Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Three
It seemed that after going through two more purifying sessions, Rarity found it was getting easier and easier to preform this primitive magic. She still was not totally comfortable with it, but seeing the Ponylanders finally free of it was very satisfying for Rarity. Despite her fears of accidently hurting them, the magic seemed to be working like a charm. Even Rath didn’t seem inclined to complain about their progress. By the time Rarity was done she was starting to perspire a bit, which displeased her greatly, but she knew that would be fixed with a nice long shower later. Right now she had a bigger job looming ahead of her.
Twilight Sparkle explained the basic plan to the newly restored Ponylanders. Magic Star nodded after Twilight Sparkle was done explaining.
“We’ll help you in any way we can. Right?” She looked at Ember and the other Applejack. Twilight Sparkle still found looking at both her and Twilight Unicorn strange. The orange earth pony was almost the total double of their AJ, and the pale unicorn was almost exactly like Twilight Sparkle’s own mother. It was hard for her, even with Twilight Unicorn’s shape, to not refer to the Ponylander as ‘mom’. Even Twilight Sparkle’s mind went ‘oh, there’s my mother’, without thinking about it. You would think that with Ponylander’s looking so different then Equestrians that it would be easy to not think of Twilight Unicorn this way, but for some reason it wasn’t. It must be even worse for poor Applejack, both of them.
Twilight Sparkle nodded and got to her hooves. “We need as many hooves on deck as we can get. I’d be honored if you helped us.”
Celestia, who had been watching all this from the stairs, trotted all the way in and came to stand beside the younger alicorn. “I’m going to send as many of my remaining guards as I can, and I’ve asked the Wonderbolts to lend some aerial support. You’re going to need all the help you can get.”
Although Twilight Sparkle was not to confidant in the abilities of the Wonderbolts after the incident with Spike, and the Rainbow Falls thing…and the scene at the young fliers competition, she had to admit that any help was useful at this point. Besides, they wouldn’t have to win, just hold out long enough for Rarity to purify the Heart. And the Wonderbolts were fast and maneuverable, perfect for distracting Tirac’s forces. She looked up at Celestia. “Princess…are you coming to?”
For a moment Celestia hesitated, then shook her head. “Cadence and you are going. While I don’t like the idea of letting you two go alone, the fact is that Luna and I should stay here. In the unlikely event you fail.” Celestia smiled gently at Twilight, indicating that she had little doubts that Twilight would win, regardless of her precautions. “We will be needed here.”
Twilight Sparkle nodded and looked at Rath. “What about you?”
The skeleton turned his skull towards her. “I’ll go over with you.”
“And you’ll help us?”
“I’ll do what I can.”
Twilight didn’t like the way he kept dodging an actual promise to help them during the fight. It didn’t help that his skull was totally unreadable. The creature could be thinking anything at all, and Twilight would have no idea what was going on in there until it was potentially too late. On the other hoof so far he had fulfilled his promise to help, and his runes had worked on the corrupted ponies very well. Twilight wished she had more time to get to know him, but she didn’t. She just had to have a little faith.
Twilight Sparkle gave one last nod to Celestia, taking comfort in the older alicorn’s gentle smile. Knowing that her mentor had confidence in her made Twilight feel a lot better. She walked back towards the group.
“Alright, let’s head back to the gate. I think we’re ready to go.”
“What’s the plan?” Magic Star asked.
Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth to explain when the stupid lich rapped her on the head and growled. “Enough jabbering. Let’s move. If I stay any longer in your world I’m going to start eating the damn pigeons.”
“…undead don’t eat.”
“Okay, grinding them to death. With my teeth.” Rath growled. Twilight Sparkle glared at him.
“Fine.” She looked at Magic Star. “We’re distracting Tirac.” Magic Star nodded as Twilight Sparkle fired up her horn, teleporting them all (minus Celestia and Luna) back to the gate.
“…Sister…are you sure we can’t put that one back into stone later?” Luna asked, pointing a hoof to where Rath had been standing.
“I’ll check the library.” Celesta said. “Even if he didn’t kill Clover, that doesn’t mean he’s being honest with us. I’d like to have a backup, just in case.”
