//------------------------------// // Party Crasher // Story: The Game of Shadows // by Zytharros //------------------------------// Party Crasher It was nice, waking to just the tweeting of birds. Since Fluttershy was absent from her house, I gathered she had awoken and turned the music off. I stretched and stood, rubbing my eyes. The door was open and there was a light breeze. A sparrow, who had alighted on my rump last night to sleep, gave me a morning chirp and took off. I stepped outside and stretched my wings. I walked around the yard searching for my host, but found no trace of her anywhere. I stopped by to admire the chickens, losing myself in watching their little society mill about. I spent a few minutes in a self-willed hypnotic trance, just enjoying the day. Eventually, I snapped myself out of it, nodded at a chicken that had locked eyes with me for a moment, and walked off towards town. She must’ve gone into town, I thought. So I began trotting down the road towards town when I caught up with Fluttershy going the other way. She appeared to have needed to do some early-morning shopping. “Good morning, Zytharros,” she said, smiling. “The same to you,” I replied. “Sleep well?” “I did,” she said. “Where are you off to?” I shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought I’d head into town and check up on the library. Hey, does anypony have those leftover bits I left behind last time?” Fluttershy thought for a second, then remembered, “We put them in the Ponyville Bank for you for whenever you came back. You should have quite a bit in there now. The interest rate’s been really good lately.” “I’ll stop by and see,” I said. Fluttershy pulled out a kiwi she had just picked up. “Here’s something for breakfast,” she said. “Thanks, Fluttershy,” I said, upending the kiwi. “I’ll see what else I can grab in town after checking my account.” We said our parting farewells and I continued on. I heard the school bell ring to my right. A steady stream of fillies and colts streamed past me to the school. I noted Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom among them, but none of them noticed me. They were too embroiled in planning their latest Cutie Mark Crusade to notice much beyond their inner circle, even though, for a brief second, they walked right around my legs – Scootaloo to my left, Apple Bloom to my right, and Sweetie Belle absentmindedly passed right underneath me. I proceeded farther into town, chuckling. I passed by several fruit stands just opening for the day. A lot of them waved and smiled at me. A couple asked me where I had been for the past year. I simply replied that I had gone on a trip. I labelled several large cities in Equestria I had visited, and everyone usually smiled, nodded, and continued working. A couple asked me what I did there, to which I replied I took a temporary job. I asked a couple ponies where the bank was. They directed me to the Town Hall. To my surprise, Derpy was managing the bank’s front desk. “Hey, Derpster!” I said, happy to see another familiar face. Derpy brightened widely. “Zytharros!!” she said, tackling me. “I’m so happy to see you again!” We laughed in re-unity before getting up again. “I’ll have to talk to you on a break,” I said. “I’m sure we’ve got a lot to catch upon, especially why you’re working here now.” “It’s my midday part time job,” she said. “I deliver mail in the mornings and evenings for two hours at a time, and in between come here. So, what can I do for you?” “Wait… you do three shifts a day?” I asked. She nodded. “With all the stuff I break, I gotta pay for it somehow…” she trailed off, a dejected look mixing with a mischievous smirk, giving her that trademark bit-lip, contemplative smile she was so well-known for. “But we can talk about that later.” she asked as she got back behind the counter. I nodded. “Of course… you’re on the clock, after all. So, apparently I have a bank account now… Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, or Pinkie must’ve set it up for me.” “It was Rainbow Dash, actually,” Derpy said. Her memory of goings-on was second only to Pinkie Pie’s in the whole town, except when it came to her own actions. “She brought your money here and opened an account. How’d you get fifty thousand bits, anyway?” I flinched, remembering Canterlot’s fall. “I… helped out a wealthy pony… in a big way,” I answered. “Must’ve been one of those big shots in Canterlot,” Derpy mused. “Never did like that city… too many people angry with me…” she mumbled something indecipherable as she browsed through a ledger, then continued. “Okay, well, you’ve got almost a hundred thousand bits in your account now. You’re