Shadow Jamboree
Princess Luna looked up from the report she had been reading as a rolled up scroll popped into being, landing neatly on her desk. Raising an eyebrow, she picked up the scroll and quickly read the message contained within.
Princess Luna,
It is with a great deal of dread that I write you about what I have discovered in Neigh Orleans. I set out two days ago upon receiving the message that the bodies of Quartermoon and Crescent Starshine, my relatives, had been stolen. Upon further investigation with the other element bearers, I have tracked them and their thieves to the Quarter graveyard.
I am begging you for assistance. There's far to many of them for us to handle and I fear that their plans are even darker than I first thought.
-Trixie
Luna frowned as she dropped the note back into her desk. Something about it felt very wrong to her. Why had she referred to her family be their proper names first? And calling her friends “the element bearers”? Either this was some kind of trap...or her student was in serious trouble and she was writing not like herself as some kind of signal.
Plus there was the fact that if what the letter said about Quartermoon's body being stolen were true...She scribbled out a quick response, sending it back with a flick of her magic as she got to her hooves.
Luna strode out of the office and out to one of the many balconies of Canterlot castle. It was two days to Neigh Orleans by train. Significantly less for her, if she went all out. Spreading her wings wide, she threw herself from the castle and made for the city as fast as she could.
- - - -
A combination of teleports and fast flying had made a trip that would take days normally, take little more than an hour.
Swooping over the city, Luna could see that the streets of the Quarter were packed, now that night had fallen; the darkness of the central graveyard actually make it stand out all the more as she dropped lower, landing neatly by the entrance.
Her student was waiting for her, the relief on her face appearing genuine to Luna as she approached.
“Trixie. What is going on? Where are your friends?”
“They're deeper in,” She explained, waving a hoof towards the rows, “Once we got your response we decided to hold position and wait.”
“What is going on Trixie?” Luna asked as she followed her student deeper into the graveyard, her eyes scanning the rows and dark shadows for possible ambush locations or hidden attackers. “I see no other creatures in the area. It is a foolish group of miscreants that does something such as this and then posts no guards.”
“From what we can see, they're all up in the big mausoleum in the center.”
Keeping her expression neutral Luna carefully observed the body language of her student as she followed her towards the large marble mausoleum; she had to admit, the pony before her certainly had Trixie's swagger. The other element bearers were hiding behind some of the smaller crypts, waiting like Trixie had said.
The door had been crudely broken in the broken pieces scattered across the ground, the glowing light of active magic spilling from the doorway. A quick activation of her alicorn sight revealed that the magic was necromantic in nature. Perhaps what Trixie had told her was true after all.
“All right. Let me go first.”
Approaching the mausoleum, Luna prepared to summon her magic to deal with whoever might be inside.
“Princess! Look out!” Came Cheerilee's cry with a very uncharacteristic Neigh Orleans accent.
With a flick of her wings, Luna called a shield into being as she turned. The ornate dagger skidded off the edge of the magical shield, trailing an edge of magical sparks. Luna's horn lit up, almost casually ripping the blade out of the magical aura of her attacker.
“Cheerilee” was pinned to the ground by “Raindrops”, who was looking incensed at the shouted warning. A white coated unicorn had joined the ponies who were wearing the appearances of the element bearers and a frown crossed Luna's face as she recognized the pony in question. The black diamond tipped cane was new, however.
“Night Shade...you're involved in all of this?” She hissed.
Night Shade's horn lit up as he reached out for the dagger, once again clashing with Luna's own magic as he tried to pull it back.
“They're dead, Luna! And now it's time for you to join them!”
Luna grit her teeth keeping the dagger firmly in her grip.
“If you hurt, or killed Trixie and her friends over some personal vendetta...”
“Don't you DARE to speak down to me, like at the Gala! You tell me that you can't bring my mother back to life, and then you dare to undermine the whole ideal of a meritocracy by berating us for being clever and brave enough to play the game as it's meant to be?”
“Only a fool would call what that nest of vipers was up to as 'clever and brave'!” Luna snapped back as she snapped compressed her magic tighter around the dagger, her aura snuffing out Night Shade's.
“You disgust me Luna! Your legendary wisdom is nothing more than a hollow sham, and you are just as pathetic of a monarch as your insane sister!”