Twilight Sparkle stared at the mirror, then looked down at the apparently still snoozing Ribbon. She would have liked to know how the unicorn’s dream walking skills worked, and if they were related to Luna’s dream walking. She looked up at Galaxy, who was watching over the other unicorn as well. The rest of the army of ponies and assorted Equestrians were mingling, getting used to one other. There was no way they could get to Ponyland without the mirror working, but fortunately they had Ribbon’s magic to help them. Twilight didn’t know who Ribbon could contact over there, but she thought she could find someone free. Apparently this Scorpan person that Red Spike kept talking about used to be under Tirac’s original spell, so it was very likely that he would be resistant this time around. Hopefully.
“You think she can reach him?” Twilight asked Galaxy. She might as well learn as much as she could while they were just sitting here. “It does work on creatures other then ponies.”
Galaxy nodded. “Not as well on other creatures, but it works. She contacted Megan once with it. They just have to be asleep for her to make contact. And he has to go to sleep at some point.” Galaxy sighed. “She might not be able to get one or two words out though. It’s always shaky on certain creatures.”
“What kind of creatures?” Twilight asked.
“Well, mostly non unicorns.” Galaxy shrugged. “I’m not sure why. Not sure how most of our powers work. I never really questioned it. They just…work.”
Before Twilight could question further Ribbon’s eyes opened and she sat up. “Got him.”
Galaxy smiled and got to her hooves. “Good news?”
“Not sure. I only got to say ‘use the mirror’ and he kinda stared at me…he was also in that gargoyle form of his for some reason…” Ribbon shrugged. “Let’s hope it got through.”
Twilight concentrated on stopping herself from twitching. She hated to not be in control of a situation. But thankfully a few minutes later the mirror sprang to life. Twilight got to her hooves and amplified her voice. She was starting to get used to the Royal Canterlot Voice, and was starting to understand why it was probably used. Ponies in the back of the crowd would need to hear her orders.
“Everypon-one. Everyone. Ribbon and I are going over first. She’ll come back over and tell the rest of you to come over once we have determined if it’s safe or not.” The army shifted, but no one objected. Twilight primed up her shield spell and walked through the portal, followed by Ribbon. Even if they got caught in a trap, the blue unicorn could still contact others from across dimensions.
After having gone through the portal before Twilight was prepared for the washer machine sensation of going through. By the time her hooves had hit the ground she had surrounded herself, the mirror, and the just appeared Ribbon in a bubble similar to her brother’s force fields. She looked up to see a rather bewildered looking gargoyle thing standing beyond the bubble, along with an equally puzzled looking cat creature. Neither of them had the glowing yellow eyes of the brainwashed.
“You’re Scorpan?” Twilight Sparkle asked.
“…yes. Who are you?”
Twilight straightened herself and bowed. “Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria. Sorry about the shield, just making sure that we weren’t coming into something we couldn’t handle.”
Scorpan smiled and nodded. “I understand.” He bowed his head at Ribbon. “Nice to see you again, Ribbon, even with circumstances being what they are.”
Ribbon nodded and smiled at him. Twilight noticed her horn started to glow. With a jolt she realized the unicorn was reading their minds. The fact that Ribbon was so calm must mean that the two creatures in front of her were being honest with them, but that didn’t stop Twilight from looking at Ribbon with surprise. Ribbon looked at her and said. “You can lower the shield, it’s fine.”
Twilight did and looked at the two strange creatures. Neither seemed particularly offended by Ribbon’s mind invasion. She looked at him. “You…do know what she’s doing?”
The cat blinked. “Mind reading? Yeah. Sensible. Why, does it bother you?”
Twilight blinked. “Well…isn’t it kinda…rude?”
“Since so many of our friends are currently brainwashed, I’d say it’d be dumb for you to trust us without it.” Scorpan grinned. “Ribbon won’t dig into anything personal anyway. We trust her.”
Twilight shrugged and eyed Ribbon’s horn. It had stopped glowing, which made Twilight feel a little better. Ribbon, however, didn’t seem to notice Twilight’s eyeing, as she was turning back to the mirror to go get the rest of the army. Twilight turned to the two Ponyland creatures and lowered her shield. “We got a pretty large of group of ponies and griffins coming in.” She looked around, and saw that they were in some sort of underground room with…a pool. “Where are we?”
“My castle. The pool is for the Sea Ponies.” Scorpan said. He studied her. “You look a lot like a larger version of some young ponies that stopped by here a few days ago.”
