Certamen

by DarkBunny91

Smoking Style

I stared in shock as I tried to comprehend whether or not it was saying its name or throwing me an unwanted party, but by the aggravation plastered across her skeletal visage I assumed the latter.

"That's really - that's your name?" I questioned disbelievingly.

"Hmph, perhaps, though that matters not cretin. I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid I can not simply allow you to walk out of here alive."

"Alright, ass, Trixie requests a moment," I replied, trying very hard to appear sullen and crestfallen, "If I am going to die, it sure as buck isn't going to be sober."

"...What?" the creepy skeletal pony - Surprise I guess, if that was really what it called itself - not that I cared, but it was nice to put a name to a face, even if that face was messed up and trying to kill me - asked.

"Bourbon, you uncultured mule, I am going to drink a shot of bourbon." My eyes narrowed slightly.

"Fine. Whatever. Just do it so I can eviscerate you without you whining," Surprise sighed, its face firmly planted into its hoof.

Slowly I pulled off my hat, taking care to casually check around the room for any exits that existed. Besides the room I came from which really wasn't an option as the water rising into the tunnel had blocked all access, there was a passage behind my would-be assailant. All I had to do was get past this demonic, probably invincible creature of the night. Well, this ought to be interesting.

Popping the top off of my flask with my magic, I began casting the first spells I could think of, using the glow of my levitation to hide any other castings. In an instant, my outline blurred until I was completely invisible, several copies of me appearing in a circle. As I teleported far to the left, my flank brushed painfully against the rough cavernous rock wall. I silently stifled a scream as I winced in pain, a gash dripped with blood.

"Nice trick, but you aren't going to get away that easily," she hissed as she tore into the first of my illusory copies.

Casting my voice onto a copy I steeled up my resolve and taunted, "Going to be harder than that to catch me."

Jumping from the first to the second illusion, I held the image a bit longer adding secondary effects to imitate what I hoped would emulate pony flesh and blood. The illusion gasped and started to fall with Surprise on top of it. After a few seconds I dismissed it dropping her to the ground.

"Buck, are you kidding me?"

Casting my voice onto the rest of the illusions I said, "Aw what's the matter, immortal undead creature can't catch a simple show mare?"

She shrieked with rage releasing several tendrils of some sort of black ichor in all directions. I hit the deck as they penetrated all of my copies, dispelling them, but from my sudden position on the floor, they passed over my head. Really glad I wasn't in that, that could have hurt.

I cast another set of spells, this time putting a little more magic into one of the illusions. A circle of fire appeared around the creature and several more copies of me appeared in a blinding flash of pink light and accompanying fog. The creature took a pause as it hesitantly pushed a hoof through the flames.

"Is that the best you have, hiding and throwing up fakes?" she hissed, looking around with growing malice and irritation nonchalantly stepping through the illusory flames.

I slowly crept over to the cave entrance, muffling my hoofsteps with a silence spell. I began scratching runes into the dirt and started dragging my hoof, forming a circle around the room.

Suddenly a weight threw me back. I hit the far wall with a substantial amount of force. Thankfully though, because of my muffle spell, no noise was made. I was able to scramble to my feet, throwing up another spell, covering the ground with an illusory mist and casting my magic sight. I may disbelieve my illusions, but that doesn't stop them from obscuring my vision so I just decided I was going to bypass that.

"I may not be able see you, but I can smell your blood!" I heard her call.

Well, buck. I could feel some blood trickling down my face. I pulled a knife from out of my hat and sliced my leg open and started splattering the blood around, teleporting again.

At the teleportation site I started the circle again and sent the pommel of my knife in the other direction, to continue the circle.

A few more tendrils shot past me as I crawled low, drawing the circle. With the circle complete I had one of the illusions begin chanting. Words flowed through the air. When the creature started to attack one, I had another continue the chant. Then another started a completely different chant. I breathed shallowly, the wounds were starting to hurt, but I couldn't give up now. Because it suddenly dawned on me that I was going to win.

