Tales of a Wizard: Flesh Masks

by Applechip

Chapter 22

“Get these things off me!” I growled through clenched teeth and bucked out into empty air.

“Dresden, hold still would ya?” Applejack yelled back at me.

“No, these things are bleeding me dry!” I cried back.

“They’re just mosquitoes, Harry,” Twilight sighed and calmly flicked her tail around her side, skillfully snapping a few of the offending insects out of the air. “It’s hard enough for them to pierce our hide, much less our overcoats. Honestly, you act as though they’re evil.”

“That’s because they are, dear,” Rarity said with distasteful eyes tracking the bugs. “Nasty, dirty little things. I consider myself lucky that I can make them ignore me.”

I craned my head around and found Rarity walking calmly behind me and to my left. She was garbed again in her black robes with lunar and gem figures sewn all around it. What stood out was the fact that she was glowing slightly with a dull blue light, and that none of the mosquitoes went within a foot of her. The trees of northern Whitetail Woods were rife with the little parasites and a large cloud of them had descended on us the second we entered the trees. A quick look around revealed the rest of our company. Twilight took a position at my immediate right and was busily scanning the surrounding trees for threats. Applejack and Pinkie Pie, both clad in their respective armors, trotted in front of the rest of us. Applejack’s chained scythe was looped around her neck and Pinkie’s hammer was slung across her back. Behind us, Fluttershy was pressing herself so low to the ground that she was nearly crawling as she moved to keep up with us.

All around us, stretching as far as the forest’s line of sight would allow, marched the considerable number of soldiers that Celestia and Michael had picked out. The large and closely packed trees of Whitetail Woods forced all of its occupants to weave themselves around trees and over large roots, effectively destroying our ability to march in any kind of organized file. As a result, members of the different outfits that comprised our force could be seen far away from their initial groups and were mingling with others. I spotted several of my personal battalion throughout the throng, their silver pentacle emblazoned chests puffed out and on proud display. Aside from them, several of the more standard steel clad soldiers trotted with their spears pointed in the air at the treetops. Even a few of Celestia’s personal guard were mingling with us near the middle of the marching force, their golden armor shining very brightly in the dark forest. Far up ahead I could dimly make out the rough outlines of Celestia and Michael at the front of the group.

I craned my head back around to face Rarity and cocked an eyebrow at her, “You think you could share that mosquito trick with the rest of us?”

Rarity turned up her nose at me, “I couldn’t possibly. I must conserve my strength for later.”

“And yet you have strength enough for yourself?” I growled back.

“Funny how that works out, isn’t it?” she said with a faint smile.

“Will ya’ll simmer down?” Applejack snapped at us, managing to break the moderate death glare I was giving Rarity. After a brief second she gave me a sidelong glance and cocked an eyebrow, “But she does raise a good point, Harry. I know we have a lot of backup here, but just how much trouble are we in for?” Applejack looked at the trees ahead with some trepidation, “Do we know how strong the Red King actually is?”

A certain amount of anxiety fell into the bottom of my stomach. Applejack’s concerns were completely legitimate and echoed what my paranoia had been whispering to me since we left Canterlot. The situation we were marching into had too many unknowns for my comfort, but the prize was too big to ignore.

I sighed and followed Applejack’s gaze up the trees past Celestia and Michael, “Powerful enough to make Celestia lose her cool, but he’s no demigod.” I flashed her a quick grin in the hopes that it would raise her spirits somewhat, “So if we can’t overpower a wannabe king with a genuine immortal and a small army of Equestria’s finest, then we don’t deserve to win.”

“W-what about his vampires?” Fluttershy stammered behind us. “What if he has a bunch of them waiting for us up ahead?”

That same question came to me as well. We had been marching slowly through the Whitetail Woods for about half an hour, and none of us had seen the leathery hide of a single Red Court vampire. The reports Michael and Shining had shown me said that the vampires had been spread across Equestria’s forests in a fairly even pattern, including Whitetail Woods. But as soon as we start marching, they’re suddenly nowhere to be seen. Vampires of the Red Court are extremely predatory creatures, so even if we had a larger force, there should’ve been the occasional opportunistic vampire hanging around the edges of our group trying to snatch an easy meal. The fact that they were nowhere to be seen disturbed me.

“We shouldn’t have to worry about that too much,” I said and jutted my chin towards the treetops above us. Through the occasional break in the leaves, I could make out the flapping of several different pegasus wings and hear the subtle jingle of chainmail far above us. “Rainbow and the other pegasi will be watching over us. They should be able to see any sizeable ambush long before it ever becomes a threat.” I tried not to dwell too long on my choice of the word “should”, and instead focused on running through all of my standard combat spells in my head.

Off to my left, Rarity was looking over the backs of several of our soldiers and into the vague darkness among the trees beyond. A small shiver ran over her body, “I wish Princess Luna was here. She could manipulate these shadows for us, maybe hide our approach.”

“Don’t be silly,” Twilight interjected. “Princess Luna’s hooves are still busy with managing the fallout from her party and helping Shining watch over Canterlot. If she didn’t stay behind, Canterlot could very well be rioting by the time we get back.”

