Burning Curse

by Dinos4Ever

Prologue- Entrapment

Prologue: Entrapment
“Never again!” Dante could see the hatred, the malice, and the contempt in the eyes of a pony he thought he’d never see such emotion from. “Never again! Never shall thou hurt our family! Never again shall thou endanger our home!” Princess Celestia fumed, “Look! Look what thou hast done, Dante!” Dante knew she was right, but he once again felt anger welling inside of him. “I must keep calm.” Dante thought to himself. Anger would only bring more fire. Yet he still could not help feeling the slightest twinge of pride in his ifrit self. As Jinn of the flame, he could not help but enjoy the blaze taking place behind him.
“I do not see what is wrong here” spoke the infernal ifrit.
“Thou do not?!” Screamed Celestia unable to believe what she was hearing. “You attack the Royal Castle, set the forest surrounding it ablaze, and then burn our Sister!” screamed Celestia, as she felt tears welling in her eyes. She just prayed that she had reached her sisters’ bed chamber in time.
“We have no compassion left for you. You force us to do this” shuddered Celestia, summoning six multicolored orbs, she was still quite worried. She had never performed the task of Astral Banishment, but what Dante has done was irredeemable.
“No! Celestia, please. You don’t understand!” cried, Dante in his last hope for redemption.
“Don’t I?” shrieked the alicorn. “Upon your crimes this night, we have found reports coming to our ears, reports that I ignored out of hope that they might not be true, of your attempts to horde power, and raise an army to overthrow us. We have no other choice”. It was then that Celestia rose up into the air and declared,
“DANTE! IFRIT ALICORN AND ROYAL MILITARY STRATEGIST! FROM THIS NIGHT, THOU HAST BEEN HENCEFORTH BANISHED FROM THE EARTH!”
In one move, Celestia activated the Elements of Harmony, and shot their power towards Dante. From the blackness, Dante could be heard rumbling, “I shall return! Mark my words, Celestia, I shall return more powerful and dangerous than ever. I will be your greatest adversary!” Then quiet. No sound, but for the howls of the animals being cooked alive inside the towering inferno that was once the beautiful and wondrous Everfree Forest.
Present Day…Ponyville
It was night; all the little Ponies were asleep in their beds. They had no idea, that at that very moment, the moon was turning blood red. As if the white wasteland was somehow turning itself into an orb of molten magma. One pony, however, was awake. The prized pupil and representative of the Element of Magic herself was up at this most ungodly hour to view one of the heaven’s most unique events: a Lunar Eclipse. Had most ponies been awake at this time, they would have viewed the event as some kind of dark and powerful magic that was possibly hurting their Princess Luna. Not Twilight Sparkle. She saw the event as a scientific matter, and believed that even the strangest events could be explained logically. Well, except for one. Twilight didn’t even want to remember the pain she endured while trying to uncover the secrets of “Pinkie Sense”.
Suddenly amongst snoring of Twilights’ young draconic assistant, Spike, Twilight heard the sound of a belch. Thinking nothing of it, Twilight went back to her telescope only to find the Lunar eclipse was ending. Disappointed, yet excited that she got to view it at all, Twilight decided to call it a night and go to bed. Replacing the cap back onto the telescope, Twilight turned her back to find a scroll lying next to the sleeping form of Spike.
“Hmmm, what would the Princess require at this time of n…” Twilight stopped, took a quick look at the clock, “uh I mean morning?” Twilight corrected herself, seeing it as already past two a.m. This was a time when Princess Celestia should have been sleeping.
Opening the letter, Twilight found an odd feature. This letter was not from Princess Celestia. Indeed the hoofwriting was similar, yet at the bottom of the piece of parchment, was the signature of Princess Luna. Reading the letter, worry quickly spread across Twilight’s face. Luna had not asked, but clearly ordered Twilight to round up the rest of her friends and report to Canterlot Castle immediately.
“Spike! Spike, wake up!” Twilight said in a hoarse whisper, before adding an impatient, “NOW!”
“Huh? What? Twilight, what the hay? It’s like two in the morning or something” grumbled Spike as he rolled back over and tried to return to sleep.
“Spike, you must get up! It’s an emergency!”
“Come back when it’s a catastrophe.”
“Spike! Up!” ordered Twilight, who then used her magic to levitate the basket holding the sleeping dragon and overturn it, spilling its contents in an angry fit.
“Alright, alright! I’m up. Now what’s so urgent that you had to wake me up at this time of night?” moaned Spike, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“I have just received a letter for Princess Luna, and she-“
“Don’t you mean Princess Celestia?” interrupted Spike, “Seriously, Twi’ I think you are just a little over tired” said Spike, as he put his forefinger and thumb together in a pinching gesture.
“No, I’m not overtired Spike! And you need to send a letter to all of our friends. She made it quite clear in her address that they were needed too.”
“Uh oh! Twilight, do you think Discord escaped again?” asked Spike, clearly frightened. Last time Discord escaped, Princess Celestia had sent so many letters through Spike that he had actually wished, for the first time in his life, that he wasn’t a dragon.
“Alright, the letters are written. Send them.”
“Now?”
“Of course.”
“But Twilight, everypony in Ponyville is sleeping.”
“Spike! The Princess ordered me to gather everypony and report to Canterlot immediately!”
“Fine, but ya know that Dewey is gonna be scared when you just up and disappear, leaving him with a newborn foal.”
“Spike, he knows I can take care of myself. Still, I probably should leave a letter. As for you, start sending those letters.”
“Yes ma’am!” saluted Spike.