“You met the Cutie Mark Crusaders?”
“…a what?” The cat asked as he left ear flicked.
“Cutie Mark, it’s what we call the symbols on our flanks in Equestria.” Twilight Sparkle indicated hers. “Young ponies have to earn their marks by finding their special talent. Those three fillies haven’t yet, so they don’t have Cutie Marks. I know that’s not how it works here, though.”
“Ah…interesting.” The cat said, giving Twilight’s mark a closer look. “What does yours mean, if it’s not rude to ask.”
“My talent’s magic.” Twilight replied. “And it’s alright, it’s not rude. By the way, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Catrina.”
“Nice to meet you.” Twilight looked behind her as ponies began to emerge from the mirror. “We have a lot to talk about…”
Had Twilight been paying the least bit of attention, she would have noticed a certain skeletal figure exit the portal and slip to the side of the wall. The rest of the ponies, to busy concentrating on organizing themselves, didn’t notice Rath sink into the dirt, and vanish from sight.
Hydia flipped through a spell book, growling unhappily to herself. The volcano was quiet, to quiet. Especially since all the Changelings, and the Pony of Shadows, had left for Midnight castle. Normally this would have thrilled Hydia, but now the silence was only serving as a remainder that her daughter was trapped by the stinking creatures.
“Why don’t we just bash them over the head and take her!” Reeka snarled as she paced around impatiently.
“Because, idiot, there’re hundreds of them, and if we try something they will go after us and catch us before we could out. Besides, Tirac still thinks we are his allies. I don’t want to show our hand quite yet.”
“And what are we going to say when he askes where Draggle is!?”
“Lie, moron! And we’ll keep her locked up where he won’t find her!”
“How is that any different then what the ponies did to her!”
“It’s just till we finish deprograming her!”
“D-what?”
“Un-brainwash.” Hydia growled. “It’s for her own good.”
Reeka huffed, but didn’t contradict her mother.
“…I like what you’ve done with the place.”
Reeka whirled around and Hydia looked up. Rath was standing in the doorway, leaning on the frame and tapping his fingers against his opposite arm. The lich’s eyes glowed even brighter in the dank dark volcano.
“Who are you? Don’t you know better then to barge into a witch’s lair!?” Hydia grabbed her broom and pointed the bristles at Rath threateningly. Reeka sneered and moved to the side, attempting to flank the intruder. Rath chuckled.
“…family resemblance…uncanny. I didn’t think the blood would hold up that way after so long.” Rath said.
“Who. Are. You.” Hydia leaped off the table where she had been reading and approached Rath, poking her broom closer to him. As a response Rath unsheathed his sword. Reeka tensed and almost jumped on him, but Rath instead knelt down to Hydia’s level and let her take a good look at his sword. She stared at it, then gasped.
“You can’t…you aren’t!”
“I am. Swarja Rath.”
Hydia grabbed the hilt of the sword and drew it closer to her. Rath let it go and allowed Hydia to study it further. Hydia looked up and snorted.
“So you have my ancestor’s sword, how do I know you didn’t steal it?”
“I had three daughters. Badba, Macha, Morrigu. You should know these names. One of them was your ancestor.” He studied her. “…Morrigu, correct?”
Hydia stared, then nodded slowly. “How did you know?”
“Eyes. She had her mother’s. So do you.”
Hydia snorted, then suddenly clapped her hand onto Rath skull. She harshly chanted something, to fast for Reeka to follow. Rath seemed to wince, but didn’t pull back. After a moment, Hydia took her hand away, her expression changing from suspicion to amazement.
“You aren’t lying.”
“I don’t lie to my family.”
Hydia cackled. “Wonderful! You can help us get Draggle back! And deal with the ponies!”
Reeka kept sneering. “How’s the bone bag going to help?”
Hydia snarled and went over to shove Reeka. “Be polite, this is your ancestor! Show some respect!” Hydia looked at the lich, who had wandered over to the book she had been reading from. He had clapped his hands behind him and was just…staring. “You have an idea, Rath?”
“Hrrrmmmm, books everywhere. Newfangled shit…” He looked up, his eye-lights blinking. “…call me Grandpa, I think. I don’t like being called by my name like that. Not by you…or her.”
Reeka blinked and nudged Hydia with her elbow. “He’s weird.”