“Besides, the Red Court lives in the dark. We don’t need another practitioner that works in the shadows,” I added and looked up ahead at Celestia and Michael, “We need some that can cast light.” A faint buzzing sounded near my left ear as a mosquito hovered around it, searching out the soft and easily accessible flesh. My ear instinctively twitched and I slapped the hoof of my left foreleg over it. “That’s assuming these freaking bugs leave anything behind for the Red Court to get at.”

“Oh for Pete’s sake,” Applejack cried and swiveled her head around to look at me. “Just use your tail to swat at them, it ain’t that hard.”

As soon as she said that, I noticed that many of the soldiers and my friends were doing just that. Long tails of every shape and color imaginable flicked and swatted at the air beside their respective owners. I glumly cast my eyes around at my own tail of long wiry black hair that bobbed in time with the steps of my hind legs. I was hesitant to take her advice on the matter, as my experience up to that point with the extension of my spine had been less than comforting. The damned thing seemed to have a mind of its own half the time and frequently undermined my attempts at subterfuge, making my already pathetic poker face completely worthless. As soon as I figured out how, I had singled out the muscles that controlled my tail and forced them to remain as still as possible. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but at least I managed to get the damn thing to stop twitching whenever I was around Twilight. That being said, I conceded that the annoyance of bloodsucking insects outweighed my tail’s attitude problem.

I heaved a small sigh and stopped the mental process that kept my tail in check. To my slight surprise, the odd cluster of nerves that controlled my tail felt compliant and began flicking it back and forth, snapping mosquitoes out of the air as it did so. I considered letting the thing off its metaphorical leash more often.

“Are we there yet?” Pinkie cried and began twisting her head as far as she could manage to either side. “We’ve been walking forever, I’m soooo bored.”

I’d take boring over the alternative any day.

I peered around until I could single out a pony with a silver pentacle emblazoned chest piece. “Hey, come over here for a second,” I called at the member of my battalion.

The battalion member heard and responded immediately, hurrying over to trot beside Rarity. The pony in question was an earth pony mare that was clad in such thick plating that rivaled Applejack’s for durability. Any actual distinguishing characteristics were hidden beneath her armor; her cutie mark, mane, and even her tail were all hidden under layers of protective metal and cloth. The sole reason I could identify her as female was the fact that her open faced helmet revealed the smooth and more rounded muzzle that was iconic for a mare.

“Yes commander?” the heavily armored earth pony asked.

“I’m not familiar with these woods,” I commented, “How far in are we, and how much further do we have to go?”

The soldier scrunched up her nose as she considered the question. “We shouldn’t be too far from Life Drinker’s old shack. We’ve been marching for a good while and, from what Mr. Carpenter told us, the shack is only a few miles in,” she said with a quick glance ahead of the group. “So we should get there any minute now.”

The tightly packed woods made marching at any pace faster than a careful trot next to impossible, especially for a large group like we were. We had been marching for almost an hour, and I felt we could’ve been there already if it weren’t for the uncomfortably close together trees and the gnarly twisted roots growing all over the place. We already had one ambitious unicorn gallop ahead to try to scout, only to get a hoof caught under a root and face plant into the trunk of a tree. The rest of us learned from his mistake and moved with careful hoofsteps.

“Thanks,” I grunted at the soldier as she trotted off to rejoin her fellows, I then turned to cast an uncertain eye to Twilight.

“Oh good,” Rarity said with an unnecessary flick of her mane. “I can’t wait to get out of these dreadful woods and be done with all of this horrid fighting.”

Twilight noticed my meaningful look and leaned in to whisper over Rarity’s daydreaming, “Harry, I know the Red Court are supposed to be spread kind of thin, but don’t you think we should have run into some kind of guard by now?”

I looked ahead beyond Celestia and Michael, frowning at the apparent emptiness of the forest. “Yes, we should have,” I whispered back. “This whole thing stinks and I don’t like it, but the only alternative is to head back to Canterlot and do nothing.”

Twilight anxiously looked around at the trees beyond our party, and sidestepped a little closer to me as we marched on. No sooner had she done that the ponies in front of us stopped short and forced us all to stop as well. A few commands and informative whispers ran through the crowd around us.

After a brief second a large unicorn stallion directly in front of us turned around to face me and said in a gruff voice, “Sir, we’re here.”

I peered past him at those near the front of our force. I could immediately pick out Celestia standing far taller than the ponies around her, but Michael wasn’t beside her. Aside from them, I could make out a flurry of activity among the soldiers nearest Celestia, while Celestia herself did little more than a statue impersonation at the front of the group.

We’re at the Red King’s supposed lair, we haven’t encountered a single vampire, and now Celestia’s just standing there? What in the hell is going on?

“Move,” I grunted at the stallion that gave us the news and started moving forward towards Celestia.

The stallion complied with the immediate reflex you only see in members of organized militaries. As I stepped forward, the other soldiers in my way stepped aside as well to allow us to pass. Twilight was at my side in an instant after I started moving. Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy all hesitated for a brief second, unsure if they were supposed to stay with the rest of the soldiers or follow me; but as soon as they saw Twilight moving, they fell into line behind her. The six of us made our way to the front in a matter of seconds, thanks to the soldiers giving us room to move as soon as they saw us.