"Checkmate, monster."

"What are you?" Surprise asked with a gasp.

Slowly Surprise's hooves left the ground and she rose up in the air surrounded by a glowing pink miasma. Every centimeter was apparent agony as the holy light infused magic lifted her higher.

"Ah-ah, a magician never reveals her secrets." I clopped my hooves together, and gently set them inside the circle.

A series of thin pink glowing lines appeared, creating a six point star inside the circle. The thestral was completely surrounded by my binding spell.

"What are you doing?" the beast half-screamed.

"By the light of Celestia, foul beast of the night, Trixie binds you to the circle. By the will of Luna, caretaker of the very night you profane, Trixie immobilizes you. May the stars turn their eyes from you, may the ground never embrace you, and may you never find solace from the sins you have made. Your unlife is now forfeit and your violence is at its end.

"Trixie banishes you to the plane of shadow to be punished by creatures of the Lulamoon employ. May Celestia have mercy upon your tainted soul, for you shall receive none from me."

With a final jerk the monstrous undead was slammed into the ground with bone-crunching force, its form slowly ripped into an ephemeral mist. With a final squeal of pain Surprise was ripped out of this plane of existence.

Hah, do better than that, bard!

I broke the seals and pulled out a scroll from my hat and conjured a small bit of charcoal. These runes weren't going to study themselves, and I had a text that I may be able to compare them to in depth. I set to work gathering rubbings of various sections. This was going to be a long night.

_____________

"Hey Lyra, Trixie is still missing."

"I know, and with that creature out there we should be out looking for her," Lyra replied. A heavy drowsiness hung on her eyes; she had appeared haggard ever since she had come out of the water. She had been visibly shaken, but she refused to talk about it, and with Trixie gone she was just about ripping her mane out in worry.

Her horn glowed again as she attempted a new scrying spell, and as every past attempt had shown, not a trace of her could be found. Insanity is repeating the same action over and over, hoping for a new result, and based on the eye twitch Lyra was beginning to develop, it showed. A wide grin crossed her face as she started to waver, her magical connection failing as her too large grin stretched impossibly wider. Suddenly, unable to sit upright any further, she collapsed on her side. She curled up into a ball, the smile on her face cloaked by her tail.

A hushed sobbing drew my concern to Lyra as she gently rocked back and forth in the fetal position. She was muttering about she was a bad friend and didn't deserve our trust. I scooted over next to her and wrapped my forelegs around her withers in a tender hug. She nuzzled into my stomach, a torrent of tears flowing down her face.

"There there, she will probably be back in the morning," I comforted her. She had to be, right?

Lightning flashed in the sky, revealing Lyra and the rain that was still pouring in sheets, making all mundane means of tracking close to impossible. Even after the rains had started, we followed the tracks as best we could, coming across a bloody compass and a place where two pairs of nearly identical tracks split up.

We followed them for several miles before coming across the other unicorn team. The blue who had instigated the fight with Trixie almost matched her hoof print verbatim, to a margin of a few degrees, something that a casual inspection had missed; it set us back so long that the tracks were washed out by the time we reached the clearing where Minuette and Trixie had magically duked it out.

"We are getting no where," Lyra mentioned to me, an edge of hysteria in her voice.

Through gritted teeth I exhaled, "I know that, thank you very much. There's got to be some way..."

Lyra turned in circles. "We've wandered around for hours, and we have no way of finding her now and the camp is so far away and I am hungry and she is probably going to DIE!" She lay down in the mud with a thump and closed her eyes tightly, trying to get back control of her sanity.

I sighed, "Oh for Luna's sake..." as I trotted back to my comrade.

She must have heard me, for she suddenly perked up. "Luna! Of course!" Quickly she attempted to wipe the tears from her face which only resulted in a streak of mud on her nose and flopped down on the ground snoring like a chainsaw.

