Lessons in quirks

by Mike84

Chapter LXII

The flash of purple light hit the attacker midair and hurled it several meters back towards the other side of the clearing. The blast of magic energy should have been sufficient to knock down or even stun anypony. The Rainbow Dash-shaped attacker was flipped over several times, but landed on its hooves ready to dash forward again. By reflex rather than by deliberate decision, Twilight's horn flashed again. She wasn't even quite sure what kind of magic it was that manifested into a ball of white-yellowish light, like a tiny solar orb, that shot at the would-be Rainbow Dash. The orb hit and pushed the attacker yet another step back but didn't knock it from its hooves. For Twilight's great appall, the orb passed through the shoulder of the attacker where it left a gaping hole, but the attacker just flinched a little and otherwise ignored it.

Twilight had heard of this, she had seen the effects of such magic attacks and she was aware that Princess Celestia herself had been wielding this kind of magic when centuries ago she had come to lift the changeling siege of the town of Trot. This magic had left most of the changelings, including Queen Chrysalis, marked with the gaping holes in their legs and horns that were by now often seen as natural distinction of their species. Twilight had neither studied that kind of magic, nor decided to use it, nor even been aware that she could use it at all. Another alicorn thing perhaps that she had not so far discovered. Her mind was racing while she was preparing another spell to keep the attacker at bay. The appearance as Rainbow Dash and the effect of the spell proved this attacker a changeling after all, the very idea she had dismissed the previous evening. But it still didn't make any sense. While Twilight wouldn't utterly discard the possibility that one or a few of Queen Chrysalis' minions were still on the loose, the magic used by the attacker had been way more powerful than anything she had ever seen coming from a common changeling. Moreover, he had been talking to her while in the appearance of one of Luna's guards, while the changelings she had encountered had only ever been able to echo words spoken by the one whose appearance they had just taken on. Chrysalis' herself had been the only exception to this rule.

'Rainbow Dash' was prowling towards her, her head lowered, her limbs flexed, her narrowed eyes fixed on her, the entire appearance of the attacker resembling that of a cat ready to pounce upon her prey if there was but the tiniest opening in her guard. Twilight lowered her head too, the purple glowing tip of her horn as fixed on her opponent as the opponent's look was fixed on her. Both enemies were assessing one another. Unnerving as the stand-off was, it would have been okay for Twilight to play for time and hope for the timely arrival of more help, but for the fact that the fire too was getting closer. She began to prowl as well, trying to circle her enemy so he, or she, or it would no longer be blocking her way away from the fire, but her enemy kept cutting off her way, lurking for any chance to attack and occasionally feinting attacks to test Twilight's reactions. She suddenly noticed that, without meaning to, she had fallen back several steps and reached the edge of the clearing. She couldn't allow for the attacker to drive her further towards the approaching fire and away from the clearing which at least provided a clear view and range for her magic spells.
"What are you?" Twilight snarled.

She hadn't expected any response, but suddenly there was that buzzing voice which she had heard before and which seemed particularly off, coming out of 'Rainbow Dash's' mouth.
"I can show you! Just let me get closer!" 'Rainbow Dash' took a step towards her.
Twilight let light at the tip of her horn aimed at the attacker light up, an unmistakable threat.
"One more step...!" she said in her most menacing voice.
The attacker gave a vicious smile. "Enemy I am, to an enemy of yours. Precursor I am and teacher to a hostile friend. I are many!"
Twilight's eyes narrowed. She was well aware that her opponent wanted to distract her with such riddle talk; lure her into the moment of lacking attention that would allow for an attack or maybe just to play for time until the approaching fire would force her to take the initiative. Yet still she was wondering if there were any grains of truth in what the attacker was saying.
"What is your name?" she asked.
"And why should I lay out my secrets to you, oh Princess of neither light nor darkness? But so be it then, if you can figure out the riddle, my name sucks..."
Twilight couldn't keep one of her eyebrows from moving upwards to an expression of confused surprise at this revelation, but the opponent continued: "...for a vortex it is."