The high amount of movement around Celestia didn’t seem to register to the demigod; she simply stood stock still at the front of the group and stared at something in front of her. Aside from her usual regal accessories, she also wore a set of thick golden armor that made her personal guards look cheap by comparison. She was wearing a golden chest plate decorated with a sun over her chest and up around her neck. A long piece of the same metal connected to the chest piece and ran down the length of her back to hang over her sides and her cutie marks. To complete the image, a large open faced helmet with a hole for her horn was fitted over her head and tapered to a point just above her eyes. If it weren’t for the fact that her mane and tail were billowing out behind her, Celestia could have been mistaken for a high quality statue of some kind of warrior goddess.

Some twenty feet in front of Celestia was what I assumed we brought several platoons of soldiers out into the forest for. What looked like the door to an old cellar lay in the ground before us, the wood of the door itself was fairly new, as though it had recently been placed there, while the frame the door was mounted in was ancient beyond belief. The stone that had been the door’s frame had been largely been reduced to gravel over time. The only reason the doors were stationary at all was because the few bits of stone that still survived must have been set pretty deep in the ground.

“I really expected, I don’t know, more I guess,” I mumbled as I came to stand next to Celestia and got a good look at the plain looking door set in the dirt.

At that moment, a loud crunching could be heard overhead and a certain blue coated pegasus forced her way through the treetops to hover above us.

“What’s the hold up? We’ve been in a holding pattern up there for a while now,” Rainbow Dash cried with a jerk of her chin at the other pegasi above us. “Are we still moving or what?”

Twilight shot Rainbow an exasperated look, “We’re here Rainbow. The map we found led us to that.” Twilight pointed her hoof at the door on the ground.

Rainbow twisted around until she could see what Twilight was pointing at, and landed beside her. “That’s it? It doesn’t look like much.”

“Maybe he’s not home?” Fluttershy whispered from somewhere behind us.

“Something is,” Celestia finally said in a loud carrying voice. “I don’t know exactly what, but I can sense something is here.”

I frowned at that and turned my attention back to the cellar door, and extended my wizard senses out over it. Evidently Celestia’s ability at detecting magic was far better than my own, because my senses weren’t giving me much. The very most I could detect with my senses was a faint uneasy chill around the area. The same kind of chill you might get near a graveyard, not really indicative of an evil presence but an ethereal caution light at the very least.

“Well what are we waiting for?” cried Pinkie Pie right before she bounded for the door. I motioned to stop her, but before I could do anything she was already there and extended a hoof to open it. Before she actually made contact with the cellar door, it seemingly opened of its own accord and smacked Pinkie right on the end of her nose. Michael, followed by several other ponies, made their way out of the now open underground structure and turned to address Celestia.

I snorted a little as I stifled a laugh. Apparently we were waiting for the all clear, Pinkie.

“The building is clear, Ms.,” Michael said with a slight bow to Celestia. “There are no Red Court inside.”

Celestia nodded back to Michael. “Thank you Mr. Carpenter,” she said with a definite step forward. “Let’s see what answers we may find.” Celestia stepped past Michael and quickly descended through the open door.

Michael only then seemed to notice the mass of armored pink fluff off to his side, and craned his head to cast a worried eye over the mare. “Pinkie, are you all right?” he asked calmly.

Pinkie stopped furiously rubbing her snout between her forelegs and got back to her hooves. “I’m fine, it’s not the first time something has smashed my face,” she responded cheerfully. Then, without feeling the need to clarify her last statement, Pinkie giddily followed after Celestia and pranced down into the hidden structure.

Following Pinkie’s lead, the others around me began carefully making their way afterCelestia as well. Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity, and Fluttershy all made their way down the stairs behind the cellar door with much more trepidation than Pinkie had. Twilight was halfway to the door as well before she realized that I wasn’t next to her. Her head craned around until she spotted me still standing next to Michael.

“Harry, aren’t you coming too?” she asked, tilting her head to the side slightly.

“Uh, yeah I’m right there,” I muttered under my breath, but my hooves remained where they were and my head craned around to face Michael. “You’ll be watching our backs big guy?”

Michael smiled and cast his gaze over the soldiers that were behind us, “One step ahead of you, Dresden.”

Only then did I notice that the activity that had been initially focused on those nearest the front of the group had spread to almost the whole force as orders were passed around. Every armed and armored pony present moved forward and split to form a solid ring around Life Drinker’s lab. As the length of our stay was at that moment uncertain, many of the soldiers began construction of rudimentary barricades and otherwise creating a more defensible perimeter around us. The few medics we had brought along set up shop

“We’ll make sure you don’t have any unfriendly visitors,” Michael said confidently. “You should go ahead and get going; investigating is kind of your thing after all.”

I smirked, turned around, and began moving towards the wide open cellar doors, putting a little extra step in my silver pentacle marked flank than was strictly necessary, “And here I thought my talent was my magic.”

“That’s open to interpretation,” Twilight muttered in an aggravated tone of voice. “Now will you come on? The rest of them are already down there,” she cried with a few more gestures towards the door.