“He’s old.” Hydia hissed back. “Just live with it. Old people are weird.” Hydia missed Reeka’s blink of surprise and slight amusement.
“The ponies, all of them, are going to attack Midnight Castle soon.” Rath said, picking up the book and closing it. He pitched it into a pile of random crap across the room. “Perfect time to make our move.”
“We’re going to stop them?” Reeka asked.
“Fuck no.” Rath said. “No point. They have something that might help them win. I gave it to them. That’s why they freed me.”
“Why?” Reeka glared. “Why help them? They’re the enemy!”
“Because right now helping them helps us. Plus, stupid to antagonize something when you are surrounded by it and their…friends.” Rath said. And telling Tirac will only alert him to what we are going to be doing.”
“Which is getting Draggle out of there, right?” Hydia asked.
“Correct. We get her out, and since I’m the one that gave the ponies their little advantage in the first place, they will leave us alone, at least for a while. Which gives you time to get through to your daughter.” Rath looked in Hydia’s general direction.
“What if Tirac finds out?” Reeka asked.
Rath gently took his sword from Hydia and tilted his skull. “What if he does?” He spun the weapon in his hand and sheathed it.
The two witches grinned at him.
By the time that Twilight Sparkle was done explaining her plan, yet again, the room underneath Scorpan’s castle was packed full of various varieties of ponies, griffons, and two humans. The members of Team Break Things and Team Purify had separated themselves into their two groups already, with the rest of the fighters clustered together.
“Unfortunately there already is an army between us and Midnight Castle.” Scorpan pointed out, rubbing his long snout. “You’ll have to break through them.”
Twilight Sparkle frowned. “If we take to much time in the mist, we could get corrupted eventually. Your Applejack proved that.”
“Well well now. Once again the day has to be saved by meeeee.”
Twilight winched as Discord popped into existence, smirking happily. He was laying on a subwoofer, that had thankfully been turned off, and wearing a pair of headphones. Scorpan winched.
“…friend of yours?” He asked Twilight. She hesitated for a few seconds before saying yes. She tried to ignore Discord’s brief frown. She made no secret that she didn’t trust Discord, and she knew he knew. Still, he seemed to content to behave somewhat as long as Fluttershy was around. Discord made the subwoofer and the headphones disappear, and he leaned forwards and put a claw around Twilight.
“Now now, you don’t have to sound so hesitant. I can get you to Midnight Castle. I’ll even drop those two separate teams of yours off as well. Great idea, by the way. A team dedicated to Chaos!” Discord practically squeed. “Glad to see we are all still learning from our friends.”
“Yeah…sure…right.” Twilight ducked away from Discord. “If you can teleport all of us there, then do it.”
“Er…Twilight?”
Twilight turned as Rarity galloped up. “What’s wrong?”
“Have you seen that ghastly lich around? He gave me some more of the runes before we crossed over, but I lost track of him.” Rarity shifted. “I have a bad feeling.”
Discord frowned. “Lich? What lich?”
“Rath. He helped us get the magic that will purify the Heart of Ponyland.” Twilight said. She blinked as Discord bared his uneven teeth at her.
“Oh really? And here I thought I was special. Sunbutt’s just giving free passes out to everything now, is she?” Discord snorted.
Twilight blinked again. “What’s your problem?”
“Nothing, just as long as that creep stays away from Fluttershy.” Discord said, folding his arms. “Hate to have a bad influence around.” Twilight tried not to roll her eyes at him. “I’m serious, Twilight. Little ponies shouldn’t play with dead things. Not even –I- desecrate the dead.”
“…let me guess, you find the dead boring?” Twilight asked wryly. When Celestia said ‘little ponies’ it was affectionate. Discord made it sound like a condescending insult.
“Terribly stiff, you know? They don’t throw the most lively of parties after all.” Discord waved a noisemaker around, then stick it in his mouth like a cigar.
“I’ll keep that in mind. I don’t trust him either. But right now the most important thing is getting to the Heart. Care to give us that lift, Discord?”
Discord sighed. “I can get most of you outside the castle, and I can get the two teams in. But I don’t know exactly where he’s hidden the Heart, so you’ll have to do that part on your own. And no, Twilight, I’m not fighting.”