I walked up and poked her a few times but she was out like a light. Wish I could fall asleep like that, narcolepsy is a gift.

_____________

I awoke in a starry field.

"You called?" a voice from the side murmured.

I turned swiftly, almost bumping faces with her. "Luna! Yes, hey um, sorry to bother you but the Great and Pretentious Trixie is missing and if you could, y'know, please find her, that would be awesome. Um, your majesty."

The princess of the night looked perplexed and amused. "This wasn't on tonight's episode..." It must have been the dirty look I gave her, because she then amended with a chuckle, "All right, all right, yes I'll try, okay? But no promises."

_____________

I lay down next to Lyra, and started staring at my hooves, because I really didn't know what to do. I sat around for several minutes wishing I had a book to read or something. Boredom had sunk her wicked talons into my brain, so in a fit I started to play with my mp3 player, fiddling with the dials and scrolling through music.

Uncontent with and irritable about the same thousand some odd songs I had, I tossed my mp3 player into my bag and plopped onto the ground. The grass was cold and moist against my back, causing my discomfort to rise considerably. In a last ditch attempt to amuse myself I puckered my lips up and blew a giant spit bubble. As I pushed the air out of my lungs and into the membranous ball of slobber, I felt my tongue graze across the razor tipped incisors that had unceremoniously invaded my upper line of teeth.

My eyes slid to my comrade. She hadn't moved for many minutes now, and I was lonely and bored. A day had gone by since we last saw our partner, and I didn't really understand how sleeping helped our cause. And my stomach growled so fiercely. A while since proper food, too... Having the diet of a college student left my cooking skills with much to be desired, and without pre-packaged ramen or hay fries, I would have to wait for Lyra to rise.

Oh sweet Celestia a nice apple sounds so good right now, or even that soup that Trixie had made. I am so hungry... My stomach ached with its emptiness.

Flailing on the ground and blowing spit bubbles lost its entertainment value pretty quick, so I dragged myself to my hooves and started to pace around our impromptu campsite. I dragged my rear hooves, scuffing a line behind me in a vain attempt to draw a picture in the dirt, but even my stick pony just made me hungry, and it looked like shit (I don't know why I expected anything else).

Bored and hungry I tossed myself onto my back to stare at the stars, using Lyra as a pillow. The soft skin of a performer greeted me, but the little furs on her back started to poke into my mane and messing it up as I wiggled to find a comfortable spot against the voluptuous bard. I rolled over to stand, but all I succeeded in doing was shoving my muzzle into the nape of Lyra's neck. I took a deep breath of air as I pulled away, but a smell akin to mint and juniper pulled me in for a second sniff. Lyra, her mane smelled delicious, almost like candy and liquor. Her short flowing mane that curled tantalizingly around her neck, her sweet mint smelling neck... I lowered my head to her, slowly centimeter by centimeter as my vision faded out. A longing feeling like lust invaded my brain as I felt warmth on my nose. I opened into a grin, drool dripping down the corner of my mouth as I bared my fangs.

_____________

Luna didn't seem to be having much luck, she was sweating and looking rather nervous. After what seemed like an eternity, she opened her eyes and looked at me somewhat guiltily. "I could not find Trixie. I am very sorry, dear. She must be awake, or somewhere even my powers do not reach. It would be useless to keep trying, for now anyway. Good luck - and wake swiftly! For I fear for your safety as well!"

I stared at her. "But I have Vinyl-" I started to say, before being thrust back to consciousness.

_____________

I pulled back horrified, but still grimly satisfied with my actions. Blood spattered all across my muzzle, and Lyra's green pelt was contrastly stained red. It was a macabre sight to be sure, me standing over my victim.

A cold shiver jolted down my spine as Lyra began to stir. With every minor motion, more blood pooled from her neck. A small puddle had formed by the time she let out a pitiful groan. She started to thrash about in wracking pain and her hooves beat a small indent into the dirt.