I sighed and rolled my eyes at the mare, but didn’t dare to actually contradict her; partially because I knew that I was lagging behind, and largely because I knew she could easily make me regret such an action. I smiled and wordlessly made my way down the stairs, with Twilight close behind.

Life Drinker’s old home was, for lack of a better term, overly simple. The layout was essentially a single semi-large room and one smaller side room that could have served as either kitchen or a bedroom. I could very easily imagine rows of bookshelves along the walls and a large cushion or couch in the center, back when it was new. Odd feelings of nostalgia arose as I noted the basic layout wasn’t too dissimilar from my Chicago apartment. But all the furnishings that had been, had long since decayed. All that remained were several piles of dust and wood chips that used to be shelves, and several piles of rolled cloth that served as ragged bedding for multiple occupants.

Well, at least we know something’s been here, I thought to myself as I surveyed what little there was inside.

Celestia stood near the center of the room, inspecting one of the larger beds. The rest of my friends all stood, or flew in Rainbow’s case, in random spots throughout the room, similarly searching it for any useful information.

“There’s nothing here!” Rainbow cried out and threw her hooves into the air, frustration clear on her face. “We come all the way down here to throw down with the Red King, and all we get are a bunch of dusty old rags!” She finishes the statement by kicking one of said beds with a fore leg, causing copious amounts of dust to blow back into her face. Fighting back the resulting coughing fits, she manages to choke out, “What gives?”

Twilight stepped past me and peered around the room, her eyes narrowing in concentration. “Princess, are you sure we’re at the right place?” Twilight asked as she inspected one of the bed rolls. “Because Rainbow’s right, if the Red King stayed here, studied here, and learned some powerful spell here, then there should be something here other than a bunch of beds.” She craned her head around to look back at her mentor, “I may be a fast learner when it comes to new forms of magic, but I still have to write notes, practice, and in general make some mess. I assume the Red King would too.”

Celestia considered that for a moment and then nodded in agreement, “That is a logical argument, but this is Life Drinker’s old hideout, I am sure of it.” Her head twisted around and her ears swiveled in every direction as though searching for some faint sound, “And what’s more, I can still sense that something’s here. I just don’t know where.”

“The subbasement,” my mouth said automatically, before I could even begin to think why that would make sense. Questioning faces and quirked eyes assaulted me as everypony turned to face me. I met the gazes and sighed before I continued on my hunch, “Just go with me on this. Search for a trapdoor, or something that would lead to a room below this one.”

Celestia nodded while the others mumbled their respective affirmatives. All the makeshift beds were surrounded by a bright yellow glow and floated into the air as Celestia cleared them off the floor for us. I stepped further into the room and helped search for a hidden door while Celestia cleared the way and provided light.

Within a minute, Rarity called out over her shoulder from the room’s far corner, “Over here, it’s over here!” The bedrolls all floated to the corner opposite Rarity and stacked themselves as we each made our way over to Rarity. A large section of the floor glowed Rarity’s light blue and opened itself up to lean against the nearby wall, revealing an opening to some stairs large enough to let even Celestia pass through with a little maneuvering. “Harry, how ever did you know this was here?” Rarity asked, vague whispers of accusation sounded in her voice.

I shuffled uncomfortably and rubbed a hoof at my neck, “I may have had something similar setup in my old apartment.”

“May have?” Applejack commented somewhere behind me, the tone of her voice hinting that she knew I wasn’t being wholly truthful.

“Alright it’s the exact same setup, but come on, it’s practical. It kept my work space separate from my personal space,” I retorted before taking a tentative step down the stairs. “Now, if you don’t mind, we still have work to do.” Applejack gave a weary chuckle as she and the others followed me down the staircase and into subbasement. Celestia took up the rear and had to duck her head pretty low to clear the entryway without bumping against something.

The instant I set a hoof in the subbasement, I realized what it was that Celestia had sensed. The entire subbasement was practically swimming in dark energy, the kind of latent energy that worms its way into your head and causes irrational fear and paranoia over time. The air was so thick with the power that I couldn’t understand how I hadn’t noticed it upstairs, that was until I noticed the ceiling. On the subbasement’s roof were several small wards that shone with a faint black glow that reminded me of the Red King’s black telekinetic grip around my throat. My gut told me that they were simple wards meant to contain the energy of the subbasement, so as to make it harder to find by a passing unicorn or some other scout.

The subbasement was similar to the main room in that it was, more or less, a large square room. The center of the room was clear of any clutter, but the wall opposite the stairs bore simple shelving and a small desk that was covered in crumpled, torn, and yellowed pieces of paper.

Behind me, the others felt the sudden change in energies as well. As we left the stairs and spread out into the room, Twilight and Rarity were both looking severely uneasy and looked around the room, as though searching for a physical representation of the source of their apprehension. Even Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow could notice the definite shift in latent energies, despite not having magical senses themselves. Pinkie especially grew increasingly nervous the further she moved into the room.

“I don’t like this place,” she said quietly, almost on the same level of Fluttershy’s whispers.

Applejack took a step forward towards the desk of papers. “What is this place? Something about it is sending a chill down my spine.”