His horn lighting up again the diamond on his cane followed suit. A sphere of flame coiled into being before he whipped it at Luna. The night princess responded by lashing out with her own power, smashing it into sparks. Quickly calling upon more power, she lashed out wrapping her aura around all of the ponies, and holding them in place.
With a snort of disgust she snapped the dagger in half, throwing the broken shards at Night Shade's hooves.
“I grow tired of your inane prattling Night Shade, so I shall ask you this once. Where. Are. They.”
Night Shade didn't answer, instead just staring at the broken dagger.
“My only chance. It's gone. My mother...”
“Can not be brought back!” Luna snapped.
Night Shade rolled his eyes back up to stare at Luna, his eyes locked into a dark glare.
“I hate you. I LOATHE you! I would give anything for the power to CRUSH THE LIFE FROM YOU!”
Luna was about to yell at him again, when a dark voice seemed to drift from the diamond. Her fur stood on end. Just what kind of powers had Night Shade been tarrying with?
Are you sure? The price of power is not cheap.
Night Shade grinned, his glare turning to a manic smile. “Yes. YES! Whatever creature you are, give me the power to kill this mare!”
The response from the voice was almost...jovial.
As you wish, shade of the night.
Night Shade buckled, his skin and flesh beginning to bubble and roil like water over an open fire. His firm then began to break apart, the pony form falling away into a black cloud or anger and hatred, easily twice Luna's size. The handle of the cane crumbled away, as the black diamond moved into the center of the cloud two glowing red eyes appearing in the mass.
“Oh yes!” Night Shade laughed, his voice now more of a roaring storm than anything that should have come from the mouth of a pony. “It is all clear now, Luna.”
Two vaguely arm shaped protrusions grew from the sides of the cloud, shattering Luna's magical grip on him and the other ponies.
“I will break you. And I will break this city.”
Luna threw up her shield as one of the arms came swinging in, the impact forcing her backwards as she strained against the monstrous amount of force.
“Rise up shades of the dead!” Night Shade screamed. “Rise up and heed my call!”
Shadows and shades began to rise from the ground in a torrent of angry howls. Luna frowning as she flared her wings and prepared to fight, Night Shade and his undead throwing themselves at her.
- - - -
Trixie and her assorted group skidded to a halt as they reached the edge of the graveyard, the army of incorporeal undead and the angry shadow monster visible over the wide walls.
“We're too late.” Ditzy groaned. “How are we going to stop this?!”
“The same way we've stopped everything else.” Trixie nodded as her mind turned the options over. “Working together and using a plan.”
“Please tell me you have one.” Lyra muttered.
“Of a sort, at least.” She said as she looked to Sunset Shimmer. “Shimmer, I need you, my mother and grandpapa to make sure none of those shadows make it into the city proper. If they make for this wall, turn them around, or take them out.”
Sunset nodded rushing for the wall. “Hooflock! Give me a boost!”
The guard pony nodded, rushing over to the base of the wall. Sunset nimbly jumped onto his back and then up onto the wide wall, her horn glowing as she began to trace a glowing line along the wall top with her tail.
Quartermoon and Crescent soared high into the air, moving into a position to where they could oversee the whole of the graveyard as Trixie addressed Hooflock next.
“I need you on crowd control Hooflock. We're right in the middle of the Quarter and I know you know what that means.”
The guard pony nodded. “I'll get my fellows and make sure nopony comes within two blocks of this place.”
As he rushed off, Trixie turned her attention back to her friends and Twilight.
“All right. That leaves us to undo the spells that were done to us and to help Princess Luna!”
“And you have a plan for that too?” Twilight asked.
“An old stage magician's plan at least. Making it up as you go along.”
- - - -
“This whole situation has gone sideways!” Fall Fields shouted. “Night Shade has gone all Corona on us, forget him!”
“No!” Night Clouds shouted back. “He did all of this for us, we can't just leave him!”
“I didn't sign up for this!” Rising Note moaned as she slumped in place. “I just wanted to be able to play music again!”
“I can cast again.” Crystal Gazer commented as she began to take some shuffling steps away from the battle. “I got what I want, so right now I'm thinking that just leaving is the best choice for me.”
Groaning in frustration, Night Cloud looked to her brother. He just shook his head as he began to take a few steps towards Princess Luna.
“Brother? What are you doing?”
“Ah'm gonna help the Princess. One of us has ta help make this right.”