Even if she would have tried to shut off her mind entirely, Twilight was sure she couldn't have resisted against the lure of such riddle talk when the answer to the riddle might be answer to so many questions that had come up in the last days. Her mind was not suited to be kept silent when prodded like this and it was automatically running through anything it knew that was in any way related to vortexes. Suddenly she gasped and her jaw dropped a little. Something had struck her mind, but the thought was ridiculous. Impossible, and even if it was possible, the bearer of that name was not a harbinger of evil and he had long, long ago passed away. And yet, the moment the realization had occurred to Twilight, she could not just discard it as the utter nonsense it most likely was. A vortex could also be... "A swirl... Star Swirl the Bearded?" Twilight gasped.

Her opponent froze in motion for a moment and the eyes in the face of Rainbow Dash remained utterly inscrutable. Then suddenly the attacker laughed out loud, letting down all guard. A very unpleasant laughter and it seemed like it was echoed by many voices from the same throat.
"The one who unleashed changeling kind upon the world of ponies?"
If at all possible, Twilight's face became even more stunned. Her very view of the world was challenged and it drew her mind away from this insignificant clearing in a burning forest. Twilight's eyes grew unfocused and 'Rainbow Dash' noticed.

Forth rushed the attacker and crossed the little distance to Twilight. She shot off the spell she had prepared, but torn so fiercely from her abstraction about the flood of thoughts and implications of the revelations, she hadn't had a chance to aim and the purple ball of magic light missed, by manehair's breadth, but just as harmless as if she had fired it into the opposite direction, and the attacker was upon her, engaged in a wrestling that left no sufficient time or distance for the use of any magic spells. There was a cracking sound, perhaps the impact of the spell that hit aimlessly somewhere into the underbrush at the opposite end of the clearing, but there was another sound; a bloodcurling yell.

Twilight was yanked forward, but it wasn't so much the attacker tearing her that way but rather the attacker dragging her along while being run over and pushed away by someone else. The attacker's grip on Twilight slacked and she fell as did the attacker. Twilight leaped to her hooves as quickly as her scratches and bruises allowed, backed away and tried to capture what was going on. Given the impact of the unexpected attack, she half expected to see the real Rainbow Dash tackling the fake one or maybe some monster of Everfree that was late in getting away from the fire or that didn't need to fear the fire at all.
But it was: "Frank!"

Through the element of surprise and the force of the attack rush, the mysterious attacker had been pushed away several steps. Frank didn't allow for the attacker to gather him-, or her- or itself. Instead he badgered the attacker with a ferocity surpassing any that Twilight had seen in this ferocious night so far. The postgraduate student from Fillydelphia was kicking and drumming at the fiend with every hoof as fierce and fast as he could.

"BACK! BACK!" he snarled and Twilight was not sure if he meant the attacker or her. Frank now headbutted at the attacker and it seemed like he was even trying to bite. Eerie was the scene that was time and again illuminated by a flickering of approaching fire. Shocked as she was, Twilight prepared another spell, but so entangled and unsteady were the combatants that she couldn't fire a spell without a greater chance of hitting Frank rather than the attacker who was mostly shielded by the own assailant. But no matter how fierce Frank's attacks were, they didn't show much of the effect one might have expected. Same as back in the storeroom of the town hall, it didn't feel to Frank like his hooves were hitting anything really solid and even though he drove the attacker back several steps, the many blows and kicks that hit home didn't seem to be much more than a nuisance. The attacker hissed and struck for Frank. He managed to dodge the blow, but it allowed 'Rainbow Dash' to gain some distance and to take off with a flap of wings.

"Oh no you don't!" growled Frank, jumped and dragged on the attacker's tail and one of the legs. With a free range now, Twilight fired another ball of white-yellowish light at the attacker and it hit one of the wings. Same as at the shoulder it tore a hole but otherwise seemed to leave the attacker rather unimpressed. Frank did manage to drag 'Rainbow Dash' down however.
"What in the name of Celestia...", with a commotion that would have drawn a lot more attention but for the commotion of the ongoing fight, Applejack broke through the underbrush from where Frank had come before and set on to join the fray.
"AJ, no!" Twilight shouted, stopping her friend in her tracks. "That's not Rainbow!"
"Twi! Mighty glad to see you, but what in tarnation...?"
"Whoa!"