“This must be where the Red King learned Life Drinker’s spell,” Celestia calmly stated as she moved to the center of the room. “What you are feeling is the corruption such a spell leaves on a place when performed several times.” She looked around and offered us all a warm smile. “Do not worry. So long as you remain vigilant in your thoughts, it cannot harm you.”

I’m not entirely sure what it was, but something about Celestia’s calm yet authoritative voice had a powerful calming effect on us all, much more potent than Michael ever managed. Feeling several times more confident, we took to our task of scouring the room for clues. Before I could take more than a step or two, I felt Twilight place the hoof of a foreleg on my shoulder.

“Harry,” Twilight whispered and pulled at me.

“What’s up? Something wro-” My voice caught in my throat as Twilight finished turning me around, and I saw what caught her attention. Back in the corner of the room, behind the stairs we came down, was the still form of one of Canterlot’s pegasus Royal Guard.

I immediately rushed forward towards the guard, hoping against hope that he was still alive. My shield charm began glowing a dull red just in case of a repeat of the vampire hostage play from Manehattan. The guard remained motionless when I reached him and I placed an ear to his chest, looking for some sign of life. I wasn’t so lucky.

I stomped a hoof into the hard floor, sending a loud reverberating note through the room. “Damn it, he’s already gone,” I growled through clenched teeth. The mares behind me let out a few soft sighs, and a whimper I was pretty sure came from Fluttershy. No matter how much hardship you go through it’s never fun being near a dead body, and I wanted to limit their exposure to it if at all possible. I shifted myself slightly so that the bulk of my body was blocking their line of sight to the body. “You girls keeping looking, I’ll take care of this.”

I felt, rather than heard them thankfully shift their attention to other parts of the room. My ears pivoted around to try and gauge their proximity as I stared intently at the guard. Once I was sure nopony was nearby, I took a step back and ran through the mental preparation necessary to separate myself from my emotions. If I was going to notice any important details, I needed to be able to look at the body without any sense of attachment. He had to simply be a piece of flesh and bone, not the remains of a former comrade.

I took a steadying breath and reconsidered the body. He showed no signs of serious external injuries, a few cuts and bruises from being restrained but nothing that would cause death. Going off that, I extended my wizard senses over him to confirm what I had suspected. His body was completely devoid of all forms of magic. Where there should have been at least some residual flashes of fear or desperation over the body, there was just emptiness.

Just like in Manehattan…

I extended a hoof to touch one of his forelegs and moved it experimentally. It moved completely unrestricted, his flesh hadn’t decayed or even begun to calcify yet. On top of that, the barrel of his body was still giving of the slightest bit of warmth.

“Well, I’ve got some good news at least,” I called out as I stepped away from the body and turned around to face my friends again, most of whom were around the desk on the opposite side of the room. They all looked look from what they were doing and shot inquisitive looks at me, every single one of their gazes decidedly avoiding the body behind me. “That was definitely the Red King’s work,” I said with the smallest of nudges at the soldier. “He was drained of energy just like the ones we found in Manehattan.”

“Another pony is dead because of the vampires,” Rainbow Dash growled at me. “How is this good news?”

“Because it’s work that he only just finished,” I added, receiving another aggravated glare from the rainbow maned pegasus. “His body hasn’t begun rigor mortis yet. Heck, it isn’t even cold yet. The Red King was just here.” I turned my gaze up to Celestia, being real careful to avoid direct eye contact, “I’d say we missed him by one, maybe two hours at the very most.”

From Celestia’s opposite side, Twilight took a step forward and addressed her with furrowed brows, “Princess, if he only just left, then he could still be nearby.”

“Agreed,” Celestia said with a nod of her head and got up from her seat near the desk. “I’ll tell the pegasi to fan out immediately and search for any signs of-“

“Oh my, Sir, you don’t look too good,” whispered a soft voice from somewhere behind Twilight.

We all simultaneously turned to find the voice, and found Fluttershy inspecting something in the corner of the room furthest from the staircase. The thing she was looking over was a medium sized earth pony stallion that almost certainly hadn’t been there a minute before. The stallion looked to be a wreck, he was extremely thin as though malnourished, and his dark green coat didn’t help to hide the mess of blood that ran down the right side of his neck. All of this was second to the expression on his face. His attention wasn’t on Fluttershy, or on any of us for that matter, rather his eyes seemed transfixed on something that loomed over him, as though he was seeing something we weren’t.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe now,” Fluttershy whispered as she drew closer to the stallion, evidently forgetting that he had appeared out of nowhere. She withdrew a roll of bandages from one of the pockets in her medic coat and held it in her outstretched wing, “Let me take a look at that cut for you. I’ll make you feel all better.”

“Fluttershy! No don’t-” I cried and waved a foreleg at her.

Before my words could register with her, she had already brought her wings to the stallion’s neck. As soon as one of the feathery appendages touched him, he vanished into a cloud of shimmering vapors that quickly dispersed into the air. Fluttershy very quickly backpedaled several steps and stared nonplussed at where the stallion had been just seconds before.

“Okay, you all saw that right?” Rainbow asked, glancing around at each of us in turn. “Or have I just gone off the deep end?”

