The quiet clip-clop of my hooves echoed repeatedly through the vast and empty stone chambers as I walked the ancient corridors. The stone hallways were utterly silent save for the sound of my passing. Stillness hung in the air, a testament to the ages these great halls had weathered. Instinctively, I tread as lightly as I could, doing my best to respect the almost hallowed reverence that seemed to hang in the air around me.
Dust that had remained untouched for years came away from the floors and walls, coating me in a thin layer and coloring my fur in gray a shade lighter than my hooves. I sneezed, kicking up a cloud of the stuff around me. Snorting in annoyance as it somehow managed to find its way up my nose and into my eyes, I carried on. Another few minutes later I broke the silence, “Jenny, what’s the status of the scan?”
--Scan was interrupted before completion. Lingering traces of powerful Universal Forces in the area are interfering with my sensors.—
Scowling, I stopped walking and took off my Badge to address it more directly. “What do you mean there’s too much interference? What could possibly overpower the remains of an Alpha-Omega anomaly?”
--Sensors are indicating remints of extremely potent forces. Analysis indicates they are of “Evil” and “Chaos” classes. Both have faint traces of a Ceal’ith signature—
Something my Badge said caught me off-guard. I was sure if I had still been walking I would have stumbled. If this place had strong amounts of both Evil and Chaos Ceal’ith energies than that changed things. Quite a bit actually. “How potent are the energies?” I asked in a restrained voice.
--Both are detected to be from Alpha level sources—
That was bad. Very bad. I hastened my step. If there were two Alpha level sources here than I had no time to lose. “What’s the status of the sources?” I ask with a false calm.
--Both sets of energy seem to be residual. I cannot detect the sources in the vicinity—
I sighed in relief. That was good. After all, I really didn’t feel like fighting for my life today. Or ever. Never the less, I didn’t slow down. The faster I got this done, the better.
***
Eventually, I came to what could only be the throne room. Separate from the rest of the castle by a long and winding (as if they’re ever anything but) staircase, it was large, imposing, and opulent. Or, at least, it had been. The years had not been kind to it. The entire roof had long since fallen away, leaving it completely open to the elements. This in turn had further eroded the many stone pillars that lined the walls, many of which were crumbling and covered in ivy and other vines. A large Dias sat at the far end of the room, just in front of massive hole in the wall where a no doubt beautiful piece of stained-glass artwork once stood. Most interesting of all however, was something much less tangible.
To the average person it would have been completely indistinguishable, buried beneath meta-physical layers of reality. But I was no average person. To me, it was all readily apparent. And it definitely put me on guard.
All around the room was various lines and remnants, clumps and voids of various Universal Forces. Several of them co-mingled extensively, become difficult to tell apart even to a trained eye like mine. And they were all powerful. Very powerful. Much too powerful to not have the hand of a Cealdus behind the scenes. I was going to have to be careful here.
With cautious steps, I made my way to the Dias at the far end of the room. I hadn’t made it more than half-way when I heard something that caused me to stop dead in my tracks. A cold, hollow, eerie, and most definitely sinister laughter began to echo about the room, coming from no real direction but instead from all around at once. The cold laughter quickly died away and was replaced with a voice.
“Greetings, little pony. I’m surprised you have made it this far. After all, the Everfree Forest can be quite the dangerous place,” the voice spoke. It was weak and quiet, barely even there, sounding like the rustle of cloth in a chill wind. It was frail, but beneath the surface was a deep strength, not to be underestimated.
Keeping my cool, I called out to whatever it was that was speaking, “Where are you? Show yourself!” Yeah, it’s a clichéd line, I know. But hey, it works.
With another sickened cackle, the shadows along the walls began to undulate and swirl, like smoke in a breeze. They crept along the floor and up to the Dias, congealing to form a vaguely equine shape. It was tall, almost my size and a half, and disturbingly thin. If it had one I was sure it would have been little more than a skeletal structure. Wispy outlines of frail, leathery wings hung at its sides and a large, spiraling horn extended from its featureless face. Most interesting of all though, was that it was entirely ethereal and incorporeal, comprised only of flowing, smoke-like shadows.
“You are quite interesting, pony. Many would be terrified of my voice and my visage, and yet there you stand, clam and un-afraid. Tell me, pony, why have you come here?”