“I was just trying to help you!”
“And I don't want help that ends like this.”
He ran towards Luna and Night Shade, as Crystal Gazer and Tender Care turned to run away. They did not get far, however.
“And just where do you all think you're going?” Trixie smirked, flanked by her friends. “I think we all owe you a round two.”
Her frustration hitting a breaking point, Night Cloud screamed in anger and threw herself towards the group. Trapped between the former master on one side, and Trixie's group on the other the rest of Night Shade's former crew threw themselves into battle as well.
Trixie was barely able to throw herself to the side in time to avoid Night Cloud's first strike, her hoof smashing a small crater into the ground. Raindrops moved in, despite her still crippled frame and kicked her hooves into Night Cloud's side, not doing much more than grabbing her attention.
As the two pegasi squared off against each other, Trixie turned her attention towards Crystal Gazer, who had been trying to slip through the battle in the chaos. She charged her double, throwing the whole of her body into the strike. The two crashed to the ground, Trixie quickly moving to pin Gazer to the ground.
“Not so high and mighty now that you don't have me on my own, are you?”
“I just wanted to be useful again!” Gazer snarled back, squirming under Trixie's pin.
“Twilight! A little help here!”
The unicorn quickly trotted over, her horn already glowing with the dispelling charm. The sight made Crystal Gazer squirm all the more, Trixie barely able to hang on. Twilight didn't give her the opportunity to capitalize, however and quickly touched her horn to Crystal Gazer's head.
Trixie felt the twisting sensation from before return, but this time in reverse. It felt more like something was being returned to her, than being taken away. She felt her horn repair itself, knitting back together as Crystal Gazer changed back to her old self. Trixie pulled back her hoof and delivered a sharp strike to the old unicorn's head, who passed out with a groan.
“That's for trying to kill my friends.” Trixie growled as she pulled her hat and cape back on. “And there's only one Great and Powerful Trixie.”
She looked to Twilight.
“Come on. Let's deal with the rest of this rabble.
- - - -
Sunset Shimmer finished her circuit of the graveyard, a glowing golden line of magic now running along the top of the wall. She glanced up, seeing a large group of incorporeal undead break away from the middle of the graveyard and rush towards the city. Channeling some more magic into the line, she activated the second half of her spell and tied it off.
Sunlight sprang into being, forming a second wall on top of the stone one. The shades in front crashed into the sunlight shrieking and wailing as they sputtered out. The others fell back before wheeling around and flowing towards the open gate, the one gap in Sunset Shimmer's spell.
Jumping down she resolutely placed herself between the oncoming wave, tapping into her magic again as she wrapped an aura of sunlight around herself.
“All right you undead bastards,” She growled, ignoring the throbbing ache that was beginning to develop at the base of her horn, “Burn for me!”
As the screaming horde of undead reached her, fire and sunlight roared back.
- - - -
“The sun flanked one won't be able to last for long at that rate.” Crescent Starshine muttered as she bucked her hooves into a straggler shadow that had peeled off from the rest of the pack.
“We also won't be able to do much if most of that horde comes our way.” Quartermoon nodded, following up with his own strike that sent it snuffing out. “We're only two ghostly ponies.”
Quartermoon turned his gaze towards where Night Shade and Luna were still clashing, the pair having now moved into a series of aerial clashes; crashing into each other, breaking apart and exchanging spells in ferocious volleys.
His granddaughter and her friends were clashing with what was left of Night Shade's allies. The ones that were left were fighting for all they we're worth, Cheerilee's duplicate returning to the disorganized melee, now that Luna and Night Shade were out of reach. Quartermoon wasn't expecting that battle to last much longer.
No, the problem was that Night Shade was just generating more and more undead, drawing on the almost endless pool of power that the gem in his body seemed to provide. The thought of that gem sent a shiver down his non existent spine.
While they had been trapped inside the gem, it had almost felt like the eyes of some implacable monster or dread presence had been boring into his back. Shaking his head again, he focused on another shade that had broken off from the group. Still plenty more to fight.
- - - -
Fall Fields charged in again, dagger glinting as she aimed for Carrot Top's throat. The earth pony rolled to the side, the blade barely missing her. She forced herself to her hooves again, only to be forced to jump backwards as her doubles hooves impacted into the dirt where she just had been.
