Twisted Magic: Black

by Randomizer77

Demons, Pt. 1

The Lady does work in mysterious ways. She giveth and She taketh away...

So it was with my freedom.

In the Solitary Block, a lavender unicorn—wearing a red scarf, wide-brimmed black hat and black-rimmed spectacles—sat in the moonlight streaming through her cell’s lone window.

In my time alone in that dark place, I would often hear a voice calling to me from within...

”You are my chosen one, Twilight Sparkle. You are my child, here to do my bidding!”

Truly I believed there would be no escape from the demon inside of me! I wasn’t even a real preacher; I was an evangelist, rejected by the church! I didn’t have the strength to fight the demon alone!

But one day, I was given a chance for salvation.

His name was Calypso. He came to me with a proposition: if I won his contest, he would reveal the truth. It had been two years since the beast had entered my mind, controlling my actions, making others believe I was responsible for those killings.

But now, I had a second chance!

I accepted the offer willingly. All I had to do was win, and a path back into The Land would be opened unto me.

---

Though only an evangelist, Twilight traveled from town to town, hoping to share her religious visions with anycreature who would listen. She wanted to eventually gain forgiveness and be allowed back into The Lady’s good graces. Her tireless pursuit to be ordained led many to believe that she was actually a fanatic, driven by madness. Whatever enveloped her surely became obvious in a later downfall...

Blackfield Asylum
Patient Profile

Twilight Sparkle

Age: 57

Species: Unicorn

Sex: Female

Physical Description: Lavender fur, purple mane/tail with pink stripe, purple eyes

Cutie Mark: Six-pointed pink star with smaller white stars

DELUSIONAL

DISORDER: Paranoid schizophrenia with persecutory and grandiose delusions.

TREATMENT: Intramuscular meds, restraints, *avoid theological discussions!*

Vehicle: Brimstone (Chevrolet El Camino)
Speed: 8/10
Control: 8/10
Armor: 5/10
Special: 6/10
Special Attack: Suicide Bomber

This rusty, travel-worn vehicle served as Twilight’s traveling church and also her place for penance. Chained and shackled in the back is a poor soul who refuses to answer for their sins. Beware of Brimstone’s Special Attack - Twilight has convinced some of her followers that death is the only option for those who refuse to believe. A maniacal follower strapped with dynamite is hurled toward opponents to grab on to their vehicle. Once they make contact, they’ll sacrifice themselves in the hopes that the opponent’s sins will be redeemed.

---

Round 1: Zorko Bros. Scrap & Salvage
Opponents: 7

Can Calypso really kill the demon in me? Can he destroy the voice? If I win his game, will I be free?

Twilight was nervous. Who in her position wouldn’t be? She was a nonviolent mare, but now she had to personally end the lives of who knew how many in order to achieve salvation.

With a sigh, she steeled herself as the battle started.

Right off the bat, she sped forward and picked up a homing missile. Pulling a U-turn, she flinched when her car was hit by something fired by another contestant; luckily for her, the damage inflicted was negligible. Going full throttle, she drove off of the elevated area she began on and began picking up weapons.

Twilight passed another contestant’s vehicle going in the opposite direction: a blue sports car. Its driver didn’t seem interested in fighting her at the moment, and she didn’t see what they looked like, but that was probably for the best; she felt slightly better about this by not knowing the identities of her opponents. Steering clear of the yard’s vertical crusher, she picked up another homing missile.

Then, she was hit by a gas can. Panic ran through the her body as her car was set alight; to her relief, a short spurt of turbo extinguished the fire.

But she knew what she needed to do: she had to kill, or she would be killed.

Soon, a target entered her sights: a muted purple hearse. The irony of such a vehicle in this contest was not lost on Twilight.

Apologizing internally, she opened fire, lobbing a combination of missiles, a Suicide Bomber, and machine gun fire that quickly whittled down the hearse’s status bar. It smartly fled, and Brimstone gave chase before colliding with a white tow truck.

The collision allowed the hearse to get away, so Twilight turned her attention to the tow truck, unleashing her entire payload of missiles. Quickly reversing, she failed to avoid a flaming spiked ball launched in retaliation, and rammed into her foe a second time. The white truck remained standing, and fired off a trio of missiles, but it was on its last legs. Twilight had an idea.

She fired a freeze missile, locking her adversary in place long enough for her to follow up with a power missile that finished them off. The number on the “Opponents” counter ticked down to 06.