“That’s none of your business!” I shouted, pointing a self-righteous hoof, “I should ask you the same thing. Just what are you anyways?”
The fell creature simply laughed harder. “Ahaha, now this is amusing, first you berate me, and there you make demands of me? Very well, if you truly wish to know, than I will oblige you.”
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the light from the stars and moon in the room began to dim as the shadow spoke.
“I am a darkness. I always have been. I am all the dark imaginings, hateful feelings, and greedy thoughts that have plagued mortals since time immemorial. But that is not all I am. I was defeated once. Ripped away, cast aside like a parasite, or a disease. But I have been made whole once more. Not long ago, something came to me. Something chaotic. And it rebuilt me. So now I am chaos as well. I am your darkest nightmare, and I am your maddest ramblings. I am your greatest fear, and I am your most insane thoughts given form. I am Lunacy.”
This wasn’t good. It wasn’t lying; I could see as well as sense the lines of Evil and Chaos forces that threaded through its smoky form, giving it shape and structure. This thing could be really dangerous if it wanted to be. I had to keep it talking until I could think of a plan.
“Why are you telling me all this?” I asked as I opened up mental communications with my Badge.
“Jenny, what can you tell me about that thing?”
The shadows that comprised the shade’s facial area flickered and wavered in what I assumed was some sort of expression of amusement. “I told because you asked and I felt like answering. Have I need for any reason other than that?”
<Analysis shows that it is a deceased Alpha level being of Evil, resurrected by an Alpha level being of Chaos. Abilities are unknown. Form is incorporeal and incapable of physical contact. Extreme caution is advised>
“Keep an eye on it, and let me know if you notice anything else,” I thought back.
“What’s your plan then? Are you going to kill me? In my experience, the villain never monologues and reveals their origins if they expect me to leave alive,” I inquired, pointing an accusatory hoof and the solid shadow.
The being tilted its head, and in a genuinely questioning voice, asked, “What makes you believe that I am the villain? Have I done something that you would call ‘villainous’?”
Needless to say, the question caught me by surprise. Sputtering, I managed to stammer an answer, “N-no, you haven’t. But it’s only a matter of time! I mean look at you! You’re an amalgamated shadow of Chaos and Evil at the site of an Alpha-Omega anomaly, how can you be anything but a villain?!” I was panting slightly from my accusation, and still pointing my indignant hoof towards the dark being.
For a long while there was silence, in which the shadow-being tilted its head and appeared to be in deep thought. After a time, it straightened itself and spoke. “I see. Very well, if I must be villainous, then a villain I shall be. Prepare yourself.”
Out of instinct, I rather stupidly asked, “For what?”
“Death.”
Without warning, the shadows lost their consistency, and began to flow along the ground like a black, misty creek. But instead of charging straight at me, like I had expected, they retreated to one of the far corners of the room. With an ethereal tendril, it plucked a spider out of one of the many cobwebs, and drew it into the dark depths. To my amazement and horror, the darkness actually seemed to be seeping into the spider.
I watched in silence as the arachnid began to grow, its body expanding and mutating as it struggled to host the alien force. It simply grew and grew, getting bigger and bigger. Chitinous plating formed all across the front its body, forming a sort of natural armor and even making a crest of spines that ran down its back. All eight of its eyes popped from its head and grow upwards on stalks, turning a glowing, sinister red as they did so. Its fangs lengthened and thickened, turning into something more akin to small swords than a set of mandibles. Its abdomen almost exploded, ripping itself into three separate tails, all tipped with venomous stingers and projectile spinnerets. Its legs lengthened, tapering off into sharp points as it grew four entirely new ones. All through the transformation the beast continued to grow, until by the time it was done it was already three times my height.
--It appears that it has the ability to possess and enhance others—
“Duly noted,” I snapped, “now send a request to authorize level 3 combat abilities!”
--Acknowledged. Sending request now. Please stand by for response—
At that moment the twelve legged beast rushed towards me, moving deceptively fast on its pointed appendages and with fangs dripping a bright green substance.
“Crap.”