Her bloodshot eyes opened with a pained blink, taking in the full view of me in my monstrous state. Plastered with blood, my eyes certainly glowing red, six-centimeter fangs hanging from the corners of my mouth. I knew she was going to think me a traitor and a monster, and honestly, I felt I rather deserved that at least.

"Lyra..."

_____________

I stood up shakily. "Vinyl! What in Tartarus have - what have you done?"

Reality set in as a large droplet of water splashed down onto the back of my neck setting it alight with pain along the left side. I stumbled back, away from the one I considered my friend, tripping over a rain-slicked log onto my back. A burning sensation began to radiate from around the injury site; a silent scream caught on my lips.

"Vinyl. You..." I paused, composing myself, unsure of what to say and bleeding. "I don't know what is happening, but you need to control yourself, if you attack anypony else... I just, I don't know what."

She looked stricken and guilty. "I don't know either..." she whispered, tears torrenting down her bloody face, more red to the mosaic sanguine. She made no move to wipe either the sanguine of her tears or my blood from her face, though the rain was doing a pretty good job of it by itself. "I don't know what happened. I lost control..."

I silenced her with a hush, putting my hoof to her muzzle. "I dont know if I want to forgive you, what's happening to you, or if something is going to happen to me now. But we both need sleep, and I need food to begin healing myself. I know we passed by a bunch of wild mushrooms, not long ago, so I can start some food at least. And regardless of what you are now, you are still Vinyl Scratch, my teammate and confederate in this competition."

A numbness enfolded my entire being and with it came exhaustion, but I wasn't down and I certainly had been through rough spots before. Grudgingly, I pushed myself past the threshold of exhaustion and pain. My limbs moved of their own accord, down to the small copse where I had seen the fungi earlier, by pure tenacity and willpower at this point. I needed to heal myself so I could find Trixie, or Luna forbid, should I have to fight Vinyl.

_____________

A sullen emptiness and a macabre sense of pride were having an argument in my gut as waves of nausea and revulsion flittered through me, just barely overcoming the feeling of fullness like none I ever experienced before. When we reached the mushrooms, Lyra dug up about twenty and shared them with me. I only ate a few before my body began to reject the solid food, half of me hoped that she was wrong and they were poisonous mushrooms after all so I could escape my guilt.

I gave Lyra the remainder of my mushrooms, on the account I already ate. Bad Vinyl. I spotted a cave about fifty meters ahead of Lyra and I, it wasn't much, but it was something.

We trotted over to it, silence filling the air as only our hooves beating against the dirt broke the oppressing quiet.It was dark, true to cave fashion probably one of the darkest caves I had ever been in, even with my enhanced eyesight and light filtering glasses I couldnt see more than five meters in front of my snout. I walked to the back of the cave which led into a decline filled with water and curled up into a ball, depression consumed me and I sunk into Luna’s embrace.

_____________

In the morning I found a hoof-full of berries and ate them before Vinyl woke. She could find her own food, anyway, maybe thin out the competition a bit... I thought; a twang of guilt was followed by a slight need for revenge as I prodded her awake. She looked at me bleary-eyed before remembering her actions of the night before and looked abashed.

"Ignoring the basic rules of horror movies, we should split up," I suggested. "I will go this way," I pointed towards a grove that had previously been obscured by the rain. "You can go the opposite way. Okay?"

She just nodded and dejectedly shuffled off her way, which was rather dark and gloomy looking.

I didn't watch her go, instead was somewhat reinvigorated in the search for our friend. So far there was no sign of her. Then - I saw hoofprints in the mud. Even though they were clearly not Trixie's, they were someone's that weren't mine or Vinyl's either! These tracks are somewhat familiar. No wait, very familiar, like someone I know... Not Bonny, not Vinyl, not my own (that would be silly), not anyone I have met from here near as I can tell.