“No, I saw it,” Twilight responded as she stepped a little closer to Fluttershy, who had gone very pale. “Still working on believing it, but I saw it. What was that?”

I frowned in concentration and extended my senses out towards the space where the stallion had been. For the most part, there was just the empty air and the lingering sensation of wrongness that the Red King had created. After a brief second though, I felt it. I sensed a lingering presence near the spot the stallion had been; it didn’t feel as complex as the aura that surrounded most other ponies, but it was still there. Knowing that, it could only have been one thing.

“A spirit,” I muttered aloud to no one in particular.

Celestia’s eyes shot open and looked at me with a certain amount of bewilderment, “A spirit? A lingering spirit?” Her eyes grew heavier as she glanced back at where the spirit had been, “Oh, that poor creature.”

Clearly feeling agitated at being left out of the loop, Twilight took a decisive step forward and looked expectantly between Celestia and myself, “What are you talking about? You two have never told me anything about spirits.”

“Because they were supposed to be rare to the point of nonexistent,” Celestia offered to placate her student. “When a pony dies, sometimes their souls leave an imprint of themselves in this world. That imprint is a spirit. It has the pony’s memories and emotions, but it’s more or less just a left over copy of that pony.”

“So why are they so rare?” Rarity asked. “Ponies die all the time. It’s sad, but it’s a fact of life.”

Instead of Celestia, I stepped forward to answer her, “Because, in order to create a spirit the pony usually has to be feeling some extreme emotion when they die. The most common triggers are the extreme fear or anger involved with a violent death. And, until recently, Equestria hasn’t really had that many depraved lunatics committing mass slaughter.” I ignored their winces at my choice of words and redirected my attention to the spirit still lingering in the corner of the room, a certain piece of information not quite fitting with this new revelation. “But how was it made? I could have sworn that the Red King’s spell would…” I gritted my teeth, and tried to ignore my growing headache. Trying to figure out the reasoning behind ghosts is like pulling teeth. “Ugh, I hate dealing with spirits.”

At that point several things began happening, and none of them were good. The spirit I was scrutinizing with my wizarding senses shifted and began drawing away into the wall. Just before the thing faded away completely, I felt a powerful emotion grip the ghost, fear. The former pony was terrified of something nearby. While searching for what had scared the thing, I finally noticed that the latent energies of the Red King’s magic were moving.

Panicking slightly, I redirected all of my attention to the air around us and began piecing things together. The directionless nervousness had been a byproduct of whatever magic the Red King had been practicing, but now there was some guiding force of focused intent causing the energies to shift into forms my eyes couldn’t see. I tried to single out a strand of the energy, but the sheer volume in the room and their swirling actions made it next to impossible. The only thing I could discern was that what was shifting the energies was no ward or magical tripwire, there was a conscious mind in that power. The Red King was exerting his power into the room around us.

Celestia frowned deeply and her eyes wandered around the room as she undoubtedly felt the same thing I had. Twilight, Rarity, and even Pinkie also sensed that something was wrong and took a few unconscious steps away from the center of the room.

“I feel funny, and not a good funny,” Pinkie said with a nervous twitch that ran down the length of her body.

When in a situation where your enemy has had time to prepare and control the environment, there is really only one thing you can do to avoid a disastrous outcome.

“We need to leave this room, now!” I shouted and pivoted on the spot towards the stairs.

The energies surged in response and became a visible blast of dark energy that slammed the trapdoor shut and enveloped it entirely.

“What in the hay?” Applejack cried out while taking a step backwards. “What was that?”

With our only method of escape blocked off, I spun back around and reached for the next best option in defense against enemy magic. “Get under a shield!” I shouted as I rammed power into my shield charm.

Twilight, on the other side of the room and well out of easy reach, primed her horn as well as she readied her own shield. The others, incapable of making stalwart shields, galloped to whichever of us was closer. Rarity and Rainbow flashed towards me and managed to get next to me just as a red dome of energy closed around us. Across the room, Applejack, Pinkie, and Fluttershy all crowded around Twilight, moments before a purple copy of my dome appeared around them. Celestia stood in the dead center of the subbasement, glaring defiantly all around her and began to glow a bright white.

The energies in the room rapidly coalesced and formed into swirling darkness, much like a small tornado of shadows, centered on Celestia in the middle of the subbasement. As they swirled, the darkness blanketed everything they touched, the walls, the floors, and our shields. The stress on my shield doubled and redoubled as it became covered and obstructed my view of what was happening outside. Beside me Rarity’s diamond knives hovered in the air as she stared, wide-eyed at the growing darkness. Just as my shield became completely blanketed, a bright light shone through the shadows as Celestia brought forth her power to combat it.

Whatever she was doing seemed to be working, the light emanating from Celestia’s horn appeared to be making the swirling darkness slide off of us. The darkness reacted to Celestia’s light by condensing and slugging towards the floor, like a cloud condensing to form water. The dark energy drooped low enough that I could again clearly see the others. Twilight, and those under her shield, peered around the room nervously, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Harry, are you okay?” Twilight cried, her voice slightly distorted through her shield.