But Brimstone had been badly wounded by the confrontation; it wasn’t likely to survive another one if it wasn’t fixed. So she guided her machine onto the battleground’s repair station, bringing its armor back to full condition.

Twilight then zipped around the battleground in search of another opponent, and soon found one in the form of what could only be described as a Frankenpony combination of a car and a tank. No doubt it would be able to survive more damage than the tow truck, but Twilight had a machine gun upgrade on hoof to deal with that.

Suddenly, she slammed on the brakes as a bright reddish-orange light appeared before her, and she quickly reversed to avoid taking the full brunt of the opposing vehicle’s flamethrower. Repositioning herself out of the weapon’s reach, she opened fire with her car’s temporarily powered-up gun. The car-tank turned and fled, and Twilight started chasing it across the junkyard.

But then, while racing toward the horizontal crusher, it suddenly pulled a feint, leaving its pursuer to helplessly slide toward the open jaws.

Twilight came to a halt in the danger zone. Frantically, she drove out of it before the maw closed on her.

Her heart pounded in fear, but something else burned inside of her.

Determination. To win this contest. To not let anycreature stop her pursuit of the truth.

She managed to catch the Frankenpony machine by surprise and take it out with a ricochet.

Okay. She could do this. She just had to stay in the zone and find another opponent.

…A police SUV?

Twilight was sure that was only slightly less ironic than the hearse. Why a police officer would enter this contest was a question that she couldn’t answer.

Twilight was steadily gaining confidence. So she fired a Suicide Bomber at the SUV from a long distance, and managed to get a hit. Her car was then ignited by a gas can, but this time, she knew what to do. A quick shot of turbo extinguished the fire, and Brimstone then took off in hot pursuit.

Twilight currently had twelve homing missiles stocked up; one by one, she fired them at the SUV, which retaliated by deploying a turret out of its roof that fired a stream of bullets. When Brimstone depleted its homing missile stock, the SUV used the opportunity to dash away, but then, Twilight dispatched them with an environmental attack.

The turret fire had left her car in bad shape, so she drove onto the repair station before re-entering the fray. After scouring a crashed airplane for pickups, she soon set her sights on the blue sports car from earlier, which had already been badly damaged from the environmental attack Twilight had used to eliminate the SUV. And sure enough, five homing missiles later, the sports car was down and out.

Okay, home stretch now. Doing a U-turn, she spotted another car—a red hot rod—charging straight toward her and landed a direct hit on it with a gas can; she then followed up with a power missile, but missed. Turning, Twilight gave chase to the hot rod, and when she crashed into it, she found herself in the same vicinity as the hearse.

The hot rod raced away, leaving the hearse as the closest target. The two vehicles collided head-on before Twilight launched two Suicide Bombers in quick succession to eliminate them.

Almost there! She thought to herself while she took off after the hot rod. Taking aim, she fired a ricochet, but missed on both the launch and the rebound. But she kept her cool. Continuing her pursuit of the hot rod, Twilight then came upon a dirty car that gave off the impression that it had been sitting unattended in a yard for years on end.

This time, there was no hesitation from Twilight; she hurled a gas can and opened fire with her machine gun, taking off more than half of the junk car’s health. But then, the two remaining adversaries ganged up on her; suddenly, she was fleeing for her life, and making matters worse, the repair station had stopped functioning.

Putting the pedal to the metal, Twilight raced back to the crashed airplane and grabbed a repair pick-up inside of the tunnel it led to. After exiting on the opposite end of the tunnel, she grabbed a second one, bringing Brimstone into a condition where it would be much more likely to survive a fight.

Tracking down the hot rod, Twilight lobbed a gas can, but missed. She followed with a power missile, but this also missed. She wasn’t deterred, though. Powering forward, the two machines collided, but then the hot rod was suddenly surrounded by a field of electricity, with two bolts arcing to Brimstone. Quickly backing out of range, she launched a fire missile that hit home.

Just the junk car left. After grabbing a few pickups, Twilight followed her the blip on her radar to find her remaining opponent inside the tunnel entered via the wrecked plane. They dodged a ricochet, but were quickly reduced to flaming scrap metal by a ram and a Suicide Bomber.

---

Round 2: Midtown Expressway 104
Opponents: 7

Innocents will surely be sacrificed today. Many of my flock live here—yet they surely understand why a mare must free her soul.

