The Time Has Come

by Commissar Rarity

Roar of Anger

Trixie hit the ground running. She slipped off the parachute, letting it drop to the stone floor before skidding to a stop, as the castle ramparts had crumbled ahead. Peering over the side, she saw a sharp drop to the courtyard below.

She backed up, and stared across at the other side of the ramparts. It wasn’t too far – she could probably make it with enough speed. Or a bit of magic.

Trixie walked back a few yards, and turned to face the broken rampart. With a wave of her catalyst, she broke into a run, magically enhanced legs moving faster than the eye could see. As she reached the edge, she leapt forward. To her surprise, she barely managed to land on the other side. Extending both arms to the side, she took a ginger step forward, trying to keep her balance.

A few steps later, she found she was safely away from the edge. Sighing in relief, Trixie surveyed the landscape. There was a tower directly ahead, about five hundred feet away. Below her was the courtyard to the castle Fortnight. She couldn’t tell from how far up she was, but it looked taken care of surprisingly well. If only such care had been applied to the castle walls…

A rumble cut into her thoughts. Trixie glanced upwards. A wall of black clouds covered the sky. She had seen them on the horizon in the airship, but they hadn’t seemed so threatening when they were below her.

As Trixie approached the tower, she noticed a gargoyle perched on the tower. Her stride slowed, and she squinted at the gargoyle. It was a typical statue, grey with green moss growing on it. Two swept-back horns, a long tail ending in a stinger, and a poleaxe clutched with all four of its hands.

Without warning, the gargoyle stretched its wings, stone crumbling down on her head. It leapt off the tower, and came crashing down on the ramparts behind her. Trixie spun around, and the gargoyle turned towards her with a growl. She could see that what she had thought was moss was actually the monster’s skin.

“A human,” it growled. “Another one. And this one such a tasty morsel.”

“I guess I am pretty tasty,” Trixie bit back, trying to suppress the beating of her heart. “I am a pretty girl after all.”

The gargoyle ignored her repartee, and took a step towards her, releasing its lower arms to walk on them. “The others I couldn’t kill, but there’s nothing stopping me from killing you.”

Trixie smirked, and as the gargoyle stopped only a few inches away from her, she rapped on its head. “Just as I thought, empty. Don’t you see this sword? Don’t you recognise it?”

It recoiled with a hiss. “The sword of moonlight! You are the daughter of Patrice!”

“Granddaughter,” corrected Trixie. She grabbed the hilt, and flicked the sword out of its scabbard, catching it neatly before leaning it against her shoulder. “Come on, blockhead. Try me.”

With an angry roar, the gargoyle swung its poleaxe in a sweeping motion. Trixie swung her sword, and the two clashed. Trixie’s enchanted blade soon overpowered the stone pole-arm, and she sent it flying to the side. The gargoyle roared again, and he sounded even angrier. He stabbed at her with his stinger.

Trixie leapt to side, but the stinger struck her in the shoulder. It snapped off, and she tumbled into the rampart walls. With a grimace, she ripped the stinger out. It hurt just about as much as ripping the sword out of her chest, but it seemed to linger more. Poison, no doubt.

During this time, the gargoyle had grabbed his poleaxe again, and was attacking. Trixie sidestepped the attack and gave a broad shrug. The gargoyle roared yet again, and this time he definitely wasn’t pleased. He raised the pole-arm and brought it down to smash her. She charged forward, aiming at his arms with the moonlight sword.

To her surprise, the tip of the blade struck home, and drove deep within the gargoyle’s upper arm. She tore it free, breaking the arm off completely. Chunks of stone fell to the ground along with the disembodied arm.

With a pained groan, the gargoyle backed off. He inhaled, and spat out a fireball. In a panic, Trixie brought her sword up in a quick motion. The fireball somehow bounced off the sword, and struck the gargoyle in the chest. More stone crumbled from his body, and he stumbled backwards in pain.

Trixie smiled, and brought her foot back, kicking open the twin doors to the tower. “Let’s play inside now,” she said as she leapt backwards.

The gargoyle actually threw his pole-axe at her. Trixie let her balance falter, and fell to the ground, narrowly avoiding the stone blade. Picking herself off the floor, she could see the gargoyle running at her on all five limbs. With a quick back flip, Trixie landed on the polearm, extending her arms to maintain balance.

She jumped up to avoid the gargoyle’s rush, and landed on the tip of the pole-axe’s shaft. The stone blade flew up, burying itself in the gargoyle’s chest. As the gargoyle’s tail flailed about, Trixie took aim and swung at it. Her blade tore through the tail like paper, severing it in two.

The gargoyle ripped the pole-arm’s blade out of his chest. Unlike the other blows that had broken his exterior shell, this wound dripped a thick black ichor that smoked as it made contact with the stone flooring.

Trixie spun her blade, and examined her nails as the gargoyle righted himself. He brought the poleaxe smashing down again, but Trixie was ready for him. She bounced off the shaft of the pole-arm, and landed on his back. With two strokes, she cut off the monster’s wings.

“All flights cancelled,” she said, bringing the sword down. It bounced off the thick stone on his back, upsetting her balance. She fell off the back of the gargoyle, striking the stone floor hard. The moonlight sword fell out of her hands, tumbling away.

The gargoyle seemed to smile, and it grabbed her with its remaining arms.