She spared a quick glance at how her friends were fairing. Trixie, Twilight and Lyra were all closing in on Lyra's double. Raindrops and Ditzy, like herself, were locked in single combat at the moment.
Another swing from the dagger barely grazed her cheek. Just her luck that her double was a wanted murderer with experience in killing. As Fall Fields pressed the advantage, Carrot Top took another step backwards. She felt herself buckle, as her hoof found a divot in the ground. Fall Fields just smiled, as she raised her blade for the killing blow.
“Hold on, ah'm coming!”
Coal Black jumped into the fray, slamming a buck right into Fall Fields' side. The pony fell over, Carrot Top getting back to her hooves and following up with a strike of her own. The murder's eyes rolled into her head as she passed out.
Carrot Top blinked as the actual Cheerilee emerged from her hiding place, grinning goofily at her twin.
“Nice pony!”
“Heh. Glad ta see ya found your friends, but we need ta help them stop the bad ponies, okay?”
Cheerilee nodded, pawing the ground as Coal Black pointed at the fake Raindrops. “Let's get her!”
Twilight quickly ran to Carrot Top's side, dispelling the curse on Fall Fields as the twin Cheerilee's tackled Night Cloud from behind. Carrot Top could see that Lyra was back to normal and had summoned her lyre to her side again.
Not stopping with her role, Twilight rushed over to Night Cloud as she was pinned. Pressing her horn against the pegasus, Night Cloud screamed in anguish as she shrunk and faded back to her sickly form; as Raindrops grew back to her normal self, she knocked Night Cloud unconscious with a punch.
Seeing her last friend fall, Tender Care tried to fly away. Ditzy swooped in, grabbing her hind legs. Throwing her body into a spin, Ditzy flung Tender Care towards the ground, Raindrops taking to the air and grabbing her.
Landing, she held Tender Care tight, allowing Twilight to run over and dispel her. Another strike from Raindrops and there was now a pile of unconscious ponies on the ground.
Trixie faced Coal Black a frown crossing her muzzle.
“So...do you want to surrender?”
“Ah want to help. I'll gladly let ya do whatever ya want to me, after Night Shade is dealt with. But since I'll become a simpleton again when this is over, I want ta make sure the last thing I do is somethin to make up for what my sister did.”
Trixie looked ready to object, but Cheerilee just grinned and nodded.
“Nice pony helped.”
“Okay, okay.” Trixie muttered as she looked towards the battle above their heads. “You good with kicking rocks at all?”
“Fair to middlin.”
“Then here's the plan...”
- - - -
Luna beat her wings hard as she fired another magical blast towards Night Shade. The pony turned magical cloud blocked the blast with his own magical shield and pulled even more undead from the ground.
Night Shade pulled back another ghostly fist to swing at Luna only to pause as a few rocks sailed through the air and him, barely missing the gem inside. Snarling, he turned to face where Coal Black and Cheerilee were bucking shards from some of the damaged crypts his way.
“Princess! Cover your eyes.”
She pulled a shadow across her field of vision, protecting her eyes as Trixie and Twilight unleashed twin blasts of bright light. Night Shade, now more shadow than pony, roared in pain.
Twilight pulled together another spell, aiming for right for the diamond. A ball of flame jumped from her horn, slamming into the cloudy form of Night Shade. The concussive force of the strike actually blasted some of the smokey body away.
Seeing what they were going for, Luna quickly followed up with her own magical strike. A beam of moonlight shot from her horn, searing straight through Night Shade's body and leaving a gap. The black diamond floated in the hole seemingly still held in place under it's own power.
Ditzy flew in, folding her wings back as she swooped through the open gap. Grabbing the gem in her mouth she banked sharply, Night Shade's body already repairing itself as he twisted to grab her. With a quick snap of her head, she threw the gem towards Raindrops.
Catching it in her fore-hooves Raindrops folded her own wings back, diving for one of the crypts. Night Shade roared, chasing after her and quickly closing the gap.
Luna moved quickly, throwing up her own shield again as she dove between Raindrops and Night Shade. The shadow monstrosity impacted into her shield, Luna pouring more power into it as she tried to shove him back.
Raindrops continued her dive, the wind whipping through her mane and wings as the crypt rapidly approached. A moment later, she slammed the diamond against the stone of the crypt, putting the full weight of her body and her strength into the strike.