This battle was taking place somewhere much more public than the last one. Twilight’s previous nervousness started threatening to resurface, but she kept it down for the sake of her survival.

Maneuvering around the civilian vehicles traveling along the roads, she picked up something called a “reticle” and to her surprise, a bright green border appeared in her vision. This item, no doubt, would be relatively easy to aim right, something that could be a literal lifesaver in the heat of combat.

She quickly took aim and fired at the nearest target: the junk car. The four missiles that the weapon fired were followed by a hail of machine gun fire and two ricochets. Chasing the now heavily-damaged junker down the road and avoiding the civilian vehicles traveling along, Twilight soon collided with a black semi truck, stopping her in her tracks and allowing the junk car to escape.

Veering right, she drove off of the road and fell to ground below; up ahead, she spotted another new opponent, but they currently were too far away for her to be able to make out the details of their vehicle. When Twilight got closer, she found out that it was a huge dump truck.

Deciding to not take it on just yet, she steered into the nearby stadium, then drove up into the bleachers to exit; going airborne, Brimstone clipped the concrete barriers lining the expressway, and somersaulted onto its wheels. Shaking off her daze and then leaving the road via a construction site, Twilight quickly set her sights on a sidecar-equipped motorcycle. Launching a couple of missiles, Twilight pursued it back onto the expressway, but the bike suddenly pulled a U-turn to get out of Brimstone’s line of fire.

As Twilight re-oriented herself, she was suddenly rushed by the semi truck she encountered earlier, and its driver was now coming at her with killing intent. But she didn’t back down; raising a shield, she nailed the truck with a gas can, and took advantage of their close proximity to fill it with bullets. The truck escaped and Twilight unrelentingly gave chase, destroying it by sending a series of fire missiles its way.

A short distance away from the semi truck’s remains, the junk car could be seen. At least, until Twilight finished it with a pair of fire missiles.

U-turning, she raced down the asphalt, then was suddenly attacked. Brimstone was now in dire need of healing, but the nearby repair station took care of the problem. She then headed toward a boxed-off area next to a hospital accessed by a downward-sloping ramp, intending to grab more pick-up weapons. But on her radar, she noticed that somebody was heading their way. So she stopped around the corner, out of plain sight, and waited.

Soon, the pursuer revealed themselves to be the motorcycle. But it had just driven into an area that nullified the advantage of its superior maneuverability enough for Twilight to hit it with a power missile, knocking it down to about half health. Following it back onto the expressway, she missed a shot with a second power missile, but not with three fire missiles that followed.

As the pair raced back onto the expressway, the road then split into two, with the motorcycle going right and Twilight left. Powering forward and avoiding traffic, the two contestants crossed paths once more, racing toward one of the battleground’s edges. Both of them U-turned, and the motorcycle used its speed to pull away while simultaneously launching a rearward attack.

With the motorcycle swiftly moving out of attack range, Twilight turned off the expressway and went flying into the stadium’s go-kart track, grabbing a repair pick-up and a weapon. Driving into the bleachers, she leapt out of the stadium, but lacking the speed to land back on the expressway, instead tumbled to the ground. Undeterred, she raced toward the main road’s nearest re-entry point and pulled a quick U-turn to get onto it.

But she then encountered by far and away the strangest vehicle yet: a white-and-pink ice cream truck with an evil-looking decorative head on the roof. Backing away, Twilight took a moment to regain her bearings, then charged back in... just as the ice cream truck came over the crest, now transformed into a tall mech that unleashed a volley of missiles in her direction that inflicted heavy damage.

Worry shot through Twilight’s veins as she turned tail and retreated, raising a shield as extra insurance against any other attacks. With practiced smoothness, she guided Brimstone onto the battleground repair station, then raced down the expressway. Upon reaching the “end zone”, she whipped around and charged at the red hot rod.

Suddenly, her car was brought to a dead halt by a freeze missile; however, she managed to quickly break out of its effects. Seconds later, four other contestants entered the immediate vicinity, and all of the now five started firing their payloads in a frenzied attempt to wear down—if not outright annihilate—some of the opposition. Amidst the chaos, Twilight struck the dump truck with a power missile, then took out the bike with a Suicide Bomber.

Heading back to the “ditch” at one end of the expressway, she was soon set upon by the ice cream truck. Instinct kicked in: she hurled bullets, a satellite, a gas can and a fire missile. But then she ran out of pick-up weapons and special charges. Wisely retreating, she headed up an expressway ramp that came to an abrupt end and went flying into a hospital; to her relief, the large floor was almost completely empty, and there were only a few creatures present.

