//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: The watcher returns // Story: The Lockseed's curse // by Equestriasservant //------------------------------// Jay was starting to regret ever coming to Ponyville. Since Twilight had been tasked by Celestia to supposedly learn all she could about him, the violet unicorn had done nothing but constantly question him. He had never known some-pony could have the ability to listen to a person repeat the same phrases over and over again. He'd finally managed to escape the probing questions and go for a walk. Jay smirked, feeling a high sense of amusement, imagining Shadow and Rainbow out on their date. Taking a turn down one of the many darkened streets, Jay chuckled lightly, remembering the sight of Shadow's blushing face. His elation increased at the memory of Rainbow's face, turning an ugly purple, every time he taunted her about having feelings about Shadow. Though, he supposed the punishment he'd been forced to endure was worth the risk. He rubbed his head, feeling where Rainbow's hoof had rubbed hard against his scalp. He decided that he would be far away from Rainbows reach before taunting her again. It was either that or risk getting his head rubbed raw by another of that Rainbow-maned menace's noogies. Groaning in pain, he didn't notice the mint green unicorn that had walked across the street, directly in front of him. Lost in his thoughts, the human walked straight into the pony. He stumbled, falling to the ground with a loud crash. Groaning in pain, feeling worse than ever now. He raised a hand as he pushed himself up, waving at the Unicorn behind him. She was a mare, with a light greenish white mane and tail. Her eyes were a bright gold, while her cutie was what appeared to be a golden harp. He got to his feet with a grunt of pain. He'd bruised his arms on the floor as he'd fallen. "Sorry." He grunted moving over to check the Unicorn for any bruises. "I didn't hurt you did I?" He asked. The Unicorn looked up at him. Her lips trembled as her eyes went wide. Jay frowned as he knelt down beside the Unicorn. Her eyes followed him. "Are you okay?" He demanded, feeling slightly unnerved by the stare that the Unicorn was giving him. He shrugged, after many moments of silence. "Well, if your okay....see you then." He stood up and turned to leave. Just as he took a few steps, he became aware that something was following him. Judging by the clip-clop of hooves, he guessed it was the same Unicorn as before. Turning his head, he saw that it was the same Unicorn. She still had those big wide eyes and trembling lips. "Did you need something?" He asked confusedly. The Unicorns mouth fell open. She suddenly smiled, about as wide as her eyes had gone. The Unicorn suddenly jumped high into the air. "HUMAN!" She shrieked. Jay yelped, jumped backwards, stumbled over his feet and landed, for the second time that day, on his backside. "I KNEW THERE WAS ONE HERE! I KNEW IT!" She screamed, jumping excitedly around him before freezing stiff as a board for a second. Then the Unicorn suddenly let out a louder gasp. "I GOTTA GO TELL BONBON, NOW SHE'LL HAVE TO BELIEVE ME!" The Unicorn jumped up and sped off. Jay watched the rapidly receding blur of the crazed Unicorn. He shook his head with a sigh. Brushing himself off, the human made his way down the rapidly darkening street. The night had started to draw in. Something was unnerving him. He wasn't sure why, but he was pretty sure something...or someone was watching him. He turned his head each time he walked past one of the connecting streets. Several of the ponies who strolling about in the evening air, most of whom were used to him by now, either gave him friendly waves or stared at him uncertainly from a distance. Looking up at the roofs of the cottages, he stared keenly at almost every cottage he passed. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary but he still couldn't shake the feeling that something was staring at him. He stopped for a second. His eyes closed, listening for even a trace of sound that could give away his stalkers position. He whirled round looking at the tops of the cottages. Something was there. It was crouched on the roof of one of the cottages farthest away from him. From the distance, Jay couldn't see much except the black cloak that covered the creature. With a shake of his head, Jay turned back and started back along the path. Though, his watch of the stalker was distracted by a groan coming from one of the darkened alleyways. A pair of ponies were lying in a heap on the floor. Several empty bottles lay on the ground around them. Jay raised an eyebrow. Judging from the Rainbow mane and tail, along with the red lighting bolt on one of the ponies, he guessed who it was. "Really, Rainbow? Shadow? The pair of you go out for a single date and now look at you. Both as drunk as..." He sighed leaning down next to the drunken pair. Shadow groaned sleepily, rolling over onto his back. There was an awful lot of sticky liquid staining his dark fur. His eyes opened, glazed