“I’m fine,” I called back. “Though if you have any ideas, I’m open to them.”

“Do nothing!” Celestia instructed, her face screwed up in concentration. “Stay under your shields. I will banish this evil.”

The light emanating from her horn intensified until it shone with the intensity of a lighthouse. Light of that magnitude is something that you really don’t want to experience at only a few feet away from the source, and I doubted my retinas would ever be the same. As painful as her light was on my eyes, it did worse to the dense shadows. I sensed the dark energy get forced lower and lower to the ground until it was little more than an extremely dense dark sheet on the ground. Mere seconds later, Celestia forced the energy into ground completely and it faded from my senses.

With the power gone, Celestia’s light dissipated until the room was normal once again. We remained silent and absolutely still in the aftermath. Both Twilight and I held our respective shields in case of some resurging power. Behind my shield, I began to laugh irrationally, the adrenaline of the sudden scare coursing through me and making me giddy. A few of the others, including Twilight and Pinkie, laughed as well, albeit much more reserved than my sanity questioning outburst.

Was that the Red King’s idea of a trap? To simply smoother us in dark energy? I thought to myself. Not a bad idea for some ordinary practitioner, but good luck overpowering a demigod.

That was of course when the second stage of the Red King’s trap was triggered.

There was a short surge in energy in the ground beneath our hooves, and an instant later the ground beneath Celestia exploded upward in a wave of extremely concentrated dark power. The compressed energy was given its final form and purpose by the Red King’s magic and willpower. The ground all around Celestia was a several inch thick pool of dark magic that rose up to cover her hooves. At the edges of the circle were about a dozen huge conjured tendrils, each one of which was tall enough to reach the ceiling and was at least six inches thick. I suddenly had the uncomfortable feeling that I was about to reduced to a red smear on the ground.

One of those tendrils whirled around and brought its full force to bear against my shield. I only managed to reorganize my thoughts and bring my shield back to full strength the moment before it contacted, and if I hadn’t I probably would’ve been made into that red smear. The strength behind that one blow was something similar to being hit by a small car or one of those golden chariots, and nearly drove the breath out of me as some of it bled through the dome. Across the room, Twilight was in a similar situation, bracing and reinforcing her purple dome against her own attacker.

In the center of the room, Celestia fared far worse than the rest of us. The remaining tendrils all simply wrapped themselves around her, forcing all of their considerable weight and strength on her in an attempt to get her to buckle under them. Celestia immediately ran power into her horn again and emanated that same bright light as before. I could feel the tendrils flinch away from her slightly as she charged her horn, that was until another dark appendage snaked out from below her. This new, and much thinner tendril, shot towards Celestia’s face and wrapped itself around her horn. Almost immediately the light she held died. Any power she tried to bring forth went into her horn, and was then channeled through the attacker wrapped around her horn and funneled into the ground. Celestia was made completely powerless and at the mercy of the tendrils still holding her.

“No!” I shouted and began drawing together energy for an attack I hoped would free Celestia.

The moment I shifted energy from my shield the conjuration attacking me slammed down again, almost breaking the red dome and forced my forelegs to fold beneath me. The opportunistic attack left me aching all over and breathing heavy ragged breaths. I gave up on any kind of offensive and refocused my power into my shield.

One last surge of energy ran through the cloud at Celestia’s hooves, and she slowly began sinking down into it. The energy around the odd cloud was not dissimilar to the residual energy I felt after Twilight teleported me. Stripped of her ability to fight back magically, and overpowered with physical force, the tendrils constricted tighter around Celestia and drew her down faster into the dark portal beneath her.

“Dresden, let me out of this thing! We have to help the Princess!” Rainbow shouted as she hovered just above me.

My attacker punctuated her comment by hammering into us again, causing sweat to break out across my face and made me groan in pain.

“Rainbow, look at him!” Rarity shouted. “Without the shield he’ll be crushed, us too most likely.”

Celestia was struggling desperately against her captors, about half of her body was already beneath the pool of shadows.

Rainbow redirected her attention to the dome of purple energy across the room, “Twilight, you’ve gotta do something! Anything!”

“Too… strong…” she panted from behind her shield.

Her attacker landed another blow against her shield. A weaving network of cracks appeared on her dome, around the point of impact, and quickly began repairing itself as Twilight poured more energy into her shield. The only reason she was still standing was that Applejack was at her side supporting her. Twilight cried out in pain as she endured another hammering blow, and the network of cracks spread further.

“Twilight!” I yelled through a hoarse throat. “If you let a big tentacle thing kill you, I will tell everypony that you failed as a student!”

I’m not entirely sure if it was me or her desire to protect her friends that got her to grit her teeth, but either way Twilight scowled back up at the tendril attacking her and refocused her shield around her. The look of righteous fury on her features made it clear that she wanted very much to rush to the aid of her mentor. If it weren’t for the fact that she’d be condemning three of her best friends in the process, she probably would have leapt into center of the mess to help Celestia, her personal safety be damned. As it was, she could only restore the shield around her and her friends back to full strength.

I shifted my attention back to Celestia, and was shocked to see that only her head and neck were still exposed. Cold panic gripped me as I stared at her slowly vanishing before my eyes and tried to think of anything that might free Celestia without endangering my friends. Absolutely nothing came to mind and I could only watch her sink even more into the portal.