The diamond cracked, then shattered, sending pieces flying across the graveyard. Night Shade moaned as his cloud like body began to collapse back down, imploding back into a pony, who quickly fell back to the ground with an undignified thud.
Silence reigned in the graveyard for a moment, as even the shades had stopped howling their indistinct heads all staring at Night Shade. With a horrific shriek they all rushed for him at once, swooping and washing over him like a black tidal wave.
They began to drag him towards one of the crypts. It's face began to warp and twist forming into an inky black curtain.
“No! NO! It can't end like this! NOT LIKE THIS!” Night Shade screamed, desperately reaching out with his hooves trying to latch onto something and instead just tearing furrows into the grass. The deep voice from the diamond echoed from the curtain.
I told you that the price of power was not cheap.
With a final horrific cry Night Shade was swept through the portal by the tide of undead, the portal snapping shut behind him with a flash of light.
It was quiet as everypony walked towards the crypt, it once again looking just as normal as any other one in the graveyard. Luna shook her head.
“The poor stallion. Undermined by his own madness.”
Trixie frowned nervously as she adjusted her hat.
“Sorry that my family business dragged you into this, princess.”
“No need to apologize Trixie. Night Shade apparently held a bit of a personal grudge over some hard truths I had to give him.”
Luna sighed as she looked at the approaching forms of Sunset Shimmer, Cheerilee and Coal Black, the latter looking very nervous as she approached the princess.
“So, Princess. What happens now? My sister and her friends are unconscious still. Ah suppose that I'm at your tender mercies.”
He looked to Cheerilee and licked his lips. “Ah'm ready to be displled and ta give Cheerilee her mind back. I just ask that you put me in a good hospital or...somethin.”
Luna regarded him carefully, before engulfing both ponies in her magic. Coal Black began to shift back towards his normal form, but without the scar that had been so clearly displayed on his forehead for years. Her face scrunched up in concentration, Luna continued to channel the magic between the two until Cheerille and Coal Black were scar free.
Carefully placing the two ponies down, Luna regarded her handwork. Cheerilee blinked, a wide and genuine smile crossing her face.
“Oh, thank the stars, I can think again! That was horrific.”
“Yer telling me.” Coal Black blinked as he looked back at Luna. “How?”
“I was able to maintain part of the spell at least. I hope that my trust in you is not misplaced?”
Coal Black shook his head before bowing. “Of course not, princess. Ah never would have gone along with any of this if I had been in my right mind.”
“And you are aware that your sister will still have to go to jail along with her associates for what she's done.”
“Ah know. But could you put her in some kind of prison hospital? She's sick and weak.” He frowned and poked at the ground. “Regular prison will kill her.”
Luna sighed sadly. “I think that is possible.”
She paused as the ghostly forms of Quartermoon and Crescent Starshine landed in the group.
“Quartermoon...,” She smiled, “It is good to see you again, though I do wish it had been under better circumstances.”
Quartermoon smiled back, bowing his head to the monarch.
“Alas, it is what it is. I can trust that our bones will be found and returned to our crypt?”
“Of course.”
“Good.” He waved a hoof at the group. “If you would excuse us please. We would like to speak with my granddaughter one last time before the spell that summoned us here fades away completely.”
The group obliged, heading for the graveyard gate and leaving Trixie alone with her family.
“I know that we said this before,” Crescent began, “But we really are so very, very proud of you. You've grown up amazingly well.”
“Mom...,” Trixie smiled, “Come on. I've screwed up plenty of times.”
“We never said that it wasn't a rough trip at times.” Quartermoon chuckled. “But such is life. You have good friends and you've fought hard for what you believe in.”
The two were becoming more insubstantial as they talked, the spell that was keeping them bound to the living world fading away. Trixie felt warm tears escaping her eyes, as a knot welled up in her chest that she couldn't entirely banish away.
“Mom...grandpapa...I...”
“Don't cry my daughter.” Crescent smiled, her own ghostly tears streaming down her face. “We'll always be watching over you. And we'll see you again someday.”
“Never stop performing my little one.”
With that, the two ghosts faded away, leaving Trixie alone in the graveyard. She sat there for a few minutes, before getting to her hooves and heading for the gate. She tilted her hat back slightly, a confident smile crossing her muzzle.
“I won't, grandpapa.”