over and his mouth open in a lopsided smile. Reaching up with a hoof, Shadow punched Jay hard in the face. "OW!" Jay yelled, falling backwards, clutching his bloody nose. The yelp of pain had woken up the still drunken Rainbow. As the Pegasus sat up, her drunken gaze landed upon Jay, rolling around on the floor, clutching his bleeding face. Her smirk widening, the Pegasus laughed stupidly. "What the SHIT!" Jay shouted rolling over to face the two drunks. Shadow stood up and walked over to Jay. The Unicorn swayed slightly as his horn glowed. Jay felt himself being lifted up before Shadow leaned against his legs. "That wash for forcing me......out withshsh herrrrr." Shadow slurred, stumbling back over to Rainbow and attempting to hoist her into a more dignified position. But his drunken condition failed him, and he fell face-first into the dirt again. Both of them laughed, rolling helplessly around. "You...know....you're....URP!" Shadow burped loudly as he finally managed to hoist both him and the Pegasus up. Rainbow's head as lolling on Shadows shoulder. "I thought you...were jusht a nuscinshe. " Shadow slurred as Rainbow gave a great grunting snore. "But, now I have a girlfriend....HIC! I know it wash down to youse." Shadow gave a great grunting snort, then with a poof of black smoke, Jay's driver and Lockseed appeared out of thin air. They floated towards Jay, who grabbed them with a confused look. "I think, youse'll need it more than....than....urp!" Shadow screwed up his face....then vomited at Jays feet. The creature was almost there. It had stopped only to sharpen its claws on the stones in the mountain where it had come from. Where its master had birthed it. Its Master wanted one thing. The creature was going to do what its master wanted. It had to. It was its purpose. Its life. Its reason for living. As it flew through the clouds, its leathery wings beating against the sky, its mind was set on the little village. Despite the cloudy night, its vision was as sharp as though it was looking around in bright daylight on a cloudless day. The village would be in flames by the night was out. The villages population would fill it's belly and the creature would bring the one that its master desired. But first it would feast and rampage. Its master had at least given the creature that task to finish. It dived beneath the cloud cover, feeling the flames within its belly beginning to rise. It was time. It heard its masters voice in its head. "KILL!" Jay sighed in annoyance as dragged the large cart through ponyville, upon which the two drunken ponies had been dumped. Both were now snuggled together, still in their drunken stupor. He had bartered the cart from a market-stall owner, who had not been to happy to let the cart go for free. Luckily, the stallion had been a big fan of Rainbow's flying acrobatics and had happily agreed to give him the cart on the condition that Rainbow gave him an autograph. Jay had assured him that Rainbow would give it. Though, when he had never agreed to hauling around two ponies who were old enough to know better. He sighed, angrily. He'd have a little talk about drinking with the two of them when they woke. Though he'd supposed that he'd have to risk it from a distance considering it was Rainbow Dash. Something smelt wrong though. As he made his way through the town, he became aware of the smell of smoke. It was coming from all around. Looking up, he saw plumes of smoke coming from up ahead. Screams could be heard. In his angry state, he hadn't noticed the commotion. "JAY!" Shrieked a familiar voice. He looked up. Rarity and Fluttershy were running towards him, Sweetie Belle and Apple-bloom behind them, All four ponies were covered in soot. Behind them, several of the buildings were on fire, their thatched roofs burning to charred ashes. The heat of the flames. "You have to help us!" Rarity shrieked, running up to the human, pounding her hooves against Jay's chest. "Some sort of beast is attacking the town. We don't know what to do! Its circling the Library with fire. TWILIGHT'S TRAPPED!" Rarity screamed, before falling to the ground in a dead faint. Jay stared at the Unicorn before what she had said had sunk in. He turned to fluttershy, Sweetie-Belle and Apple-Bloom. "Stay with Rainbow, Shadow and the others!" He shouted, turning to run down the street. "I'll deal with whatever this is!" He sprinted down the street. Thick smoke obscuring his vision, making his eyes water. Barely able to see, Jay tripped and stumbled over several panicked ponies running in the other direction. He was barely aware of the shouts and screams surrounding him. He had never felt this fear. It was like Acid, sapping his strength, slowing him down. Finally, he made it to the library. A ring of flames surrounded it, though Jay could still see Twilight's and Spikes terrified faces looking through one of the windows. The beast was stalking back and forth in front, every so often spraying more flames. Judging from the long snout and the large leathery wings, he guessed it was a