Celestia let out a single resounding yell as the shadows of the portal closed over her face and consumed her.

“Princess!” cried each of the mares around the room.

The tendrils that were attacking Twilight and I folded back and dived into the portal after Celestia. The shadows immediately began dispersing and the circle rapidly shrank. As soon as my attacker let up, I dropped my shield and bounded forward at the remaining dark energy. With a single powerful leap, I almost soared to the spot Celestia had been at moments before. My hooves made a loud clang as they landed on the stone of the subbasement floor, the last of the shadows dispersed into the air around me.

“No… No no no,” I chanted and began furiously digging my forelegs at the ground, as though our single greatest weapon again the Red Court had simply been buried beneath me instead of dragged through a portal to God knows where.

As I dug, several disparate facts came together and clicked in my mind. The Red King had branched off from his main force when he attacked Canterlot, but wasn’t trying to outflank our defense. Why? He made an appearance in Canterlot Castle with an offer of mercy, even though he was the one in hiding. Why?

Because of Celestia.

This entire thing, from beginning to end, was about Celestia. His initial attack on Canterlot was a first brute force attempt to capture her. When that failed, he fell back and set up a trap for her. He knew that we found the bodies in Manehattan, and that there was only one unicorn that ever managed to piece together the spell that he used on them. He assumed that we had the information that would lead to the Life Drinker’s lab and set the trap there. When we took too long in our search for the information, he made an appearance, knowing that it would infuriate Celestia to have him terrifying her ponies.

The Red King was making the ultimate power play. He was trying to accomplish what Cowl couldn’t. He was going to make himself into a god, by consuming Celestia. He practically screamed it at me back in Canterlot, “We will take this world and I will be like a god!” and we just delivered Celestia to him on a silver platter.

I only stopped digging when a hoof touched on the back of my neck. I looked up to see a ragged Twilight staring directly into my eyes, her own were heavy and wet with running tears. I wordlessly pressed forward and wrapped my forelegs around Twilight as she did the same to me. She buried her face into my neck and silently cried while I desperately tried to get my mind to start working again.

The others stepped forward and made a semicircle around us. Varying degrees of fear and disbelief were spread across their faces. Applejack and Rarity stared at the floor in stunned silence. Pinkie began tearing up and hid her face behind her forelegs. Rainbow stood slightly apart from the rest of us, her jaw clenched tightly and her forelegs shook as she focused on the spot where Celestia had disappeared.

Fluttershy stepped up behind Twilight and looked up at me, complete and utter shock turning her face into an emotionless mask. “Harry, w-what do we do now?” she asked breathlessly. “What are we supposed to do?”

I stared back at her, my mind going a mile a minute as I tried to think of an answer. “I don’t know,” I answered in an equally breathless tone. “I don’t know.”

Comments

[Applechip]

Phew, these are getting harder to write, hope you guys enjoy.

[Kaden]

Damn. Shit be serious, yo.

[Hidden Brony]

If you pardon my language, Harry, kill the fucker.

[AJ]

This story is such a breath of fresh air

[Ormus Von Orbulon]

Alright - moving chapter - well done, well written. just one question:
where the ACTUAL FUCK is Micheal?!
He's supposed to have semi-divine senses for such evil being worked nearby
Through the last few paragraphs I was expecting the paladin to come charging down
to free Celestia -- It would be the most natural thing in the world for him to sense that stuff.
I mean, It makes sense from a plot perspective for shit to hit the fan in increasing amounts before Harry goes and pulls his patented So-crazy-it-just-might-work desperate master plan out of his ass at the last minute, but COME ON!
I feel Micheal really dropped the ball here and I'm just ridiculously disappointed in him now.
~OvO

[That Strange Mint Pony]

As I read this chapter I can't help but notice that Chapter 26 was posted on Halloween...
The potential plot developments that infers to me makes me want Harry to rescue her in 25.
FOR THE SAKE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY LET HER BE SAFE!!!
Only one way to find out. *continues with story*

[ClosetKnight]

2464512 same here

[Emperor of Jurai]

Gotta love it when chars are a little...dull, for a paranoid guy like Harry he really dropped the ball for being like that. I mean just walking into a forest that suppose to have some vamps, and not running into any of them at all...now that just screams `IT'S A TRAP!!!`

More so when you go into an evil lair and feel that pure evilness soaking into you...more so a lair that is very easy to get stuck in. I mean.....if my target isn't in there I don't send in my super weapon I hold it back. Let a few scouts look around and make sure things are safe...or maybe the guy with the anti-evil sword...

[A Wild Magikarp]

So... Harry didn't see this coming? Nicky, the Red Court, the Council, ALL these people who play the cards close to their chest and lay traps for him on a daily basis. He heard the Red King say in reference to Celly, and I quote;

"There you are."

During the attack on Canterlot. Then they walk into a seemingly ordinary shack that is unguarded with said diety, and he DOESN'T see the neon light above it saying 'TRAP'?
Harry Harry Harry... I saw this coming two chapters ago, you should have to.