//------------------------------//
// Black Light 
// Story: Nascent Harmony 
// by divinearcadia 
//------------------------------//


Black Light


Things had been quiet ever since the Nobles had been escorted to their various rooms, which was just fine for Pinkie and her sisters. They were patrolling the gardens near where Maud was residing. Pinkie was now her combat gear, consisting of a mottled gray set of leggings that hugged her like a second skin, giving her full freedom of movement while dark gray skysteel shin and thigh guards afforded her extra protection. Her tunic had been trimmed back so that it hugged her form as well, while a layered leather jerkin was cinched around her torso. She sported a pair of curiously bulky gauntlets that seemed to be part clockwork contraption, part war machine, which whirred and clicked with an ominous tone of anticipation. Across the back plate of her left gauntlet was the word 'Love' in flowing script while the other read 'War' in a harsh, angular script. Every twenty minutes or so, she would reach over with one hand and would crank a hidden mechanism when she noticed its timing to be just a bit off, a heavy ratcheting series of clicks accompanying her actions.
From their current position, Pinkie was able to macro-manage her own operation as her troops would be able to easily find them while maintaining an active patrol. Normally things being quiet would be a good thing, but in a situation like this, it only meant that when things started happening, it was only going to create even more chaos since they could get lulled into a false sense of security. Until an answer was found as to why the mysterious snow was falling, she kept her Timberwolves on high alert with reports sent to her every fifteen minutes with an echo-stone, letting them communicate via an enchanted crystal as if they were only a pace away.
“A bit for your thoughts, sis?” Inkie asked quietly from her position behind Pinkie while Blinkie looked over her shoulder from her place ahead of them.
“I just... I don't get it,” Pinkie replied with a half scowl. “What's this all for? To spread chaos? To put us on the defensive while whoever's behind this goes after their real target? I need to know the whys if I'm going to figure out their motive...”
“I'm sure we'll learn something eventually,” Blinkie assured her with an easy smile. “When they make their first move, we'll be ready to respond thanks to our brilliant leader.”
Pinkie gave a small smile in thanks, nodding in acknowledgment. “Right,” she finally said. “It's about time for me to make my report to Shining Armor, so let's head back to the Hall of the Tribes and fill him in on all of the nothing we've seen and heard.”
“Right,” the twins said in unison as Pinkie took the lead while passing orders around to have her most competent Wolves move in to guard Maud's suite. With their affirmatives given, she picked up the pace and led the way through the empty halls by memory alone. They soon entered the wide doors of the well-lit hall and quickly scanned it for Shining Armor, but saw no sign of him. She absently wound her gauntlets again as she made for the table Maud and the other representatives had sat around only a short while ago. The hall was quiet save for the metallic clacks of Pinkie's gauntlets. When she finished rewinding her weapons, she pulled out an echo-stone whose partner was in the possession of Shining Armor, delivered by one of her own troops shortly after their arrival on the premises.
“Shining, this is Pinkie,” she said in a casual voice to the stone. “We're in the Hall of the Tribes and waiting to give you an update.”
There was no response for a short moment, but Shining responded in a tone that spoke volumes to the three women, “We have some speculation about what's going on, but none of it is good if Twilight is right. I'll fill you in after I get there.”
“We'll be waiting,” Pinkie replied with a nod of approval. Even if the news was bad, at least it was more than they had to go on five minutes ago.
“Oh, I've been waiting too...” rumbled a deeply resonant voice from nowhere, a presence felt but not present falling on the trio. “So long that mountains have crumbled and entire nations, strong enough at the height of their power that they were thought to be a herald of the Alicorns' revival, only to be blown away as nothing more than dust in a gentle breeze...”
Pinkie's stance immediately went from alert to languid and fluid at the first disembodied word, her body ready to roll with any attack and counter it in a fraction of a heartbeat. “Who are you and what do you want?” she asked in a firm voice.
“I see introductions are in order,” the voice replied, a smile evident in its tone. “Sadly, I have no real name... I'm merely a disembodied voice with limited abilities while my true self is still locked away. The first Seal of Harmony has cracked and he was able to slip me out before the others worked to hold him back.”
“In that case, who is your creator?” Pinkie demanded, her patience wearing thin.