I followed the tracks for about twenty minutes, deviating from my wasted effort in tracking Trixie, when I stumbled into a clearing in which sat a small rustic cabin.

The cabin was an old hoofbuilt A-frame, the kind that was popular one hundred years ago, with a coat of light red paint on the wall I could see and a slate covered roof. The door was made of sandalwood with a large brass knocker, the material of which matched the rather ornate lion head handle.

Hesitantly, I followed the tracks up to the window which was cracked open, the curtains blocking my vision. Carefully I slid the window open and peeked inside, and what I saw caught my attention. It was trashed, broken furniture and an overturned shelf spilled its its contents all over the floor. A small oil lamp sat burning on the floor near the broken table in the center of the room casting deep shadows that melted into the darkness, creating an almost Gothic appearance. Several trails of the familiar hoofprints tracked around the room upsetting the dust before ultimately leading to a recently used door.

Quivering with anticipation, I climbed in. With a soft thus I hit the ground causing some dust to fly into the air. I gasped in annoyance at myself for making noise, inhaling a large portion of the dust cloud. Try as I might to resist, the dust eventually caused me to burst out coughing.

The sound of hooves quick trotting to the door put me on edge, so I quickly and quietly creeped behind the broken table, blocking myself from the door. It slowly creaked open, the hoof-fall encroaching into the room.

It was then that one of the last voices I would have ever expected sounded out. With an air of refinement, I heard the gray earth pony ask, "Who’s there?"

"Octavia, what’re you doing here?”

Author's Note:

Sorry about the delay guys, I just have been suffering from writers block, then perfectionism, and just generally being away from my typing devices because of work.

Comments

[Mooncalf]

Remember how I was rather disappointed in the prior chapter because Trixie seemed to come off as a joke and a general punching bag? Well, this more than made up for it. I wholeheartedly approve. So rather than being "weak but skilled" with a very varied spell selection (which is Lyra's gig here, instead) she's got heavy-duty rituals from her family in addition to her illusions. Niiice. Comes off as quite competent indeed, even courageous.

Hum, Lyra's pretty chill with her blood-drinking pal, while at the same time taking every opportunity to talk smack about Trixie. It does make sense given past history and all, though now I can't help but wonder if there's a connection between Luna and the Lulamoon family (it comes up in a few fanfics) and Lyra just committed a nasty faux pas without thinking about it. Karma's a bitch, isn't it?

Editing nitpick: You forgot to close off the italics about roughly halfway in, and everything after that was italicized. May want to fix that.

Good story, still entertaining. Waiting for continuation. Also, if you need help editing, I'll gladly offer my services.

[DarkBunny91]

4632133 Amazing what a single / missing can do huh?

[DarkBunny91]

4632133 Also, if you want to help out shoot me a pm

[Cinder]

So far, I'm absolutely loving this story. Months ago I searched up a bunch of stories for future reading material and saved them, and I'm very glad I finally got around to reading this one.

First, your portrayal of the characters are fun and interesting and I find them to be very well written. Trixie's my favorite at the moment, though I greatly enjoy your characterization of Lyra and Vinyl as well. Second, I'm particularly fond of your writing style: It's descriptive enough to give vivid images, yet focuses on action and keeps the story flowing. Seriously, just about every paragraph was a joy to read. And third, the idea of the story is appealing. It's an interesting setting and I'm eager to see where it goes next, especially concerning Vinyl's fate now that she's been infected.

As for this chapter in particular; yay Trixie. I'm always amazed when characters are able to escape from horrible, bleak situations in a way that's actually plausible, and this was no different. That's some seriously skilled illusion work going on there, and I don't doubt that Trixie would be able to do that.

I don't often read fan fiction, but stories like yours make me want to more often. It's lovely to find something so fun and well written. While there are occasional obvious typos or even an accidental repeated word once or twice, it's still easy to stay enchanted. I'd be very happy to see more of this. Good job!