*~-/^\-~*
Twilight Sparkle was rather uncomfortable. All around her the air was thick with dust and wild pollen, making it somewhat difficult to breathe. In addition to this, her legs still ached from the unusual amount of running she had done tonight (the fact that the majority of it had was when she was frightened for her life didn’t exactly help either) and each step was languid and sluggish. It was still a few hours until dawn and she had not slept even a moment all night, and her exhaustion was starting to catch up with her. She just wanted this night to be over already, to find the pony she was looking for, take her precious extra-terrestrial rock, and go home.
Fortunately, at least one thing seemed to be going her way tonight; the thick layer of dust that coated the floor and walls held the hoofprints of her query rather well, leaving an easy to follow trail. And follow it she did, through the large entrance foyer and the twisting passages beyond. They seemed to be going about the hallways in a random pattern, take a right here before immediately doubling back and taking the last left. It was all rather confusing and tiring, and eventually it began to frustrate Twilight. After walking around the same corridor in circles for the third time, she was about to give up in frustration when the trail at last came to an end.
The layer of dust had mostly been blown away from the very familiar room she found herself in, due to its exposure to the open elements from the many holes in the walls and roof, as well as the missing windows. Her search momentarily forgotten, Twilight walked to the five-armed pillar in the center of the room and placed a gentle hoof on its surface, a small smile on her face.
The Altar of the Elements of Harmony looked exactly as she had seen it last, still standing strong, a bastion of resplendent white marble in a room full of rotting stonework. Being here, touching the Altar, it filled her with a sense of calm. Something about it just felt right to her, and for a brief moment, the stress of the night faded away, and she felt vaguely at peace. It was an inexplicable and not un-welcome sensation that she felt whenever she came here. Out of idle curiosity, she had tried to research it once, only to come up empty on every lead. Instead of looking a gift-horse in the mouth, she had simply chalked it up to being another one of the many things that she just couldn’t explain, and had to choose to believe.
Contented with the warm, soothing, peace that filled her due to her proximity of the Altar, she let out a satisfied sigh, just enjoying the peace and the quiet of the night around her.
And then the wall exploded.
With a massive thud and a shallow boom, the far wall exploded inwards, spraying a barrage of stones in every direction. Snapping out of her reverie, Twilight couldn’t help but notice the battered, tan-coated pony the fell among the raining rubble. His flight through the air was brief, and he hit the ground with enough force and momentum to roll and tumble on impact, skidding along the ground and smacking into the base of the Altar.
Frightened for the health of the mystery pony after such a blow, Twilight immediately rushed to his side to see if he was still conscious. Before she could even make half-way, he was already rising to his hooves, a look of fierce determination on his bearded face. Twilight stopped walking to him, in truth his appearance somewhat frightened her. He was a full head taller than her, and his tan coat and brown mane were both torn and matted, stuck to his skin with the sweat of physical exertion. On his ear were two metallic earrings, from his gritted teeth hung a wooden toothpick, and on his chest was a strange metallic device that she didn’t recognize. Most shocking of all though, were his golden eyes. They positively glowered from behind his black rimmed spectacles, seeming to almost glow with the fierce intensity of his gaze. She took in the sight with a slight gasp; his appearance reminded her of the disheveled drug-running ponies she had seen on detective shows on late-night television.
Startled by her gasp, he turned towards her. Upon seeing her, his eyes flew wide and the force behind his stare snuffed out like a candle in the gale. “What are you doing here?! This place is too dangerous for civilians!” he shouted, his voice and expression displaying an urgent fear. Before Twilight could process what he said some…thing follow him through the rather large hole in the far wall.
It crawled on far too many legs and flailed its multiple stinging tails in the air above its eyestalks, spraying thick webbing all across the walls and floor. With its massive fangs salivating bright green venom, it crawled up the wall and coiled its legs beneath itself. With a large push, it launched itself towards where she stood, weaving a thick tether of silk attached to the wall as it flew through the air. She stood there, frozen with fear as the disgusting chitinous monster came at her. Just before contact, she was roughly shoved to the side, tumbling along the ground. Coming to a stop, she saw that the strange pony had pushed her away, just as the hideous beast flew through the space she had occupied. Almost immediately, he scrambled off of her, turning to face and stand between the abomination and her. “What in the name of Tartarus is that thing?!” she shouted, doing her best (and failing) to keep the fearful trembling out of her voice.