“I can't remember,” it replied, its pondering tone giving away its cluelessness. “All I can remember was that I was ordered to spice things up a bit after delivering my message and you three seem to be in need of a lively time.”
Before any of them could blink, a pulse of raw power caused the room to shiver without rattling a single piece of furniture. They fought to catch their breath as it had been knocked out of them without even trying, while their eyes rapidly scanned the room for any sign of trouble. The voice was silent, its presence gone, only to be replaced with something... hungry watching them. There was a faint scratching from directly above; they all spread out in separate directions at a full sprint. They all whirled around to see what had been conjured and felt grim determination immediately well up at the sight they beheld.
The... thing was easily three times as large as any of them, with a dull gray pebbled hide. It was layered with massive slabs of muscle that bunched and corded with quick, jerky movements. It seemed to be bipedal, but its elongated forearms allowed it to move on all four limbs without much trouble. Its hands and toes were tipped with obsidian talons that looked as sharp as daggers. A thick tail lashed behind it, ridged with several rows of tightly-packed scales of uneven lengths that looked perfect for shredding anything it could wrap itself around. It looked down at them with blood red eyes that glowed faintly from a quasi-draconic face, a low rumble sounding as it growled a threat, minuscule wisps of flames dancing from between its wicked looking teeth.
“Shock, awe and demise!” Pinkie called out to her sisters, who reflexively drew and attached their individual weapons. The thing dropped to the floor with a faint thud as its legs compensated for the impact. Blinkie let loose with her weighted chain, the octagonal weight bearing an attachment that crackled as it struck the thing in its left arm with enough force to slightly stagger it while releasing a flash of silvery lightning that crackled and skittered across its skin.
It let loose a roar of rage as it lashed out with its opposite arm and grabbed the chain before it could be pulled back. As it yanked the chain, Blinkie let it completely go with a smirk as she watched Inkie rush forward, her hands at the ready with a pair of thick, rune-etched spikes. She jumped over the flailing tail as it turned to face Blinkie and soared in a crouch with her hands reared back. At the last moment before impact, she let a surge of her innate magic flow into her gauntlets and spikes, instilling them with drastically increased mass as she swung both forward and into the back of the right shoulder of their foe with a sickening thud while black ichor splattered from the wounds. The thing went tumbling to the floor as Inkie jumped clear with a light step.
It bellowed again, flames flaring around its face as it tried to stand back up. Pinkie was already in motion by the time it had reoriented itself and looked at her foe with flat eyes, her straight hair flowing behind her like a dark shade. She made an odd gesture with her left hand while her right pulled at a hidden lever hidden just under the plate, and Love transformed in a quick series of clacks and solid pings as it was put to use. It rotated and shifted around her arm as her armored hand's reach extended by almost half a foot and became viciously clawed, serrated ridges traveling down the middle of each finger while the tips ended in elegantly curved talons. The transformation complete, it contracted back around her forearm in time for her to leap at the beast and grapple its severely wounded arm.
As soon as she made contact, she tensed her legs against its ribs, right arm around its appendage while her left hand sliced and clawed deeply into its flesh. Before it could even get its roar of outrage and pain out of its mouth, the hand within it twisted around and gripped with crushing force the shoulder joint of its arm as Pinkie channeled her own magic to increase her strength to its absolute limit and pushed with all her might for nearly four seconds as its tough body resisted her efforts. She lunged away from the beast suddenly in a spray of visceral gore as ichor spouted from its shoulder, arm still in her grasp as she spun to right herself while the thing roared in pain and terror instead of challenge. She landed a few paces away from its writhing form and dropped the still twitching arm to the floor with a dull thud and looked to her sisters as if she were about to call a meeting to order.
She looked to her blackened gauntlet, shook off the excess ichor, and began winding its mechanism again while her sisters continued with their work. They rushed forward to flank it, Inkie being forced to break formation as it loosed a gout of dark orange and black flame that melted the floor to a runny consistency. Blinkie pulled a set of bolas from her side, sent a powerful surge of magic into it to increase its mass while increasing her own strength, and loosed them with a single swing, setting them spinning as they shot forward with spectacular speed. Instead of snaring both legs as she intended, they wrapped around its left leg and tail which sent it off balance as a sickening crunch sounded as one of the weights slammed with brutal force into its leg and broke the bone. Inkie shot forward again as it began to tumble, growling in fear as she stopped and spun into an enhanced punch to its ribs that reverberated through its battered form. She darted back, but not before a wild swing scored a hit on her shoulder, tearing through leather and metal as if it were tissue paper and gouging deeply into her shoulder.