- - - -
The next evening, Trixie and her friends were back on the train to Ponyville. Luna had used her royal authority to get her mother and grandpapa's bodies found and reburied in record time. In her own words it had been “the least she could do”. Her aunt had been overjoyed, but had also insisted that she return at some point for an actual visit.
All of her friends were still alive and laughing again as they enjoyed a dinner from the diner car.
“Well, I am hoping that next time I drag you all to Neigh Orleans, we can have some actual fun and not get involved in an insane stallion's plans to take the place of Princess Luna or something else insane.”
“Hopefully Sunset Shimmer will be able to keep those forbidden spells more well defended this time.” Ditzy shuddered. “I wouldn't want any other pony to experience that. I can't believe I thought that Dinky was dead.”
Raindrops snorted. “Hey, least you weren't partially crippled like Lyra or I.”
“What about me?” Carrot Top interjected. “They thought I was a murderer!”
“Hooflock is going to take forever sorting that mess out.” Trixie shook her head. “But let's not start a whole 'who got cursed worse' contest.”
She glanced over at Twilight.
“So, what did you think of the whole experience, Twilight?”
The unicorn smiled as she took another bite of her salad.
“It was fun to be on the side of fixing everything again. In fact this whole 'replace the element bearers' thing has gotten me thinking.”
“Oh?” Trixie frowned.
“Yeah! I mean, between this and what we saw in that other world, I've formed a great idea! I need to go and make friends with our versions of the ponies who were the element bearers there. That way, if you all get replaced again, we'll have a backup set of bearers!”
Trixie rolled her eyes as her friends chuckled.
“Not funny Twilight.”
“Really?” She grinned. “You don't want to have element bearers and element bearers reserve? I'll write Princess Luna about it once we get back to Ponyville!”
Another chuckle ran through the cabin, this time Trixie joining in as the train slowly worked it's way back to Ponyville and home.
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Great conclusion! I really loved this fic. It was great to see Trixie in her hometown and interacting with her family. Though there were some typos in this chapter, notably, 'fairing' for 'faring' and one time you used past and present tense in the same sentence.
3427177
Glad that you enjoyed it!
I really wanted to do something Neigh Orleans based the minute the Nightmare Night writing event was announced.
And I will keep stomping out those mistakes as they come up too.
Great fic! I really enjoyed this story it's been a great and adventurous ride and the world building was very well done. With Shades death am I seeing hints of Dr Faciliar?
Can't wait to see what you bring to the L!verse next!
I think it went well, it fits into the L-verse and I wouldn't see any major problems with it even being canon.
I'm glad Coal Black didn't have to return to his previous state, that would be horrible.
Interesting how much of a monster Fall Harvest must be, she could get rid of any part of her and all she chose was her appearance, presumably so she wouldn't be captured rather than getting rid of any guilt, or bad memories or anything like that.
3429104
I will confess that I did draw a little bit from that Disney death for Night Shade's. It did seem appropriate that Night Shade, who was based on a Gen 1 villain (him breaking apart into a black cloud was a reference to his master in that same episode.), would get dragged kicking and screaming into Tarturus, which is run by *another* Gen 1 villain.
It's all delightfully meta!
3430182
Yeah, Fall Fields is definitely a darker character. A bit of her back story that didn't really come out in the story, was that she was skipped over for inheritance of her family's farm/plantation.
So, Fall Fields took an axe and gave her family forty whacks.
By taking Carrot Top's place, she would have been independent and owning her own farm again, without the police chasing after her.
3430182
I think Sunsets presence might sadly cause an issue, but besides that I actually agree.
3430241
ah I was wondering if you were referencing the shadow eater! It all tied together very well.
3431155
Huh. I didn't think that any decisions had been made on Sunset Shimmer. Actually kind of why I put her in. Being tied to a library that's out of the way of what the rest of the cast was doing seemed simple.
3431182
Sorry, I guess we just assumed, we probably should have put her and Lightning Dust in the L!verse bible even if they aren't published yet. The idea, as it stands, is that Sunset and Lightning Dust are friends and are glory seeking antagonists, intent on finding fame fortune and power, through any means necessary. When we first meet them, they're trying to steal Corona's throne, but other times they are just entering races and cheating to win, as the greatest issue for them is less about active malice and more a lack of consideration for others. That, I think, is how it's planned anyway, sorry, I should have mentioned that when she first popped up.