“Dangerous!” The stranger replied in a surprisingly melodic voice. “Much too dangerous for you to be here! Leave now, while you still have a chance!” he commanded while lowering his stance to point his strangely curved horn towards the eldritch horror. “Get out while I distract it!” he called as he pawed the ground and charged, the fell beast doing the same.
Completely stunned by the sudden unusual turn of events, Twilight’s brain worked overtime to try and make sense of the situation. Unfortunately, it simply could not cope with the stress being put to it, and she just sat there, gawking like an idiot.
The two foes meet in the middle of the room with a flurry of limbs. The great monster swung unyieldingly with its finely-honed front four limbs, but due the fast reflexes (and, more often than not, sheer luck) of its opponent its strikes were met each time with the sharpened point of a horn or a strong buck. Sparks would often fly whenever chitinous leg met curved horn, casting sharp shadows as the silvery light of the strange unicorn’s magic flashed across the room.
Growing quickly frustrated, the horrid monster reared up on its hindmost legs, and brought half of its hazardous appendages down in a powerful slash. Taking advantage of the opportunity, and moving almost too fast for Twilight to see, the crazy pony lunged forward and buried his horn up to the base inside of the beast, just below its mandibles. The monster loosened a piercing, keening screech of agony, and jumped backwards off the horn, batting the unicorn across the room with one of its tails.
As he sailed from the force of the blow, he managed to twist in mid-air, landing on his hooves and skidding a few feet, knocking up small clouds of dust as he slid. Grimacing, he fell to one knee, coughed, and spat out a small amount of blood. Turning to see Twilight staring at him in open-mouthed shock, he screamed, “What are you doing, you idiot?! I said run!”
Snapping to attention, she shook her head to clear it before heeding his words and making for the nearest exit as fast as her legs would take her. It didn’t matter though, as soon as the horrid creature saw that she was attempting to get away it raised its tails and unleashed a torrent of sticky thread, coating the doorway in a wall of adhesive webbing. Angered at her insolence and attempted escape, the hideous thing charged at her, its terrible fangs gleaming in the soft light.
Before it had even gotten half-way it was roughly tackled by crazed unicorn, sending it toppling onto its side. Flailing its dozen limbs to try and regain its balance, the monster managed to land a lucky hit on the unicorn, cutting his cheek open and even going far enough to split his ear in two.
Clutching his face, he backed away while the disgusting beast floundered on its back, and he yowled in pain. Still yelling his agony, he twisted around and delivered a powerful buck to the monster’s side, sending rolling away to smash into the far wall. Slowly, he managed to walk over to Twilight’s position, placing himself in front of her as the demon-spawn got to its feet. “Stay behind me,” he commanded simply, in a gruff voice.
“You’re hurt!” was all Twilight could say as looked at the terrible state he was in. She wanted to help but the whole situation was too much for the poor girl; she felt like she was going to pass out from the amount of fear, adrenaline, and exhaustion at the moment.
The dangerous unicorn just chuckled darkly as closed one eye to prevent the blood flowing down his face from getting in it. “Don’t worry; I’ve had much worse than this before.”
Before she could make another comment or even dwell on just frightening his words were, unholy abomination he was fighting rushed him again, screaming some sort of chittering battle-cry as it raised its fore-limbs above its head; poised and ready to strike.
Immediately, the strange stallion lowered his stance and tensed his muscles, pointing his wickedly sharp horn at the charging beast. Although Twilight did not notice this; she was far too distracted by the grotesque vision straight from her worst nightmare heading right for her. Instinctively, she threw herself to the ground and covered her head with her fore-legs, simultaneously erecting a solid wall of magical energy between her and the horrid monstrosity.
The beast smacked into at rather respectable speed, making a loud thud and dazing itself for a few moments. This earned a surprised and incredulous look from both it and the fighting stallion. “Where the hell did you learn that?!” he exclaimed.
Still more scared than she had ever before been, Twilight could only sit there and tremble in fright as the monster now turned its sights on her. It took one look at her with its eight red eyestalks, each brimming with a look of un-rivaled contempt and malice, and decided she was standing between it and its goals. Without a second thought, it whipped one of its legs towards her at speeds too fast for her eye to follow.
“No!” came the simple shout as she felt herself being pushed forcefully to the side. Turning to look back she saw something that made her breath catch in her throat.