A sooty, but unperforated Rainbow Dash had appeared above the clearing. The sight of her own double in fierce brawl with Frank, the presence of Twilight, the awareness of the yellow signal flare that had brought her here all left her at a loss on how to proceed.
There was more commotion and Rarity, with Spike clinging to her mane, and Pinkie Pie broke forth from the bushes, looking no less challenged at the view that unfolded before them.
"Twilight!" shouted Rarity and in spite of everything, the tone of her call alone carried all the meaning of an elaborate reunion.

Ineffective as his attacks had been, Frank had managed to drag the attacker to the ground again where, with him giving up on useless blows and kicks, the fight turned into a wrestling with Frank and the attacker rolling over the floor of the clearing.
"Aren't we to help?" Spike shouted at Twilight.
"AWAY! STAY AWAY!" the student-hobo roared and once again it was not clear if he was roaring at the attacker or at the others. The fight seemed to come to a close. Fierce and nimble Frank might be, but it was clear that he did not have the strength of the attacker. But even as he was wrestled to the ground, it seemed like he was clinging to the attacker as if not to let him, or her, or it get away.
"Twilight, do something!" Pinkie Pie shouted and even without her announcing it, the twitching of her knees was foreboding something creepy.

Suddenly the attacker upon Frank grew dark and began to dissolve. The shape of Rainbow Dash began to disintegrate into something indefinable, something dark but evading any pinpointing of its color, too solid to be haze, but to hazy to be a liquid, reflecting and yet absorbing light and darkness alike, something just defying the descriptions that words might provide to anyone who hadn't seen it with the own eyes. Rainbow Dash forgot to flap her wings at the sight and came down unusually roughly at the edge of the clearing. Rarity screamed and Applejack flexed as if to prepare for an attack upon she knew not what, but as she did so, her eyes widened in distress. The indefinabilty lingered around Frank who was kicking and beating and uttering a series of sounds somewhere between furious snarling and the gurgling of someone drowning.

The indefinabilty seemed to grow less as it was lingering around Frank, ever less. The colt jumped to his hooves and stumbled several steps sideways, tripping, almost falling, yet getting up again. His head was twitching fiercely and his neck seemed to contract so the twitching head almost seemed to retreat between his shoulders. His eyelids were flickering until he squeezed his eyes shut and as he did, he uttered something like a cry of rage, was kicking with all feet at the same time and fell hard onto the ground. The hazy indefinable something around him seemed to increase and it seemed paler now than it had before, more transparent, less absorbing, less substantial, less present but still there. Very slowly and twitching, Frank got to his feet again, still surrounded by that inconstant indefinability. A gurgling and growling could be heard and an almost coughing sound as if he was trying to spit something out without anything there to disgorge, but the indefinability around him seemed to increase in amount and decrease in substance. Frank opened his eyes and they were staring without looking. Green they were, but growing dark until no iris could be told from the rest of the eyes that looked like shining black obsidian.

"Anything, Twilight!" Pinkie screamed and Twilight did.
She wanted to protect everypony and she remembered her brother, she remembered their first encounter with Queen Chrysalis and she cast a magic barrier. It was not as large or as sophisticated as one her brother might have made. The one spell in which her brother would still best her, but as the magenta sphere of the barrier hit Frank, it pushed him back and dragged him along for some distance before he sank through the sphere while the indefinability was pushed further away and seemed to dissolve ever further as the sphere expanded until at last it burst like a bubble, leaving just the darkness of the night within view. Frank Blanket collapsed on the spot like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

Author's Note:

There are references in this chapter based on the content of the comic of the "Fiendship is magic" series that is focused on Chrysalis.

Last edited on December 17th 2015.