3431231
Damn.
Well, I suppose that I could always change her name, if that's what I'd need to do. The fact that she *is* that character isn't critical to the story.
3431275
Sorry, I wish i'd mentioned it earlier, we really should have out this on the bible, though given it hasn't happened yet I suppose it is subject to change. While i'll admit a great deal of fondness for the LD/SS duo idea, (Emeral and I are scheduled to write the fic) maybe run this by RDD?
Again, i'm really sorry.
3431275
It might be possible to tie this int the current canon for them as well, now that I think of it.
Great fun and genuinely creepy in places!
I'm pretty impressed that you managed to introduce a "alternate" set of bearers, body swap everyone, and keep the new characters distinct along with conditions of first six still being clear. Pacing their introductions and playing the conditions imposed on the Mane 6 off against their usual approaches worked really well.
It's all pretty seamless here, but I've seen similar scenarios founder because it was just a headache to keep track of.
3433084
Thanks a lot Tanglemane! I'm glad that it worked well for you.
I actually kept a little cheat-sheet on my computer to keep the pairs all straight. It really helped.
Took me a little while to get around to finishing this, but I had a lot of fun reading this. Given you were trying to get this all written for Halloween I can't complain much that it felt a tad rushed in places, but you managed to make a fun set of antagonists who gave our heroes some trouble in Trixie's hometown. I'm curious who or what that voice was that turned Night Shade into the black cloud, and what the origins of that gem was; I'll assume it wasn't actually diamond given Raindrops was able to smash it. The story had a good, fast pace, and I dug the darker, horror tones that got wove into what was basically an adventure story. I liked the angle you went with the villains being motivated by trying to get back things they'd lost, kind of wish we'd had more time to see more of their characters before everything concluded. Overall, good job, I enjoyed it.
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Thanks Vex!
I had pictured both the gem being tied to Tartarus and Tirek, honestly, with the lord of darkness whispering into Night Shade's ears.
I might come back to this story at a later date and flesh it out more. But it was still quite fun to write as is.
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> “I’ll assume it wasn’t actually diamond given Raindrops was able to smash it.”
AssUMe makes an Ass of YoU and Me. Diamond is the hardest known naturally occurring substance, but it is brittle. If one tries to crush diamond in a vice, assuming that it does not have previously existing flaws, it resists. One can rub it with sandpaper until the cows come home without scratching it. Unfortunately, an hard impact can shatter diamond. It is like steel knives versus ceramic knives:
Steel knives almost never break. under load, they bend. One just bends them back, later. This malleability does at the cost of dulling easily. One must ofter resharpen them.
Ceramic knives never need sharpening because they are too hard to dull; but unfortunately however, if they fall from the countertop, they shatter on impact with the floor.
Diamond is like the ceramic knife.
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Neat. Well, there goes my plans to make a giant hammer out of diamond. Stupid physics, ruining perfectly good plans.
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> “Well, there goes my plans to make a giant hammer out of diamond.”
Try Aggregated Diamond-NanoRod:
http://wikipedia.org/wiki/aggregated_diamond_nanorod
One basically takes Fullerenes and compresses them under extremely high temperatures and pressures. The result is a substance made of randomly oriented interlocking crystals of diamond. It is not pretty like a big single-crystal diamond is but it is as hard as diamond, as resistant to scratching as diamond, and is tough instead of brittle:
The last property comes from being made of microscopic randomly oriented interlocking crystals of diamond. If 1 crystal of diamond shatters, a gzillion others remain intact. If used as a hammerhead, it will eventually become diamonddust through use, but that will take a long time. It definitely will not be just an 1-Whack Wonder —— ¡That sounds like a great title for a clopfic! —— like a single-crystal diamondhammerhead would be.
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Well, the Lunaverse has established that Trixie's hat only sends messages to Luna's office, and not her directly. Trixie wasn't expecting any messages she'd send to get to her in time.
In terms of the curse blocking detection spells, that's not really the main point of the spell. It's supposed to inflict a debilitating effect on the target, while the caster gets something they want from the target.
So, you'd only get a non-detection effect if you were say, stealing the fame from a rather famous pony, because the curse effect would involve said pony being overlooked and forgotten by everyone.
In regards to Twilight. ...Ehh. Fair cop, I think that I just pulled a brain fart with that one and tripped over my own plot.