Pinkie made another gesture, pulling a small ripcord that was hidden beneath the plate protecting the back of her hand, and her gauntlet whirred to life once again. It transformed quickly, forming a pair of shallowly curved crescent blades formed from four plates of metal starting halfway down her forearm while the wicked tips extended a good six inches past her clenched fist. When done shifting forms, Pinkie rushed the downed beast which was trying feebly to free itself from the tightly wound bolas. It barely had the time to sluggishly look around at her, just in time for it to see the glint of light from the wicked tips of her blades mere inches away from its face as she lanced her arm forward with a final surge of magic to ensure the killing blow.
The beast let out a defeated sigh as its life ended. Pinkie pulled her weapon from the corpse and whipped it to clear the most of the ichor from the blades before she gripped the winding wheel, pulling it up and spinning it once in the opposite direction. With one last flurry of motion, Love returned to its neutral form; Pinkie made her way over to Inkie, who was bleeding profusely from her wounds. Blinkie was retrieving her bolas and chain from amid the carnage while keeping a wary eye out for any other potential threats. “It's nothing an elixir or three can't fix,” Inkie said with a slight grimace.
“Here,” Pinkie replied as she reached into her side pouch and pulled a pair of slightly glowing bottles from within it. One shone with a creamy white light while the other was a nearly transparent blue and gave off a gentle blue light. Inkie grabbed the bottles, pulled the corks with her teeth, and downed them after spitting the stoppers away. She shivered as the potions kicked in, one a full spectrum anti-venom while the other was a healing potion that made her muscles and skin writhe as they knit back together. “Thanks,” she replied with a residual shiver at the aftertaste. “Do you have any idea what that thing was or who that voice could have belonged to?”
“I've never heard of anything like that in my studies,” Pinkie replied with a glance over at the thing. “But it seemed to have the traits of several creatures combined into one... Dragon, primate, and cragodile were the most obvious to me though.”
“Huh...” Inkie said with a worried expression. “Who... or what has the power to create something like that?”
“I don't know, but it's bad news for us,” Blinkie said as she walked over to the others. “Especially if they can be conjured at will...”
“It went down hard,” Pinkie said with a stony expression. “And this was one summoned by that voice which admitted it only had so much power. What if... What if whatever's behind this can make even stronger creatures to throw our way?”
The twins shuddered at the thought and shared a worried look. “We'll just have to deal with whatever's thrown at us, just like always,” Inkie said firmly.
“As always,” Blinkie confirmed with a nod.
The door on the opposite end of the hall opened with a clack, and in strode Shining Armor. He made it only a few paces when he noticed the carnage, his face going slack when he took in the sight of the thoroughly dead beast, Pinkie's ichor-splattered body, and Inkie's bloodied clothing. It seemed to take him a moment to grasp what he saw, and he couldn't help but gulp reflexively as he began walking toward them again. “W-what happened?”
“Something decided to 'spice things up,'” Pinkie said as her mouth thinned into a hard line. “But we weren't having any of that and put the threat down.”
“I... see...” he said with a glance over Pinkie's stained form. He had to repress a shudder at her flat tone. “But that doesn't explain why even I didn't feel a single wash of arcane power when it was conjured...”
“It was summoned by the same entity that caused the snow,” Pinkie explained. “It said that its creator let it loose when a 'Seal of Harmony' cracked. If something is coming that has so much power that you can't even sense it, then we're in it deep. We need to begin preparing if we're going to have any chance of even surviving its release...”
“Twilight may have a lead on what's coming, and if she's right then there might not be much we can do...” he replied in a half defeated tone.
“But we still have to try,” Pinkie retorted harshly, her hands flexing with a metallic chime. “If not for ourselves, then for those we hold dear.”
“You're right,” he said after a moment. “I'll have some guards come clean this up. I need to take you to see Twilight. She'll be able to explain everything better than I can.”
“Lead the way,” the three sisters said in unison. “We don't have all night.” Shining Armor gave a humorless chuckle as he turned around and led them to the Archmage's Tower. He silently prayed that Pinkie was right and he could protect those most dear to him, even if he couldn't protect himself.