scheduled to get another twenty-five-hundred in three days from the Canterlot Royal Treasury.” I frowned, looking at the number. Why would they set me up with all this cash? I mean, I only pass through once in a blue moon… “Thanks,” I said, smiling. “Hey, can I withdraw a thousand bits?” Derpy went to the back and brought out a small sack filled with one hundred coins worth ten bits apiece. She tossed it to me… but missed me and broke the front window. “Derp…” she mumbled, lowing a little. “Sorry…” I chuckled. “Just tell them to take it out of my account,” I said. “It was my money that broke the window. I’ll stay until the area’s secure.” She shied away again. “No… don’t worry… I’m used to it.” Whether it was her downcast face, her deliberately slow movements, or her shaking hooves, something in her demeanor told me this may have happened before. Derpy filled out a receipt and left the desk to inform her manager while I watched the front desk and window. I knew it was a friendly village with little taste for thievery, but I still couldn’t leave that big a security hole open for people, just in case there was a troublemaker or two around. Unfortunately, the boss saw no humour in Derpy’s actions. Derpy ran out of the bank in tears as a large, gray stallion with blue hair shouted after her, “That’s the seventh time this week! We’re going to lose a lot of money over you if you keep doing that!! Go back to the post office!!” I frowned and took off out the window after Derpy, picking up my withdrawn bits and receipt. I chased her around the sky for a bit, but, of course, her legendary klutziness caught up with her. She looked the wrong way just once and barreled headlong into Carousel Boutique, crashing through the roof and, based on the screams and crashes I heard, tore up the shop real well. I flew in through the hole and saw a clean hole bored through the floor down to ground level. Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Derpy, about twelve mannequins and almost three hundred articles of fabric were wrapped up in a giant ball. I heard Rarity’s muffled screaming and Derpy’s panicked crying through the fabric. I tore through and pulled Derpy out of the shop as Rarity flung random objects of all sorts of different sizes at us. It seemed Ponyville was having a very tense morning. I walked with Derpy to the nearest café where we stopped and had lunch. “It seems all I can do well is deliver mail,” Derpy commented. “I’ve tried to do a ton of other things, but nothing’s working.” I replied, “Some people are just built to do one thing. You deliver the mail better than most ponies I’ve ever seen.” She smiled, a little embarrassed. “Thanks.” She knocked over her drink, but quickly snapped it up again. “I’m always doing that…” “I can tell,” I said, sipping a milkshake. “What I don’t get is people who think I’m dumb,” she complained. “I may be clueless at times, but I’m not dumb!” I nodded. “You and I know that. Some people take a look at your eye and assume there’s nothing there. It’s quite unfortunate…” Her uncontrollable eye tracked something over my shoulder. Her other eye was locked onto me. “You’re a normal pony,” she said, sulking. “You wouldn’t know what that’s like.” I leaned back in my chair. “No, not personally,” I admitted. “My wife, on the other hand, knows all too well. She has a disability even worse than yours, and she’s had to fight for herself all her life.” “She doesn’t cause the property damage I do, though,” she insisted. “I’m sure of it.” “Granted, but you both have still had to fight for truly honest respect,” I said. “How many friends do you have around here?” Derpy thought for a bit. “Twilight’s always willing to talk. I don’t hurt her library as much as I do other places… Rainbow’s a little rough, but she means well. She doesn’t intentionally insult me… Lyra and Bon Bon talk with me occasionally… Then there’s you, but you only show up every so often.” She put her head on the table. “Everyone else kind of… avoids me… unless I’m on my mail run… Oh, and Vinyl,” she remembered. “I’m the only one she’s told her staff to let backstage any time I want. She stops by for coffee whenever she’s in town. She’s probably my best friend.” She chuckled, recalling some event... “Actually, I helped her get her cutie mark…” I looked at her curiously. “Oh?” She smiled. “That’s our secret.” I smiled back, nodding an understanding okay. “I don’t pry into secrets… but can you give me a hint?” Derpy thought for a second, then got this suspicious, scheming smile on her face that told me I wasn’t about to get anything out of her. I just finished off the rest of my milkshake and laughed. She