“But-“
“I don’t fight in wars. I’ll help you, but I don’t do war. It’s uncomfortable, and not at all fun. Deal with it.” Discord lifted his fingers. “Besides, what’s the fun if I do everything for you? I’m sure the audience would hate for me to just snap my fingers and fix everything!”
“Wait, what-” Twilight didn’t get to finish her sentence as Discord snapped his fingers. In an instant Twilight was talking to air. She could see Midnight Castle, perched on a cliff, half finished, and looming creepily a few gallops away. “Audience?”
“…I think I loath that thing. Greatly.” Catrina, who had been dragged along with Scorpan, grumbled. She shrugged and looked at Twilight. “…you going to just trot over there and knock on the front door?” The cat woman then blinked as the members of Team Break Things and Team Purify vanished with two more pops.
“Well, we are the distraction.” Twilight spread her wings. She took a deep breath, and again tried to use the Royal Canterlot Voice. “TIRAC! COME OUT AND FIGHT!”
The force of the Voice nearly blew a few griffons backwards and almost toppled a pair of earth ponies. Clearly taking this as the signal the griffons took to the air, along with the pegasus members of the guard, the Ponylander pegasi, and the Wonderbolts. The earth ponies and unicorns came to stand beside and behind her, organizing themselves into several rows. Twilight was pleased to note that the ponies from both world seemed fairly spread out between them.
Twilight looked to see Galaxy and Majesty stop next to her. Megan had climbed up on Galaxy’s back, and for some odd reason had a rope in her hands. Twilight looked to the other side to see her Applejack on her other side.
“Ya ready fer this, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, and Twilight noticed with some amusement that she had a rope with her as well.
“I am.”
“Good. Let’s buck this bastard into next Tuesday.” Applejack stamped the ground with her hoof, eyes narrowed and determined.
Twilight grinned and faced the castle once more, only to find that absolutely nothing was happening. A few ponies shifted around and scuffed their hooves. There were a few coughs.
“Allow me.” Discord popped back into existence, microphone in claw. He lifted it to his mouth and let loose with a string of vile insults. Most of them in some way involved Tirac’s smell, hygiene, person bedroom habits, his taste for the backsides of goats, his intellect, and his mother. Especially his mother. Discord finished this tirade with a claim that Tirac was a ‘spongy idle-headed gudgeon’ (whatever that meant), and that he smelled of elderberries. By the time he was done Twilight was staring at Discord, flabbergasted.
By the time the last insult had echoed off the cliffs, the evil centaur himself had clopped to his battlements to lean over and stare incredulously at the army before his castle.
“Seriously?” He bellowed at them. Twilight responded with a well placed beam of lavender energy directly to his face. He ducked and allowed the energy to blast off a bit of his tower wall. Tirac turned and started to bellow into the castle. Now Twilight knew she had his attention.
“There you go! Have fun, everypony!” Discord crowed in almost the exact same tone he used before the hedge maze incident, and vanished. Twilight had a feeing he was probably still around. Watching them. And laughing.
But now was not the time to think about that. The doors to Midnight Castle opened, and a swarm of Dream Valley dwellers poured out of the gates. Twilight had never seen such a variety of creatures before in her life. Wings still spread Twilight lowered her head and pawed at the ground.
“Charge!” She bellowed, and began to gallop towards Midnight Castle. As she got closer she started to see individual ponies. She spotted a few guards from Equestria, but to her disappointment there was no sign of Shining Armor. Or Pinkie Pie.
Rainbow on the other hand…
“Hey, Twilight! You better watch out! We’re going to kick your flanks!” The corrupted Rainbow Dash, who now looked a bit more like Monochrome Dash, swooped low towards Twilight and Applejack, grinning a wide, mad grin.
“Get down here and we’ll who kicks whose flank, Rainbow!” Applejack shouted up at Rainbow. She whipped out her rope and swung the lasso. Before Rainbow could dodge away Applejack had looped her hind legs and dragged her to the ground. “Ready to have some sense knocked inta ya?”
Rainbow leaped to her hooves and shook the ropes off. She grinned wickedly at Applejack. “Bring it.” With a buzz of her wings Rainbow was on Applejack, kicking with her hooves in an attempt to smack the farm pony in the face. Applejack leaped to the side and kicked Rainbow’s wing. Her own hoof blows were far stronger then Rainbow, and the pegasus flipped over, flailing. Rainbow skidded on the ground, then leaped into the air, attempting to get the drop on Applejack. Applejack snorted and dodged, the two competitive ponies leaped and sidestepped and struck at each other, neither in their vast stubbornness willing to give the other any ground.
