the fires of hell. Fluttershy rushed herself over to Twilight with Rarity. Nopony else wanted to get close to the struck down mare as both Applejack and Rainbow Dash set up a safe distance. They feared that every single moment that monster could have returned and gotten for them. The last thing they wanted was that the demoness would be getting another finger on Twilight. From the looks of it, the being already had enough fun with her. The doctor of the group quickly inspected the damage that was done. She shook her head to Rarity. “It’s hopeless, she’s both impaled and burned. She needs a lot of rest and time to recover.” All of the sudden there was a cough that came from the mulberry unicorn. The other two anthronies laid her on her back with care. They began to listen to the words that were being said to them. “She isn’t, a, a Dark Witch,” managed Twilight to say through her coughing. For Fluttershy it actually was just about the most perfect moment. Even though she didn’t have the needed gear to properly help the wounds, there was enough around her to get a temporary fix. “Keep her talking, Rarity, I need to get some things. Make sure she stays with us and give me that staff!” “Alright, alright, no need to become the tempered one,” answered Rarity before she gave the staff to Fluttershy. Who on her own terms began to think if the staff could be used to actually open the void storage and get everything she needed. It was of course a longshot, but that was most of what they did in the first case. “She’s a, a league of her, of her own,” coughed Twilight. Rarity began to stroke the side of the soothsayer’s face. Both hot and cold constantly shifted from one another as the mare continued her story. “She never paid her price, to the dark mistress, their deal was never, t-truly settled.” “Ah, it’s working!” Fluttershy spoke happily. She had managed to open the void storage. Then the quest for her gear began and therefore the actual treating of Twilight. “Everything is going to be alright. Just give me the time to fix everything. Applejack! You’re up next.” “Just make it quick, Ah don’t wanna stay here more than needed. This entire stinking forest is giving me the creeps,” the admiral replied sternly before a shudder went over her spine. “Understood,” replied Fluttershy. The task of helping both anthronies laid before her. It was the first time to show them all just what she was capable of. Whether or not she actually would have been able to help the both of them in such a short amount of time remained to be seen. “Well, here goes nothing,” the doctor said. She prepared herself for the pedicures to be made.