was a simple pony, for sure, but she was no ditz like she had been painted to be. A conversation we held last time I was in town revealed a surprising fact – she was more offended by being called Ditzy Doo than Derpy Hooves. She was just a simple, catastrophic klutz. She seemed to be like Pinkie Pie in a way – always wanting to be the bright bubble in everyone’s day, but unlike Pinkie, never quite fully knowing how to go about it. Then again, who isn’t like that? I thought. It seems like we’re all just trying to find our own way to help out. Some of us get it right, while others have the unfortunate tendency to run through brick walls on the way to the final goal. I looked up at the sky. The light breeze blew at my mane and tail. A slight smile passed my lips. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?” I said. Derpy leaned back in her chair, but fell off it. “Oh, horse pellets…” she muttered, getting back up on the chair. She pushed the chair a little closer to the wall. Settling in, she finally nodded her agreement. I smirked, chilling in the breeze. We relaxed for a few minutes. “Well, I’ve gotta take off,” Derpy said. “My shift starts soon.” I looked at the town hall’s clock. “No problem. Have a great day!” Derpy gave me a slight salute, then promptly ran into a fruit stand as she took off. I facehoofed, letting a slight nervous chuckle escape. My thoughts came back to me – the unfortunate tendency to run into brick walls on the way. The irony of my thoughts sometimes… After helping the fruit stand manager re-set up his stand, I looked around. I was lost for direction. I observed Rainbow Dash and the weather patrol team setting up for a clear sky, so I quietly slipped into the rhythm I observed the pegasi in and helped them move clouds. Rainbow noted my help and set me with Team Four. We finished setting the clouds, then each member took off. Rainbow departed with a couple other pegasi, and I descended back into town. This was proving to be a listless afternoon for me. Just then, I heard the train come in. I darted over to the train station just as a small collection of ponies got off the train, but nobody I knew. I left the train station and took off. According to Fluttershy, Twilight was scheduled to return yesterday evening, but nobody had seen her. Come to think of it, should there not have been a flurry of activity around the town around noon? The Princess’ party was tonight, was it not? I flew to Twilight’s house and knocked. There was no answer. As I had passed, Ponyville had indeed been stirred into a bustle of activity in preparation by the Mayor, but the All-Pony Organizer was markedly absent, and the expedience of the preparation was suffering because of it. “This is bizarre…” I said. I teleported myself inside – the first time I had tried using that spell since last year, when Twilight had showed me it during a particularly long study session involving the general magic wave expulsion session I had given her in those last five days. The curtains were drawn and snoring came from the upper balcony. I chuckled. It was highly unlike Twilight to sleep in, even more unlike her to sleep in this late, and even more… uh… more unlike her to drop her third-tier magical shield. I quickly built her and Spike a small breakfast, organized all her papers, then slowly unlatched the window above her bed so the wind would start to blow in through the curtains, being careful not to wake her up and letting the fluttering of the curtain and the rousing sunlight flashing across her eyes do the job. Slowly she roused. “What time is it…?” she asked groggily. I smiled. “A little after two in the afternoon…” Twilight shrieked. “What!? Oh, buck… I’m late! I am… so-o-o-o… late!!!” She flashed down the stairs. “Breakfast and schedules on the center table, quills, ink and assignment lists on your desk...” I said. All I saw was a purple flash as she blasted around the library, gathering papers and equipment, eating her breakfast, packing her things, and leaving all at once. I swore I saw her dump Spike’s cereal into her bag and stuff his face with about ten lists. She passed me with a quick “HiandthanksZytharrosnotimetochatgottago!” I chuckled. I shut the library and trotted after the panicking purple pony. We would have to connect at the celebration tonight. The rest of the day was spent volunteering my help for set-up in whatever aspects I could. Just as the sun began to slip behind the eastern mountains, and just as we saw Celestia’s carriage depart from Canterlot, we completed the setup. As I landed, smiling and content with my work I felt a cold breeze on my back, and a feeling of dread came