Twilight had only a few seconds to notice their fight before a huge crab like creature was looming over her, clacking its claws and frowning.
“Sorry ma’am. But I have to restrain you.” The head crabnasty rumbled. Twilight teleported to his head and blasted his hard shell with her magic. The crab reeled, and Twilight leaped behind him and blasted him again, almost tipping him over.
“Try it.” She challenged as the head crabnasty swung his claw at Twilight. She teleported away into the air, spreading her wings to hover over him as she did so. Another blast of energy made him step back a pace. He again went for her with his claws, but Twilight managed to twist away in he air and give him another shot.
“Tip him over, Twilight!” Megan, still riding Galaxy, galloped over, swinging her lasso. Galaxy leaped past the head crabnasty, looping her rope around a second crabnasty that was trying to come up behind Twilight and pinch her from behind. Megan looped the rope around the second crab creature’s legs and pulled, yanking it off balance so Magic Star could come from the side and head-butt it over. The second crabnasty yelled and wiggled his legs into the air, helpless.
Twilight smirked at the head crabnasty, who gulped as Twilight once more dove for him.
My Queen, there is an orc here for you.
Chrysalis signed as she nuzzled her baby. She knew that she would probably had to go back to ‘work’ eventually. She had hoped she would get a few more days with her newly hatched child. Hoever, even she could hear the Princess of Friendship’s shout, and the ensuing sounds of battle. She raised herself to her hooves and gave her larva a pat. She grinned down at Draggle, who gave her a small grin.
“How much you want to bet that’s my ponies?” She laughed. “You’re dead.”
“Oh don’t gloat before you’ve won. Your friends will be on our side soon enough…but if you’re good, I might be willing to arrange for you to see them from time to time.” Chrysalis said. “You really should have joined when you had the chance. Oh well. To bad.”
“Go hump a cactus.”
“Hmmm, temper temper.” Chrysalis chuckled as she sauntered to the dungeon door. The orc standing on the other side was hopping from foot to foot.
“You come. Ponies attacking. Master needs you.” The orc grunted and turned away.
Chrysalis sighed and summoned a good portion of her warrior Changelings to battle. The bug like creatures swarmed out the nearest window, which was conveniently down the hall from the dungeons. Chrysalis followed her kin, swooping around until she spotted the aerial forces arrayed against them. She could see the useless little Wonderbolts, a gaggle of griffons, and a small amount of guard pegasi and night ponies. She scanned the crowd, eager to see if her old enemy Cadence was among them. She mentally sent her forces to support Tirac’s as she scanned the skies for the familiar pink alicorn. She narrowed her eyes. There was no way that pink fool would leave her beloved Shining Armor in her clutches. Perahps she was somewhere hidden, waiting to launch a surprise attack?
A blur of yellow and pink shot towards her, and a for a moment Chrysalis thought it was the yellow element, but then she saw the butterfly wings, and Chrysalis chuckled once more. Rosedust was no Cadence…but at the same time it would interesting to match wits with the evasive creature again.
“Well well, look who decided to join us!” Chrysalis grinned as Rosedust flew into range. The Flutter Pony buzzed fiercely at her.
“I’m here to take back what is mine.” Rosedust said.
“Hmmm, I don’t think so. I went easy on you before, bug. I won’t be so nice this time.” Chrysalis launched herself at Rosedust, who twisted out of the way.
“You’re more a bug then I! It’s time to end this!” Rosedust’s magic flew from her wings to strike at Chyrsalis, but the Changeling queen turned and charged again, fangs bared.
The two insectiod ponies zipped and zagged in midair, neither landing a true blow. Rosedust was far to evasive for Chrysalis to land a hit, but the Changeling Qeen was to durable for Rosedust’s relatively weak strikes to have much effect. So the two of them darted in midair, neither gaining the upper hand, in a stalemate…for now.
All I have to do is wear her down. She will tire, then I can take her to ground and let the mist deal with her. As good as a win.
Chrysalis grinned. It was all a matter of time. She had plenty, but Rosedust had none. She couldn’t help but wonder if the Flutter Pony knew that or not. Regardless, she would realize it in time, but by then it would far to late.