“Now I crush you and eat your bones,” hissed the gargoyle.

Trixie froze in panic, eyes widening. She had been doing so well before! And now she was going to end up food for a demon. Unless–

Unless he wasn’t expecting a magic appetizer.

Trixie fumbled for her catalyst. As the gargoyle began to squeeze her, she tapped it against his hand and muttered a quick prayer.

The hand crumbled into dust, and she fell free of his grip. The rest of his arm soon followed, and the gargoyle reeled in confusion. Trixie ran towards her sword, and picked it up, blade scraping against the floor.

The gargoyle smashed its hands against the floor, and charged her. Trixie arched her back, and brought the sword up. The blade tore through the monster’s neck, and out the other side. The gargoyle slid to a stop, head impacting against one wall. Then the head slowly fell off its neck, revealing a smoking stump.

Trixie opened her mouth to bid her opponent farewell with another joke, but nothing immediately sprung to mind. She frowned, and then shrugged. No big loss, she decided.

Returning the sword to its scabbard, she couldn’t help but marvel at how well she’d done for most of the fight. It was as if someone else had been guiding the blade. Though, she guessed that was true. Her grandmother’s memories had been the key to winning that battle, so most of the work she owed to dear old granny. Trixie could only assume that she’d remember more of her grandmother’s skills the more she fought.

Not that she was in any hurry to get into another fight. Demon hunter or not, that last battle had been exhausting.

Looking back at the gargoyle, Trixie was surprised to find it had all but disintegrated. Demons are such tidy creatures.

With no danger in sight, Trixie slumped against the wall and sat down. She knew she couldn’t rest for long – not with the impending mortar attack, but she could easily take a quick nap…

Her eyes snapped open, an unfamiliar sound ringing in her ears. It took her a moment to identify it: the sound of rain on the roof. She sighed, and rose to her feet. It was time to get a move on.

Trixie’s gaze went across the room, seeing what she could find. There was only one set of doors for whatever reason. But there had to be another exit from the tower.

She could only find the broken wall where the gargoyle had crash-landed. She sighed, and began to pace. She didn’t particularly want to cross the gap again and look at the tower across the way but–

A creak interrupted her thoughts. Glancing down, Trixie saw only a carpet. Aha, she thought. Where there’s a carpet in a castle, there’s a hidden trap door. Grabbing the carpet and flinging it aside, Trixie found her assumption proven right. A wooden door lay in the centre of the room, ready to be opened.

Trixie grabbed the latch, and pulled it open to reveal a ladder. With a sigh, Trixie got on the ladder and began to descend.

***

Trixie walked slowly through the library. The shelves were all empty, probably from the exodus to Castle Altair. The whole castle felt empty. She had seen no sign of demons or occultists at all. It was like the castle was dead.

Maybe she’d get lucky and it’d always be like this. It’d be like a nice vacation, only with the threat of impending death via shelling hanging over her head.

She paused to admire a crooked painting. It had fallen from where it usually hung, likely centuries ago. It depicted a seraph, white wings outstretched. Instead of the usual beatific expression most seraphs in paintings wore, there was a half-black, half-white mask with a ghoulish face painted on it.

Trixie continued onwards, soon forgetting about the painting.

Had she stayed for a few more minutes, she would have seen the seraph in the painting move, and soon tear itself out of the painting. It floated in the air, wings still outstretched, and black robe covering the rest of its body. It still bore the texture of the painting, making it a truly bizarre being.

Trixie froze, hearing the sound of metal scraping on stone. Turning around, she saw the seraph-thing coming towards her. Its two arms both ended in rusty shears. The thing extended its right arm, stretching it towards her.

The magician girl quickly unsheathed her sword and blocked the attack, knocking the arm to the side. The monster countered with its other arm, grabbing the sword by its hilt. It tugged at the sword, but Trixie refused to let go. She pulled back, hard, and managed to rip the shear off the monster’s arm. Along with it came the twin radius and ulna bones. The creature underneath the robe and mask was nothing more than a skeleton. Spooky.

As the skeleton gardener – as Trixie had mentally catalogued it – recoiled, Trixie swung at its head. The blade neatly cleaved the skull in two, and the gardener collapsed. Much like the gargoyle, it disintegrated. Unlike the gargoyle, it was much more flashy – a burst of flame ate up the bones and robe.

Out of sheer curiosity, Trixie consulted the grimoire the colonel had given her. She flipped to a random page, and to her surprise, she found the being. According to the grimoire, it was called “Scissorhands” and it was an evil spirit that lived in paintings. Aside from that, it was irritatingly vague.

Scoffing, Trixie tossed the grimoire aside. Worthless, she thought. I bet this crystal is, too. Pondering it, Trixie felt like snapping the necklace off and leaving it with the grimoire. She let it go, however, and shook her head. No, it was better to keep it. How else was she going to get out of this mess?

She continued down the long hall, searching for an exit.

***

As she disappeared into the distance, a lone figure walked up to the grimoire. It was another woman, with reddish-orange hair. The woman picked up the grimoire, and blew the dust off it.

With a smirk, Sunset Shimmer followed in Trixie’s footsteps.

Comments

[WeldedSteel09]

Now, it starts getting interesting. I will track for now, but you have to earn a like from me. Keep writing a good story and I will like it.