over me. That feeling was too familiar, too real… …too Tangerine… …except it wasn’t Tangerine’s voice that spoke into my mind… A cackling, hissing, dark voice spoke… “You returned. You should never have returned. Now you’ll get to see Equestria’s destruction first-hand.” I whispered in exclamation, “Crystal Fist!?” She cackled again. “Specifically, her shadow… one not even you can stop this time…” A menacing cackle reverberated as the cold and voice departed. Twilight called my name. I stood there, heart racing, glaring angrily at the sky, very visibly stressed. “What’s wrong?” she asked. I growled, “I thought we had defeated her…” “What!?” Twilight asked. “Is… she…?” I nodded. “Crystal Fist is back… and she’s gonna make her next move tonight.” Twilight and I had no time to do any research or prepare. Celestia was descending to Ponyville as we spoke. All we were able to do was warn our friends to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. How the hell did she survive? I demanded of myself. I destroyed her! We destroyed her! We took care of her! Why is she back? And how did she get into my mind so easily this time? No answers came. I snorted. Twilight flinched. “Easy now,” she said. “We’ll get her when she shows up.” Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. Absolutely utterly completely terribly unequivocally irrevocably wrong. She should not have survived. “Zytharros?” Twilight asked. “Are you okay?” I took a deep breath and tried to relax, but I couldn’t fully shake the gut-ache. For some bizarre reason I turned away from Twilight and grunted. “This is really bothering me…” I said. “She shouldn’t have survived.” Twilight and I both heard the voice next. “But I did,” she said. The Elements of Harmony suddenly galloped up to us. “Didja hear that!?” Applejack said. Fluttershy nodded. “That was creepy…” “She’s back?!” Rarity queried in fear. “She can’t be! I died for nothing!” Rainbow bellowed, “I’m getting sicka her!” Suddenly, an Earth pony silhouette appeared in front of us. Black as the night sky, it had no mouth, only eyes… hideous, putrid, yellow, pussing eyes. Its body, surrounded by a black, starry aura, was riddled with holes. She looked at the six of us. Suddenly, a brown barrier was formed over the whole of Ponyville. I saw the Princess’ cart stop hard before it hit. “No one can come or go,” she said, “unless I want. I don’t want you Elements of Harmony leaving.” “Crystal Fist!” I stepped forward. “How did you survive? After what we did to you, you should be dead!” “Oh, but I am…” she seethed. “Dimensional travel gives me the advantage, however, of reserving a second corporeal form for myself in case I should die, so my will can press on where my body failed. When you blew up Tangerine, I simply willed myself back to this form… my native form… the form of a Dimensian.” I bit my lip. We hadn’t counted on this angle to dimensional travel. “Now…” she said, generating magic. Twilight smiled. “We’ll put you down again! Elements of Harmony…” Before she could get another word out, Crystal Fist erupted in black magic. Six rays shot forth from her being, consuming each of my six friends. Each was now waging her own private war inside herself. “When I confronted you last time, I had hoped to take over Equestria using less-invasive methods,” she said. Slowly, Pinkie Pie succumbed to the Shadow Magic. Her eyes became as twisted as Tangerine Hopes’ were – full of equal parts sadness and madness. “But I see now what was necessary…” she smirked. Rarity’s will succumbed next. Her eyes reflected pain and sorrow. She laughed. “I need to take over the Elements of Harmony…” Applejack and Fluttershy fell at the same time, their countenances reflecting bitter disappointment and agonizing betrayal. “…and send you, Zytharros, back to the hell you came from!” Crystal Fist shouted. Rainbow Dash collapsed to the earth as her endurance left her. Her face showed no emotion at all. “But that won’t do… no… not yet…” she said. “I’m going to make you wander Equestria. Make you pay for your crimes against me. Then I’ll watch you suffer in agony as I destroy everything important to you…” Twilight was the last one fighting. Despite her best efforts, her face began to twist. Her body began to decolorize. “What… do you want… with us…?” she struggled to ask as she continued to fight. Crystal Fist cackled. “I am going to use you as minions… Minions with which I will break Celestia…” “No…” Twilight said. “…and then you, Zytharros.” Crystal Fist declared, expelling a bright flash of magic. “Shazam!” I heard Twilight scream something as the world went white. I was airborne… airborne… airborne… Unconscious.