Of more importance was the repair pick-up in front of one of the desks. After exiting the building via the windows, Twilight found herself in the ditch once again. The ice cream truck, once again in its mech form, bore down on her with another flurry of missiles. Fearlessly, she charged at it head-on and rammed it, carrying enough speed to knock its aim away from herself. As the mech started transforming back to its truck form, Twilight launched two missiles and a burst of machine gun fire, sending it to the figurative scrapyard.

The dump truck was within easy range. She attacked with two missiles and a Suicide Bomber, but was then hit with a freeze missile; once again, she repeatedly cranked her car’s engine to break free of the effects. Reversing, she took aim at the still nearby dump truck and peppered it with bullets, sending it to the same place as the ice cream truck.

Racing down the lengthy expressway, Twilight gradually closed the gap between herself and her nearest opponent. When their vehicle, the sports car, came into view, they launched two attacks at Brimstone—just as the latter also launched two attacks.

Steering left, Twilight caught airtime and landed in the go-kart track once again. The skirmish had put her car in critical condition, and she needed to fix it to have the best odds of victory. A drive around the outside of the stadium yielded nothing, but she was able to grab a repair pick-up in the construction site.

Driving back onto the expressway, Twilight was briefly zapped by a familiar electrical field surrounding the hot rod going the opposite direction. U-turning, she kept her distance while firing a few missiles in retaliation, but then a red plus symbol appeared on her radar and a distinct scream sound started approaching.

She did the one thing she could do in her immediate circumstances: run. Activating her turbo, she made a dash toward the hospital as the odd scream grew closer. But several tense seconds later, it stopped and the red symbol on her radar vanished.

Sighing in relief, Twilight made a beeline for the cut off ramp, entering the hospital and grabbing the single repair pick-up inside, making sure to avoid the creatures running around in a panic. Jumping out and landing in the ditch, she turned to face the remaining two contestants as they sped toward her. She rammed the sports car and fled, wanting to get into a more open place to fight them head-on. Glancing at her radar, she hurled two Suicide Bombers behind her.

A few seconds later, her Opponents counter ticked down to 01.

She veered right to grab a turbo pick-up, then re-entered the stadium. Grabbing a couple weapons, she aimed to jump onto the expressway, but her car proved to not be going fast enough; she instead crash landed.

Not wasting a moment, she drove back onto the multi-lane road and tracked down the hot rod. Brimstone couldn’t survive much more; Twilight would have to make her shots count. She fired the reticle and hit, but was then stopped by a freeze missile. Quickly, she broke out as the hot rod used its special attack, then fought back with a Suicide Bomber and a homing missile, taking out the hot rod for good.

Coming to a stop, Twilight caught her breath. Her heart rate slowed as the adrenaline started to wear off, letting everything sink in.

And there were still five more battles to go.

Author's Note:

Six years since this story was originally published. Over two years of general silence from me. But now the wheels are turning; I feel confident and inspired once more, motivated to put myself through my paces to get this whole thing written. I can’t remember the last time I felt this good writing something!

To make writing this story much easier, I’m watching a video playthrough of the game using each vehicle and basing the battles on that. Said videos are by somebody called PlatinumPlayer3, and I’ll include them at the end of each character’s storyline.

If you’re wondering, I chose purple book horse to be Preacher because of this picture.

And because the next chapter features a boss, here are their vehicle’s stats:

Speed: 8/10
Control: 8/10
Armor: 10/10
Special: 10/10
Special Attack: Flaming Blaze - A flamethrower at close range, but a series of homing fireballs at long range.

In the Vehicle Select, the vehicle’s Speed is 3/10, but experienced players say that it’s much higher in actual gameplay. The Control is also 3/10, but I buffed that to be more in-line with its previous game appearances.

I didn’t describe Calypso’s appearance because I can’t picture what his Black incarnation would like like as a character in FiM. In the game, he looks like this:

You’ll probably be able to picture him in this story better than I can.

Trivia: That airplane wreckage that forms the entrance of the underground tunnel in Junkyard (Round 1)? In the North American version of the game, the plane is intact and flying around the level, and must be shot down to access the tunnel.

Comments

[Vis-a-Viscera]

I AM SO DOWN FOR THis.

Can't wait to see who's Dollface.

[Randomizer77]

10354501
Happy that you’re as excited as I am!