Cadence had found herself and her allies in what appeared to be the kitchens. Cadence couldn’t help but wonder if Discord planned this. Whatever the reason, they were now in a nice large area with plenty of things to toss around, tear open, throw at the walls and dump. For some odd reason there was a huge red cake on one of the counters. It smelled like red velvet, and Cadence could see writing on it, half finished: Congratu. Congratulations, probably? Cadence didn’t know that villains made each other congratulatory cakes. However, she put that thought on the back burner as she was to busy levitating pots and pans and throwing them against walls. Flash was directing the guard ponies to set up crude table barricades, so they could duck behind things when the local guards investigated the racket. Danny imminently took a large container of lard and began to grease up the floors near the doorways. He was grinning happily.
“When those guards come they’ll be in for a surprise!”
“Speaking of which!”
Cadence looked up to see Pinkie Pie and Surprise hovering over them, Pinkie riding Surprise with a big grin on her face. The two ponies safely landed, Pinkie leaping off Surprise’s back and bouncing towards Cadence.
“Just sit still, silly fillies, then we will aaaaaalll be best friends again.” She chuckled, almost cruelly, at Cadence. “Don’t you want to be with your little snuggle bear Shiny?”
Cadence gagged at the cutsie language before grabbing Pinkie in her magic and flinging her into the cake headfirst. Pinkie emerged from the cake, grinning happily and munching some of the cake. Cadence picked up several pans with her magic and started to fling them at Pinkie, being careful not to aim for Pinkie’s head. Danny upturned the tub of lard over Surprise’s head and dodged behind a table.
At this point orc, troggle, and even one or two grundles rushed into the kitchen, only to trip and skid on the lard. A few of their weapons ended up on the foor, and the members of Team Break Things began to scoop them up. Most of them were spears, and using both magic, hands or wings the Team began to hit the guards over the heads with the wooden spear shafts, not willing to skewer anyone that might be brainwashed. Slipping and sliding, Tirac’s forces righted themselves, and, forgoing their captured weapons, picked up some of the fallen pans and began to beat back at Team Break Things.
Cadence jumped behind a table and levitated bits of icing, cake, and a still struggling Pinkie Pie. She hurled the mess, including Pinkie, at Surprise, who had only just managed to get the lard pot of her head. The two were knocked hooves over head to the ground.
“Ha! Surprise!” Cadence laughed.
“That’s my name!” Surprise raised a hoof in victory. “…ha…ow…Pinkie you have your hoof in my spleen…”
Flash Sentry raised his head to cheer at Cadence…and then was promptly hit in the head by a flying pan. Truly grunted and dashed over, grabbing him by a wing and dragging him to safety.
“Stupid Big Brother. Let a mare show you how it’s done.” She snorted as she stepped around him. Flash muttered.
“But Mommy, I don’t want to go bed…I have dreams of scary monkeys that call me Brad!” Flash babbled, and Truly ignored him.
Around them the Great Kitchen Skirmish raged on.
Meanwhile, at the very bottom of the castle…
Yes, the castle had a bottom, and no, it was not the dungeons. The dungeons were close to the bottom, but the very bottom of the castle was actually a…sewer.
Rarity just knew that Discord did that on purpose.
Still, Red seemed to have an idea of where he was going. The pinkish dragon kept low to the ground, his scaly belly nearly scraping the gross mossy floor as he slithered along. Spike…her Spikey Wikey, stayed near him, studying his motions and trying to keep up with his counterpart. Rarity just couldn’t bring herself to think of that pink creature as Spike! Oh he seemed nice enough but he wasn’t…her Spike. The kind generous dragon who was…well like a baby brother to her. Oh she was aware of his crush. She had been for a while but…it was too strange. It wasn’t just that he was a dragon, though that had factored in early on. It was mostly his age…and the fact that while he was a wonderful friend, she didn’t think he was her type and…and she really shouldn’t be thinking of this in the middle of a dangerous mission. She clamped on her thoughts and focused on the hushed conversation ahead of her.
Red would periodically, usually when they came to a turn or a fork, send out a bushwooly to spy around corners and report back to him as they snuck along. The bushwoolies seemed apt at this, dodging around the sewer like colorful, but thankfully silent, balls of fluff.