dragon. It's yellow body was about as large as the tree-house itself. Its yellow eyes fixed upon Jay. Baring its teeth, it gave Jay a snarl. Jay smiled, pulling out his driver he fixed around his waist and clicked open the padlock of his lockseed. "LEMON!" The cheerful voice shouted. Then... "LEMON...LEMON....LEMO....!" Jay stared at the Lockseed. The Lockseed was glowing a bright yellow. It grew brighter, the cheerful voice continuously repeating its name, either lowering its tone or repeating parts of the word. Jay frowned. Then he screamed, as an pain bolted its way up his arm and into his chest. He fell to his knees, screaming in pain. Strange images were flashing in front of his vision, blurring his sight. He dropped the Lockseed, but the pain continued. It grew worse as he writhed around on the floor. He was dimly aware of the dragon walking towards him. Each step shook the floor. Jay's eyes watered as pain began to overcome him. It was the end. The dragon would swallow him then he would destroy the town. It was worse than he thought. He was now seeing double. One dragon was flying down onto the first dragon. Though this one was blackish red, with reddish wings. With a roar of rage, the black dragon sprayed a stream of red hot fire. The first dragon roared too as the flames enveloped it. Its skin was cracking up as it writhed around. It was like the skin was beginning to fall apart. One of the paws fell to the ground, detaching itself from the crumbling dragons body. As soon as it hit the ground the paw crumbled into a large pile of dust and bits. A black figure jumped from the Black dragons head. Something flashed. Then the dragons severed head dropped to the ground. The body stopped moving. Slowly, the decapitated body just as the paw had done, disintegrated. Slowly, the specks floated through the air, coming to rest on the ground. Jay watched as the hooded figure waved its armored hand. The fire surrounding the Library slowly sputtered, then went out. Jays head slumped to the ground. He let the pain take him and he passed out. Twilight and Spike shakily made their way out the door of the Library. They'd been reorganizing books when something large had crashed down in front of the building. Looking outside, they'd seen it to be a massive yellow scaled dragon. Before either of them could attempt to escape the tree-house, the dragon had belched a large amount of fire in front of the doorway. They'd watched Jay attempt to use his lockseed and fail. They screamed together as the blackish red dragon fell upon the yellow dragon and gasped in tandem as the hooded figure jumped off the red dragons head and decapitated their attacker. Now, the pair made their way cautiously out of the door and over to the figure. the cloaked figure had knelt over the unconscious form of Jay and was checking for a pulse with a pair of two armored fingers. "Is....Is he gonna be okay?" Twilight asked nervously. The figure turned to her and pulled off the cloak. Underneath, the figure wore a a set of black armor. It was sleek though looked thick enough to withstand any punishment. A spiked helmet covered the interlopers head and features. In the creatures hand was a large hammer, spiked like the creatures armor. Though even as the creature turned to her, it stabbed the spiked handle into the dirt so that it stayed upright even though the armored creature let go of it. "He'll be fine Twilight. Though I must say, I'm surprised to see a human such as me in the middle of Ponyville." The armored creatures voice was male, though light and friendly. The armored figure gave a soft chuckle before reaching up to pull off his helmet. "I'm glad that you aren't hurt twi. I wouldn't be named the watcher of Equestria if I let an attack like this escape my notice!" Twilight froze as the creature finally succeeded in pulling off its helmet. She walked forward, staring into the dark-skinned face. The dragon snorted but the unicorn ignored it. She placed a hoof on the creatures leg. "The Watcher of Equestria? Zyon, is that you?" Princess Celestia stared at the smoking town of Ponyville. When her scouts had reported what was happening in the town, She had rushed to her balcony to fly away to the town, but something had stopped her. She had felt a strange sense of foreboding as she watched the bursts of fire that could only mean a dragon had attacked the town. When she'd seen the second shape, she'd feared the worst and still she couldn't move. It was like her body had turned to stone. Just as she spread her wings to fly, as she'd originally intended to do, a guard burst through the door of her private chambers. "Princess Celestia!" The guard shouted. "It's him. It's the watcher of Equestria!" Celestia froze in mid-jump. She turned her head to look at the guard in shock, positive that she'd heard wrong. The Watcher of Equestria? It had to be a mistake. He was gone...She tensed her muscles, then jumped forwards, flapping her wings to gain altitude. If that guard had been right....Then she had double the reason to fly to Ponyville.