---

“Uh, Twilight? What the hay is going on!” groaned Rainbow as she marched into the Library as quietly as she could, which for a pegasus would mean fluttering before landing with a soft tap.
“Yeah Twilight this is waaaay too early to be waking everypony up. Even for me” cried Pinkie Pie, as she lumbered though the door.
“Shoot, ya got that right, partner” croaked Applejack, who had not even bothered with combing her mane and even left her trademark Stetson back on her and Sonny’s’ bedpost back at Sweet Apple Acres. Sunny Dee, Applejack, and their daughter Peach Mango were the ones managing the orchard now. Big Macintosh had long ago moved in with Fluttershy once their earth pony daughter, Apple Forest.
“Ugh! I’ll never stay beautiful if I am awakened at this hour” huffed Rarity as pranced into the
“I don’t wanna argue, but they are right Twilight, why are we here s-s-so early?” whispered Fluttershy, as she suppressed a yawn.
“Because the Princess ordered us to be in Canterlot as soon as we could.”
At the mention of the word ‘princess’ Rainbow shot up immediately. “Well then, what are we waiting for? Princess Celestia needs us!”
“Rainbow, this letter wasn’t sent by Princess Celestia it. It was Princess Luna who contacted me.”
“Oh. Well we still gotta go! A princess is a princess.”
“Rainbow, keep it down” whispered Twilight as she pointed up stairs, indicating her newborn unicorn filly still asleep upstairs.
“I’ll teleport us all to the edge of Canterlot, we’ll walk to the Castle from there” said Twilight, as she started concentrating on the required spell.
“Are ya sure you can really do that without hurtin’ yerself, Sugarcube?” asked Applejack.
“I think so. I’ve been practicing with Dewey, Spike, and I. So I figure that if I can get two fully grown ponies and a dragon from here to Canterlot with no effort, it shouldn’t be too hard with six adult mares.”
“I don’t know, it sounds dangerous. Maybe we should…” started Fluttershy, before being cut off by Twilight.
“It’s fine. I can do this” said Twilight as a sudden bright white light engulfed all six of them and they disappeared in a flash, leaving behind a slightly smoldering scorch mark.
*POOF* “Uhhhh, toldya I could get us heeere” slurred Twilight as she swayed back and forth on the spot. “I don’t think I will be doing any magic until sunrise though.”
“Well, shall we continue then?” Rarity spoke up as they started along the cobblestone street.
“Strange, I haven’t heard a word from Pinkie since she stepped into the library” noticed Rarity. Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy looked back to see Pinkie snoring, right in the spot they had just teleported into.
“I’ll wake her” boasted Rainbow Dash, flying over to hover above her sleeping pink friend. Poking Pinkie Pie in the rump, the party ponies’ head shot up so quickly that Rainbow was surprised it didn’t catapult itself right off her body.
“I’m up! I’m up! Oooo, we’re in Canterlot! How’d we get here? Are we meeting the princess? Oooo, Applejack you really should have combed your mane. I mean, seriously you have got like total bedhead!” rambled off the just sleeping pony.
“Ugh, just follow us Pinkie, we’ll fill you in on the way” said Twilight Sparkle, pointing her hoof in the direction of the Castle.
“Princess Luna, we came as soon as we could” announced Twilight as she burst through the doors to the royal throne room. When the six entered, they were surprised to find not just Princess Luna, but Princess Celestia as well.
“Twilight, it is good to see you” spoke the alicorn of the night.
“My little ponies, it is unfortunate for me to bear such grave news at this hour. However, a being has escaped from his imprisonment. A being far more treacherous than any foe you have been forced to face alone. I had foolishly believed him to have been locked away forever, but on this night, the night of the first Lunar eclipse in millennia, Dante has escaped.”