Rarity wasn’t sure how their talk started, but she came back to earth just in time to see Red clap his claw on Spike’s shoulder and say “Don’t worry. Don’t forget. We dragons are strong and tough. We won’t fail!”
Spike snorted. “You do have a lot of things to say about dragons…”
“Why not? We’re dragons, right?”
“…I don’t’ know. I mean…this white one said I shouldn’t judge, but…I met some really bad dragons a while ago…I don’t know if I want to be a dragon with those examples.”
Red smiled and looked at him. “Ya know, I think I went through something similar. A while back I lost control of my fire, so I went looking for dragons to teach me. Turns out they were exploiting villages in exchange for not burning them down, and they tried to hurt the ponies. We sent em packing of course…and afterwards Danny told me something that I always try to remember when I’m reminded of those bad dragons.”
“What?” Spike gave Red a quirked eyebrow.
“You don’t have to be the same kind of dragon they are. Just like there’s all sorts of pony…and all kinds of witches, there can be many different kinds of dragons. Heck. I just met a good dragon myself, right?”
“…you got a point.”
“Pony dragons spend less time talking and more time finding way to big heart gem.” Rover growled. Spike just gave him a glare.
“It’s okay, we’re almost at the end…just to warn you, last time Tirac had this big slimy monster thing guarding the way into the castle proper. I think it went poof when the Rainbow of Light beat him but-“
As they turned the corner Rarity could see a wall ahead, as well as a heavy door. The muck below and to the left of them was flowing in a cut out path that Rarity guessed would lead to the outside. Before them, beside the door, was an arched cut out space of wall from which flowed an underground river of some kind. There was a tube stuck in the arch, and occasionally a runoff of muck would slide down the tube. Rarity shivered, but then tried to stifle a scream as they drew closer, and the muck shifted. Something which could only be described as a horrible, smelly blob began to rise from the muck. It was so caked with the goo that all Rarity could see of it was a lump of green, yellow, red and brown sliding off it like melting ice cream. A pair of claws tapped on the stone at their feet, and tentacles rose from the muck monster’s back.
“…but it looks like it’s back…” Red finished with a small tremble.
Rarity repressed the urge to scream like a five year old foal as the muck monster gurgled, and began to move closer to them. A tentacle lashed out, and brushed itself against Rarity’s nose, assaulting her delicate nostrils with a horrible overwhelming scent of waste product and Celestia only knew what else. The stink was such that not even Sweetie Bell at her very worse could have created it. It was like an armed assault against her very person, like a living army of smell atoms. And that was just the smell of it. Rarity could feel the nasty feel of the slime marring her prefect white coat as the tentacle left a trail of horridness. It was so sticky and slimy and oh sweet Celestia would it come off?! What if it wouldn’t come off! She was stained! FOR LIFE!
Rarity promptly fainted.
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New Chapter, yay! Will be PMing my thoughts later, good luck on the next chapter of the Pony MAC/PC story.
'Fun' is a relative term. You don't like war? Yeah, not as fun as mind rape, environmental destruction and treating sapient beings as playthings.
Anyway, nice chapter. Looks like we're heading to the climax! Rosedust, kick Chrysalis' ass!
6028440 Well, to me Discord is kinda like that kid from that Twilight Zone episode with the god powers. He may have the powers of a god but he has the mentality of a bratty five year old. It'd never occur to him that mind rape and so on is wrong because it makes him happy. I've known some pretty self centered kids (I used to work in a school), who'd probably do even worse things then Discord if they had the power to do so.
Goddammit, Flash! You're better than this! You're a goddamn royal guard!
Anyway, how's progress on that next chapter?
First, I'd like to apologize for my lack of updates this summer. A lot of bad family stuff happened, and I couldn't focus on ponies for a bit while I helped my parents and grandmother.
Second, I'm having some issues with my job, which is also distracting.
I'm sorry for my vagueness, but It's been a rather emotional and upsetting time for me. However, I am back to writing, and the new chapter should be up soon. Thank you all so much for your patience, and for sticking with my little story. s And welcome to all the new readers.
Strap in for the home stretch guys Lets do it.
Brad?
6415979
A few pony analysis reviewers refer to Flash as 'Brad'. It's a joke. His nightmares are listening to them call him horrible things. Over and over and over.