There, right where she stood not even a second ago, was the strange stallion. And so was the scythe-like limb. Stabbing into his body in his stomach, it passed straight through and emerged from his back, coated in crimson. Blood dripped to the floor in a rapidly forming pool beneath where his body was suspended by its impalement. His eyes wide with surprise and pain, he coughed, spraying a copious amount of red fluid on the ground in front of him with wet splat.
Twilight stared in shock at the grisly scene in front of her, guilty tears spring to her eye for the pony who had just sacrificed himself for her. The creature lifted him even higher, emitting a skree-skree noise that sounded far too much like triumphant laughter. Its celebration was cut short however, at that moment the strange metal device on the pony’s chest flashed blue and a strange female voice echoed about the chamber.
--Message received. Level 3 combat abilities authorized. Neutralization of dangerous hostiles is now within acceptable mission parameters—
At this, the mysterious stallion amazingly and miraculously smiled. “Oh, it’s on now,” he said as he slowly and deliberately grabbed the leg currently buried in his organs, and gave a sharp, hard twist. With a sickening pop and crunching noise, the limb was ripped right off the monster’s body. Viscous green ichor gushing from the wound, the beast backed away, screaming its pain loudly enough to shake dust from the eaves.
Pulling the now severed appendage from his body, Twilight could see the damage it had caused; the rigid bones as well and the squishy organs were clearly visible through two hoof wide hole. Even as she watched, the flesh began to slowly writhe and roil, flowing over the gap to cover it in new flesh. Right before her eyes, all of his injuries were glazed over with new flesh, fading away complete and looking as if they had never happened at all.
Very calmly, and with a maniacal grin spread from ear to ear, he marched up to the still trashing monster and struck it with the severed limb. The sheer force of the blow caused the makeshift club to shatter, and the beast to go flying across the room once more, smashing into the wall hard enough to crack the exo-skeletal plating on its chest.
All around the frightening unicorn, static charge began to build in the air, releasing flashes of silver light as arcs of electricity danced about. In a far corner of her mind, Twilight dimly noticed that it was identical to the strange, not-quite-magic tingling in the air she had felt when she had first seen the meteorite fall. Turning to her, the stallion spoke in a voice deeper than she remembered, strangely resonating throughout the chamber, “You might want to cover your ears.”
As he spoke, the eldritch abomination that he was fighting had made its way back to its feet, and was rushing full-tilt towards them in a last ditch effort to kill. All the while the static charge was growing in intensity, focusing a point in space directly in front of the stranger. Twilight did as she was told, and even closed her eyes tightly for good measure. It was a good thing too, because at that moment, the world exploded.
A thin beam of pure energy lanced through the air from the small point in front of the stallion, ripping through his opponent and super-heating the air as it passed. His foe’s body was charred and blown apart in an instant, its entire right side missing as what was left fell to the ground as a blackened husk. The super-heated air cooled immediately as well, collapsing in on itself to create a thunderclap so loud that it rattle the stone work around them and even caused one of the more structurally unsound pillars along the edge of the room to crumble.
Twilight could only stare in awe of the display of power as the mysterious pony collapsed to his knees from exhaustion. Panting and sweating, the strange unicorn still cracked a smile, “I…*pant* I think I got ‘em.”
His smile fell almost as soon as it had started. A cold sinister laugh echoed throughout the room, coming for nowhere and everywhere at once. “You think you have won already, little pony? You will learn; if I am to be a villain, than I will not be defeated so easily.” As the eerie voice spoke, a strange black mist began to rise from the burnt carcass. Before she could even react, it sped towards, and engulfed Twilight.
Immediately, her eyes began to water, and her lungs began to burn. Breathing was becoming difficult, as if the air around her was thick, wet sand-paper. Her head felt both light, and as if somepony were driving a red-hot iron poker between her eyes. She tried to scream in pain, but her cries came out muffled as the dark mist raced down her throat. The malignant substance seeped into every pore, somehow absorbing into her skin and leaving behind the sensation of burning agony. The last and thickest part of the black cloud managed to force its way in through her eyes and ears, her nose and mouth, making her brain feel as if it were in a vice-grip. The pain eventually became too much for her, and just before she blacked out the last thing she saw was the enigmatic stranger rushing to her side.